Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Diet Tips for Pacifying Kapha

How to Reduce Kapha


I have been trying to slim down lately and it has been quite a challenge.  There are so many different diets around with conflicting ideas.  I think the only way to choose which one is right for me is to just pick one and try it.  For the next few weeks I am going to try an Ayurvedic diet to relieve a Kapha dosha. Listed below are my notes on how to implement this diet in my daily life.


Foods and Activities to Favor


1.  I need to increase my movement.  This is hard because I have a desk job. However I am going to try to get up and move around more.  I really only have been overweight since the advent of the Internet. However, since I make a living working at a PC, there seems to be an inverse relationship between my career success and weight battle.  The more I sit the more money I make but then my weight tends to go up as well. Too bad no one will pay me to work out to an exercise video each day. :) 

I bought an little peddle exerciser that fits in the closet.  Last night while my husband I watched a video I got got my peddler out and fit in an hour of peddling.  I am not sure how many calories I burned but it has to be better than just sitting doing nothing. Not surprisingly, people who watch a lot of TV tend to have more weight issues. I don't watch much TV but I am on the computer a lot, so I guess that is just as bad. 

2.  Have a cup of hot water with a pinch of ginger and lemon juice before meals.  Ginger is one of the most alkaline foods around, which I think is significant. Many of the foods recommended in Ayurvedia medicine to reduce Kapha seem to have an alkaline ash.

a piece of ginger root
Ginger is a common remedy for Kapha symptoms in Ayurvedic medicine, and for similar conditions in TCM, Traditional Chinese Medicine. 


3.  Favor the following foods:
  • Tea
  • Asparagus
  • Seafood
  • White meat chicken and turkey
  • Apples
  • Pears
  • Honey
  • Beans
  • Barley
  • Corn (organic!)
  • Millet
  • Quinoa
  • Most spices
  • Eggplant
  • Beets
  • Cabbage
  • Carrot
  • Cauliflower
  • Garlic
  • Greens
  • Onions
  • Potatoes
I have problems with iron deficiency anemia from time to time, so I am not sure about cutting out red meat.  Maybe I can make up the iron with seafood like clams.  I will have to research this a bit more.

Ginger tea is a good for slimming down in traditional Chinese medicine as well as Ayurvedic medicine.  I think part of the reason is that ginger tea is very alkaline, and an alkaline digestive system has less stomach acid to digest food.  This is probably the same logic behind eating drier foods - they aren't as easily absorbed as water based foods like soups.  Yet in Western diet advice, soups are a dieting main stay.  Maybe I can compromise by only having very low calorie soups so I am absorbing lots of nutrients but not a lot of calories.

4.  Eat more light, dray and warm foods. 



Things to Avoid


1.  Eat less sugar, yeast, cheese yogurt, nuts, tofu, cold foods, red meat, nuts, starchy and sweet fruits (bananas, coconut, figs and dates) and refined grains. 

2.  Sitting for long periods, day time napping and not exercising.  The day time napping for me is tough because of the anemia.  I think it is better to nap than spend half the day falling asleep.  I may not be able to implement that idea very well.  Maybe I can limit how long of naps I take and then exercise right when I get up.

1 comment:

Mark said...

I think napping would be ok as long as it is timed and limited to no more than say 20-30 minutes in a single day. It helps with the recharge to face the rest of the day refreshed.