Download Maintain a Healthy Weight with Ayurveda

Maintain a Healthy Weight with Ayurveda
Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa
Ayurveda is the holistic healing system of India. This health system emphasizes
the science of longevity in particular, while focusing on promoting good health
throughout that lengthened life, of course. To live along, healthy life, you must maintain
a healthy body weight.
The Ayurvedic scheme of three doshas, or primal metabolic tendencies, gives us a
great strategy for figuring out how to maintain a healthy weight.
Kapha dosha maintains structure, solidity and lubrication in the body, forming
connective and musculoskeletal tissues. It is wet/oily, cold, heavy, slow and stable, and,
in the body, manifests those qualities. It is anabolic (tissue building) in function. If you
have too much kapha active in you body, you will add fat. Most American obesity
problems are the result of accumulating kapha.
Pitta dosha maintains digestive and glandular secretions, body heat and
metabolism, including digestive enzymes and bile. It is wet/oily, hot, light and intense. It
is metabolic (tissue fueling) in function. Pitta tends to contribute to a balanced body
weight. Since this is the hot dosha, we can increase it to burn off the fat of kapha.
Vata dosha maintains movement in the body, such as respiration and joint
mobility. It is dry, cold, light and irregular. It is catabolic (eliminative) in function. Vata
tends to favor reducing weight.
When you are healthy, and your doshas are balanced, your weight will be stable.
Ayurveda for a Balanced Diet
Diet is the first and most basic building block of good health in Ayurveda, and
can be an effective treatment for disease, even when used alone. It is the safest therapy,
and can be used by anyone as self care. Of course, the results can materialize more
slowly than more directed methods, such as herbal medicine.
Improper diet is the main underlying physical factor that induces disease. So,
when we modify the diet, we also get at one of the underlying problems. Ayurveda
recognizes that each of us is unique, and emphasizes the correct diet for each individual.
To achieve balance, the diet for treating each dosha will have the characteristics
that are opposite that of the dosha that is dominating and causing the problem.
Overactive Dosha
Kapha
Pitta
Vata
Qualities
Cold, Wet Heavy
Hot, Wet, Light
Cold, Dry Light
Diet Should Be
Warm, Dry, Light
Cool, Dry, Heavier
Warm, Moist, Heavier
For example, if you are retaining water, feel sluggish, and have a chest full of
mucus, you are experiencing a Kapha imbalance, and should use a Kapha balancing diet
until your body is again balanced and healthy.
Food Qualities
To balance excess kapha, which is the most common in overweight, avoid cold,
oily, heavy food. Focus on the reducing tastes- pungent, bitter and astringent- in your
diet. Eat less total food, include low fat and low calorie foods and hot spices. Fasting
occasionally is good. Eat less frequently, with the largest meal at midday. Use dry and
astringent fruits (apple, raisin), vegetables (especially raw), dry grains (rice cakes), hot
spices (black pepper, chiles), cooked beans with warming spices, and spicy herbal teas
(ginger). Stay away from sweet fruits, nuts, milk products and oil.
A pitta balancing diet avoids hot foods and concentrates on sweet, bitter and
astringent tastes. Use mild, bland food, served cool, raw, with no hot spices and low oil.
Eat three regular meals when you are calm. Good choices are sweet fruits, sweet and
bitter vegetables (greens), beans in general, natural sweeteners (maple syrup), mild
cheeses (cottage cheese) and sweet and cooling drinks (apple juice). Leave out the sour
fruits, pungent vegetables (onion), nuts, hot spices and fermented milk products (yogurt).
Excess vata doesn’t usually contribute much to obesity- just the opposite. People
with a lot of cold, dry energy in the body need to build body mass. For vata, avoid cold,
dry, light items. Use the building sweet, sour and salty tastes. Overall, the diet will be
nourishing, easy to digest, warm, filling, heavy, moistening and strengthening, with
small, frequent regular meals and mild warming spices. Stay calm and concentrate while
eating. Use sweet fruits, cooked vegetables, cooked grains (oatmeal), nuts, natural
sweeteners, mild warming spices (basil) and milk products, especially warm, in
moderation. Eschew dry fruits, dry grains (rice cakes), raw vegetables, cabbage family
foods (broccoli), beans in general, and any food that causes gas.
Thermogenesis- turn up your internal thermostat
We are all the descendents of famine survivors. Our prehistoric ancestors lived
during times of alternating food bounty and scarcity. They needed an efficient way to
store fuel for the lean times. When nutrition was abundant, their bodies adapted by
storing fat. In times of severe deprivation—when they "dieted," not by choice —the fat
could then be for fuel and heat production. This survival adaptation is still with us today.
When you diet, cutting your caloric intake, you are signaling to your body that
you are in the lean times. Your metabolism slows and you start storing fat. As everyone
knows, you will eventually lose weight with this deprivation. The problem is, you’ll lose
not only the unwanted fat, but also vital lean body mass.
Thermogenesis is the production of heat in the body when you burn food. But
thermogenesis slows down as we age. Probably the leading theory in metabolic weight
control today involves the upping of food burning to use up excess calories through body
heat. Many leading herbal candidates for weight loss work in this way. One such herb is
green tea.
