The neurologist, Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary, balances modern life with the ancient knowledge of Ayurveda. Here she explains some ways to fight fat using Ayurvedic medicine. We discovered these tips on the Dr. Oz blog from a few years back.
As we age, it can be a challenge to lose excess fat through diet and exercise alone. To eliminate the stubborn fat that holds on, the ancient medical system of India, known as Ayurveda, uses techniques that target the exercise-resistant fat by igniting your digestive fire. This is the biggest difference between Ayurvedic weight loss and other dietary approaches attached to conventional Western method. Ayurveda focuses on why your fat cells are getting bigger and gives you solutions that work long term. These techniques have worked for thousands of years and can be performed on a daily basis.
Top Ayurvedic Fat Fighter #1
The first Ayurvedic fat fighter is a special detox tea. It includes a combination of ingredients that help to improve digestion, break down fat, and unclog the channels in our body by removing ama.
Here's the recipe for Detox Tea: Boil 4 to 5 cups of water in the morning.
Add 1/2 teaspoon of the following seeds to the water and continue to let it boil for about 5 minutes with the lid on.
- Whole cumin seeds
- Whole coriander seeds
- Whole fennel seeds
Strain out the seeds and pour the liquid into a thermos. The key is to make the tea fresh every morning, place it in a thermos, and take small sips of it throughout the day. It is best to drink it warm or hot. If the tea is too strong or if you experience some initial discomfort, reduce the amount of seeds to 1/4 teaspoon for 2 weeks, and then increase it back to 1/2 teaspoon. There is a special concept used in Ayurvedic medicine known as ama that is key to losing weight. Ama means toxins.These toxins are an accumulation of impurities in our bodies that are the result of improper diet, chronic stress, and environmental pollutants. Some of these toxins are water-soluble, making them easier to remove from the body with diet and exercise. But other toxins are fat-soluble, meaning that they become stuck deep inside fat cells. The fat cells expand as they accumulate these toxins, which leads to weight gain, especially in those hard-to-remove pockets of fat around the stomach, hips, and thighs. Remember, we are targeting that stubborn fat that never seems to go away. Dr. Chaudhary described seeing her patients lose dress sizes and some lost up to 80 pounds! Most of these patients did not even come in to her practice for weight loss. The weight loss was just a natural byproduct of the Ayurvedic programs they implemented.
Top Ayurvedic Fat Fighter #2
Eat 50% of your daily calories at lunch. What's incredibly unique about Ayurvedic fat fighting is . . . instead of cutting calories first, you just have to change when you are eating most of your calories. According to Ayurveda, lunch is the most important meal of the day because it is when your digestive fire, agni, is the strongest. You should eat the least number of calories at dinner, which should be before 7 p.m. If it sounds too good to be true, here is an experiment for you to do at home: measure the number of calories that you are currently consuming on a daily basis. Don’t reduce the total number of calories you are eating, but eat the majority of your calories at lunch (at least 50%). Without any additional effort, you should begin to lose weight. Who doesn't love that? A typical day's meals should look like this:- Breakfast should be easy-to-digest foods like hot oatmeal, hot cereal, or fresh fruit. Don't eat egg yolks because it's hard to digest just egg whites.
- Lunch should be your largest meal when you eat the heaviest foods cheese, eggs, meat, and desserts.
- Dinnertime is when your digestive fire is the weakest, so this should be your smallest and lightest meal. Dinner should consist of small proportions of easy-to-digest foods such as soups or cooked vegetables. Dinner shouldn't be eaten after 7 p.m. because your body's digestion gets weaker at night and cannot process food as well; undigested food is turned into toxins and often stored in your fat cells.
Top Ayurvedic Fat Fighter #3
Add curry powder to each meal. Ayurvedic medicine recognizes six tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, astringent, and pungent. In order to feel satiated at a meal and eat less, you have to have all six tastes present in your food. These six tastes also help to improve your digestion and melt fat in your body. The average American diet usually only has three of these six tastes sweet, salty and sour. Curry powder is an easy way to incorporate the six tastes into every meal. You can either cook with it so that your food gets the full flavor of the curry powder or just add a small amount as a condiment. You can even keep it in a saltshaker on your dining table and sprinkle it on your food. When you go shopping for curry powder, avoid the traditional ones that you see at most grocery stores. These may be too spicy and overpower the other tastes. Instead, you can look online for Ayurvedic churnas. These churnas have an equal blend of the six tastes. Even better, make your own! This favorite curry powder recipe comes from Kulreet's Aunt Indra. It takes only a few minutes to make. Curry Powder Blend In a coffee grinder, grind the following ingredients together:- 5 tsp coriander seeds
- 1tsp fenugreek seeds
- 1 large bay leaf
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 small (1 1/2 inch) cinnamon stick
- 5 cloves
- 2 tsp turmeric powder
