Are You Eating Right During Monsoons?

The season of monsoon is certainly a sigh of relief after surviving the scorching heat of the summer. But are we ready for a season change, amid the coronavirus pandemic, Our Ayurveda expert, Dr. Kalpesh Rameshlal Baphana talks about the diet regime during the monsoon.

An upset stomach may be a sign that you are not eating well. You must have heard people say that don’t eat curd or consume milk and other food items during a particular season. But do you know the reason behind it?

Our expert Dr. Kalpesh Rameshlal Baphana, MD Ayurvedic Pharmaceutics, Kalpayu Health Care Clinic, Pune explains, “There are three Doshas (bio elements), i.e. Vata, Pitta and Kapha in Ayurveda. During monsoons, due to the atmospheric conditions and gases produced from the earth, Vata gets aggravated, causing weaker digestion. Pitta, the heat principal is accumulated, it increases in its quantity and disturbs digestion”.

What To Avoid?

To avoid during monsoon

There are certain restrictions on diet during monsoon, therefore, here are some things recommended by Dr. Kalpesh, that should be avoided:

1. The water available in the reservoirs during this time is heavy to digest. It should be boiled so that it becomes lighter for digestion.
2. Stale food should be completely avoided.
3. Green leafy vegetables should be consumed less as generally they are spoiled due to the rain water.
4. Curd should be avoided, as it is heavy to digest and it increases the stickiness inside the body.
5. Non-veg food items, especially Red meat are also heavy to digest and should be avoided.
6. Onion and Garlic should be used in lesser quantities. They belong to Tamas category of food, which not only makes your digestive movements sluggish but affects your mind as well.
7. Avoid bakery items like cakes and bread. Since they are dry in nature, they need more water for metabolism, which is already very slow during this season.
8. Try to avoid udupi items like idli, dosa, uttapa as they are heavy to digest. However, people in South India are used to eating it in their daily diet and it doesn’t affect them much.

What Can Be Done?

Vegetable soup is good during monsoon

• Ginger, black pepper, cinnamon, tulsi leaves, etc. can be added to curries, chutneys, or dosa/idli batters as they all help in better digestion of the food.
• The body metabolism becomes sluggish and digestion is weakened, due to which we experience loss of appetite. Therefore, we need to consume light and fresh food, generally prepared from barley, rice, and wheat.
• We can include cow ghee, lentils, green gram, rice, and wheat in our daily diet.
• Consume a small piece of ginger with rock salt before every meal
• Vegetable soups which are slightly salty and sour in nature can be consumed.

Therefore, heavy foods should be avoided as much as possible. It is basically our digestive process during this season that is affected. Thus, you can enhance it by adding a little more than the usual quantity of ginger and other spices to your food. Along with this, practicing a good lifestyle is also important.