Several pungent Ahyurvedic herbs, including cayenne and ginger, have been
demonstrated to promote thermogenesis. Now add another to this list. Researchers fed
rats high fat diets, but added garlic. After four weeks, the rats had lost weight, and had
lower levels of triglycerides, as well as increased sympathetic nerve function. They
concluded that garlic assists in burning fat through increasing metabolism.1 Use pungent
herbs as comfortable in your food- the more the better.
Fiber
Dietary fiber is the cell walls of plants. Whole, unprocessed grains, beans, fruits
and vegetables all contain lots of fiber.
Fiber is critical to many functions in the intestinal tract, including digestion and
waste elimination. It also has a mild cholesterol-lowering effect. Many new studies
propose that water-soluble fibers may also help individuals lose weight. Taken with a
meal, they produce a feeling of fullness. The other anti-fat benefits of fiber include
reducing the absorption of total calories, promoting blood sugar control, and enhancing
the effect of insulin. In clinical studies of weight loss, fiber reduced absorbed calories by
30-180 calories per day, the equivalent of 3 to 18 pounds of fat loss over a year.
A double-blind placebo-controlled study looked at 97 mildly overweight women
on a strict low-calorie diet. Patients who took 7 g of an insoluble fiber daily for 11 weeks
lost 10.8 pounds compared to 7.3 pounds in the placebo group.2
One Ayurvedic herb, psyllium seed, looks especially promising. A triple-blind
experiment done last year in London with non-dieting subjects revealed that the
participants felt much fuller than normal one hour after the meal, and ended up eating 15
grams less fat per day than usual.3 Use 2 grams of psyllium seed powder, stirred into
water three hours before each meal, and another 2 grams with each meal. It is best to
gradually work up to these doses, allowing your body to gradually adjust, to avoid any
gas or intestinal discomfort.
The typical dose of fiber used in such studies is 5 to 7 g per day. Fiber is basically
a food, and aside from the occasional feeling of fullness, it rarely has any side effects.
Slimming Ayurvedic Herbs
An Ayurvedic resin, called guggul in Sanskrit, is a standby medicine for the
management of body fats. Particularly valuable in lowering cholesterol, guggul rivals any
natural substance. Without dietary adjustments, guggul has lowered total cholesterol by
over 20 percent, while increasing good HDL cholesterol by 36 percent.4
Like its effect on blood lipids, guggul can assist in managing overall body fat.
Guggul seems to exert its effect at least partially through the thyroid, which could
account for its fat loss benefit.5,6,7 Another placebo-controlled study from 1999 combined
guggul extract with Garcinia cambogia extract and tyrosine. Over six weeks, twenty
obese persons had a significant decrease in body fat mass and average body weight. The
subjects lost body fat, but not lean mass. Fatigue went down, and there were no adverse
effects.8 Guggul can be taken in a dose of 1,500 mg, three times daily.
The most well known herbal formula in Ayurveda is triphala (“three fruits”).
Containing amla (Emblica officinalis), bibitaki (Terminalia belerica), and haritaki
(Terminalia chebula), it has a light laxative effect and is well studied as a supreme
general detoxifier and antioxidant. The combination of guggul and triphala recently
showed a surprising effect in controlling body fat. When 48 obese subjects took these
Ayurvedic combinations three times a day for three months, with no attempt to control
their food intake, the resulting weight loss averaged almost 18 pounds, along with a drop
in total cholesterol of 18 points. The dose used in the study was only 500 mg of the
combination, three times per day. 9
The name of this famous Asian herb, Gurmar, means “killer of sweet . Gurmar
(Gymnema sylvestre) is an extensively studied and widely used herb in the treatment of
diabetes, which of course, in our culture, is closely related to long term obesity. Gurmar
has been proven in study after study to increase the production and activity of insulin
produced in the body. This insulin increase is thought by many experts to be the primary
successful method of promoting fat burning.
Now it looks like gurmar will also lower blood fats. Recently this herb
demonstrated a startling ability to lower all types of lipids in the blood (Phytotherapy
Research, 1994; 8: 118-20). Gurmar is extremely safe, with no known side effects.
So it seems that we have an ideal herb for treating the diabetic/obesity syndrome
that is so common in America. Gurmar is available as an extract from the health food
store. The typical extract dose is 1,200-1,500 mg per day.
Exercise for the Doshas
To balance kapha, get hot, sweat, do vigorous aerobic workouts, use discipline,
and work up to powerfully pushing your limits.
For weight loss with excess pitta, don’t overheat- work out in cool air. Don’t be
fanatical - take a break. Drink plenty of water. Vary the routine to avoid boredom, and
create a varied overall fitness program.
Vata excess people need to go easy with exercise. Stay warm. Don’t overdo itmild routines only. Develop a regular routine - stick with a program. Shoot for slow,
gradual progress. Walking, stretching and easy yoga are all good.
Ayurveda offers a consistent plan for reaching a balanced body weight. We can
see that there are many choices for selecting effective weight loss herbs and exercise
routines. When you give these a try, I think you’ll like what you don’t see. After all, what
have you got to lose?
