Recipes: Winter Vata Bowl | Vidya Living (2024)

FAQs

What should vata dosha eat in winter? ›

In fact, winter may slightly increase the Vata dosha (related to air and space), so it's important to eat warm and grounding foods. As an Ayurveda expert, I suggest adding foods like newly harvested rice, urad dal, wheat, corn, milk, sugarcane products, hot water, ghee, and dry fruits like almonds to your winter diet.

What foods keep you warm in the Winter? Ayurveda suggests foods such as Honey, Ghee, Sesame seeds, Tulsi, Dry Fruits and organic Eggs, to keep the body warm from within. Adding a dollop of Ghee to cooked pulses and vegetables helps enhance the taste and is more nutritious for the body.

Autumn is the classic vata season. However, depending on where you live, the dry and expansive qualities of vata may be the principal components of your environment in other seasons too—showing as early as summer, and if autumn is followed by a very drying, cold, isolating, or windy winter.

Take in healthy oils and a lot of moisture through foods and beverages. Some ideal vata-balancing foods include olives, dairy products, avocado, nuts, seeds and wheat. Also, choose salty, sweet and sour tastes like fruit, yogurt and kimchi instead of bitter, pungent and astringent ones like radishes, kale and legumes.

In this case, Ayurveda considers nutrition as primary approach. Raw or animal-based, as well as highly sweetened, fatty and acidic foods shall be avoided, as they stimulate inlammation and support the deposition of Ama.

Roasted veggies As per ayurveda, roasted vegetables are a light and easy dinner option. You can make the veggies more digestible by adding spices and ghee. Lentil soup and green chutney Dr Rekha suggested another good dinner option-- lentil soup accompanied by green chutney.

It is characterized by cold weather, a sense of heaviness, increased moisture (usually in the form of rain or snow), cloud-covered days, and the grounded, slow feeling that sends many animals into hibernation. These are all qualities shared by kapha dosha, which is why winter is considered—primarily—a kapha season.

Stay warm, calm, and relaxed. Indulge in hot baths, warm sesame oil massages, steam and heat treatments, and soothing music. Learn how different foods will affect your constitution. Avoid frozen, cooling, and dried foods, but eat warming, rich, oily foods, only in moderation.

Hit the Sack Before Pitta Time

Vata: 2-6 a.m./p.m. Kapha: 6-10 a.m./p.m. Pitta: 10-2 a.m./p.m.

Vata-Balancing Ayurvedic Herbs for Stronger Digestion

In Ayurveda there are five spices that are well studied to balance vata and support digestive strength, especially in winter–ginger, cumin, cardamom, coriander and fennel.

What is the best lunch for vata? ›

Vata Lunch

Ideally, lunch is the main meal of the day, meaning it's the largest and the most nourishing of the three. Hearty grains, steamed and sautéed vegetables, breads, soups, and stews are excellent building blocks for lunch. This is also the best time to enjoy a small salad if you must have one.

If you snack in-between meals, eat nuts and raisins soaked in water (dried fruits aggravate Vata) or stewed fruit for a healthy dose of energy. Most nuts are Vata-pacifying.

Avoid: Apples (raw), cranberries, pears, fig (dry), dried fruits, dates (dry), bananas (green), pomegranate, raisins (dry), prunes (dry), and watermelon.

Air is the dominant element in a vataconstitution, which means that the seasonal changes occurring during autumn, where wind increases and the weather becomes cooler and drier, can really aggravate this dosha.

Vata season starts now

Rather than winter, spring, summer and fall, Ayurveda divides the year into three seasons: vata season, which goes from late fall into early winter; kapha season, from the coldest, darkest part of winter into spring; and pitta season, the hottest time of year from late spring to early fall.

It is characterized by cold weather, a sense of heaviness, increased moisture (usually in the form of rain or snow), cloud-covered days, and the grounded, slow feeling that sends many animals into hibernation. These are all qualities shared by kapha dosha, which is why winter is considered—primarily—a kapha season.

Over eating astringent, bitter or pungent foods.

Vata will do well to have cooked vegetables over raw and should include stews, eggs, sprouted breads, fresh herbs, roasted squash, carrots, courgette, rice, wheat, some dairy and citrus fruits amongst a whole lot of others.