1
(J Nutr Biochem, 1995; 6: 250-5)
Ryttig KR, Tellnes G, Haegh L, Boe E, Fagerthun H. A dietary fibre supplement and weight maintenance
after weight reduction: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled long-term trial. Int J Obes
1989;13(2):165-71
MEDDOC ApS, Hillerod, Denmark.
Ninety-seven mildly obese females (BMI = 27.4 kg/m2) were in a randomized, double-blind, placebocontrolled trial treated for 52 weeks. The treatment consisted of a hypocaloric diet providing 5000 kJ/day
(1200 kcal) and a dietary fibre supplement of 7 g/day for 11 weeks, (part I), followed by a diet providing
6720 kJ/day (1600 kcal) and a dietary fibre supplement of 6 g/day for 16 weeks (part II). Finally placebo
was withdrawn and all still adhering subjects were given a dietary fibre supplement of 6 g/day and an ad
libitum diet for the rest of the period (part III). Initial body weights were comparable, 76.9 +/- 0.8 kg in the
fibre group versus 77.7 +/- 1.3 kg in the placebo group. During part I the weight reduction in the fibre
group of 4.9 kg was significantly higher compared to that of 3.3 kg in the placebo group (P = 0.05).
Accumulated weight reduction during part II was still significantly higher in the fibre group, 3.8 kg,
compared to 2.8 kg in the placebo group (P less than 0.05). Total weight loss in the fibre group after 52
weeks was 6.7 kg. Probability of adherence to the treatment regimen was significantly higher in the fibre
group from week 13 and onwards (P less than 0.01). Initial blood pressures were comparable. A significant
reduction of systolic blood pressure occurred in both groups. A significant reduction of diastolic blood
pressure occurred in the fibre group only, from 85.4 +/- 1.2 mmHg to 81.7 +/- 1.1 mmHg (P less than 0.05).
3
Turnbull WH, Thomas HG. The effect of a Plantago ovata seed containing preparation on appetite
variables, nutrient and energy intake. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 1995 May;19(5):338-42
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, King's College London, University of London, UK.
OBJECTIVES: Investigation of a Plantago ovata seed containing supplement (Plantaginis ovatae semen
and testa) to determine its effect on appetite variables, nutrient and energy intake in normal subjects.
DESIGN: Triple blind (subjects, investigators and statisticians) cross-over design. Three, 3-day study
periods when subjects were given the following treatments in randomised order: Plantago ovata preparation
(20 g granules with 200 ml water), placebo (20 g granules with 200 ml water), or water (200 ml) 3 hs premeal and the same dose immediately pre-meal. A set meal was given at lunch time after the supplement to
2
subjects who had fasted overnight. SETTING: Metabolic unit of King's College London. SUBJECTS:
Seventeen female subjects, all classified as non-restrained eaters. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Visual
analogue scales were completely premeal, postmeal and at hourly intervals for 3 hs after the meal. All food
consumed on the meal day, and the following day was weighed. RESULTS: There was a significant
difference in fullness at 1 h post-meal between Plantago and placebo, and also Plantago and water. Total fat
intake was significantly lower in g/d and as a percentage of energy on the day of the meal after Plantago
compared with water. CONCLUSIONS: This plantago ovata containing product, which is already taken by
many people world-wide to control bowel function, may be a useful supplement in weight control diets as it
affects fat intake, and may have some effect on the subjective feeling of fullness.
4
Verma SK, Bordia A. Effect of Commiphora mukul (gum guggulu) in patients of hyperlipidemia with
special reference to HDL-cholesterol. Indian J Med Res 1988 Apr;87:356-60
5
Satyavati GV. Gum guggul (Commiphora mukul)--the success story of an ancient insight leading to a
modern discovery. Indian J Med Res 1988 Apr;87:327-35
6
Tripathi YB, Malhotra OP, Tripathi SN. Thyroid stimulating action of Z-guggulsterone obtained from
Commiphora mukul. Planta Med 1984 Feb;(1):78-80
7
Satyavati GV, Dwarakanath C, Tripathi SN. Experimental studies on the hypocholesterolemic effect of
Commiphora mukul. Engl. (Guggul). Indian J Med Res 1969 Oct;57(10):1950-62
8
Antonio J, Colker CM, Torina GC, et al. Effects of a standardized guggulsterone phosphate supplement
on body composition in overweight adults: A pilot study. Curr Ther Res 1999;60:220-7.
9
Paranjpe P, Patki P, Patwardhan B. Ayurvedic treatment of obesity: a randomised double-blind, placebocontrolled clinical trial. J Ethnopharmacol 1990 Apr;29(1):1-11
Interdisciplinary School of Ayurvedic Medicine, University of Poona, Pune, India.
Seventy obese subjects were randomised into four groups. Ayurvedic drug treatments were given for three
months while one group received a placebo. Physical, clinical and pathological investigations were carried
out at regular intervals. A significant weight loss was observed in drug therapy groups when compared with
the placebo. Body measurements such as skin fold thickness and hip and waist circumferences were
significantly decreased. Decreases in serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels were observed. No side
effects of any kind were observed during the treatment period.