This Ayurveda Expert Cured Thousands with Two Words: Warm and Moist

This Ayurveda Expert Cured Thousands with Two Words: Warm and Moist

Author Name:Masoom Minawala

Youtube Channel Url:https://www.youtube.com/@MasoomMinawala

Youtube Video URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfV5vGpgenE



Transcript:
(00:00) We start out as grapes and adolescence. By the time we are post menopausal, we are raisins. It's been a loss of essential fluids. We start wrinkling, we start [music] crinkling, we become like deserts. We become so hot and dry. Overworking, hot and dry. Over productivity, hot and dry. Working out excessively, hot and dry.
(00:20) Caffeine, [music] hot and dry. Wow, this is brilliant and so much to think about. Sesame oil regulates both progesterone and estrogen. To me, this is HRT, hormone replacement therapy without actually taking hormone replacement therapy. The Western media [music] has made you believe that default for everybody is low fertility.
(00:39) That's not true. How much of this is already brought into our lives, but like It's already been there and we just don't know and understand the why. Your body wants life. Life [music] wants life. And to be fertile, you don't have to do that much. You don't. What if health was never about doing more, but about aligning your body with its natural rhythm? And what if the answers you're looking for have existed for thousands of years, but were never explained in a way that fit your life today? That's exactly what today's conversation is about,
(01:12) >> [music] >> because Ayurveda has always been a part of our culture, our lives. But somewhere along the way, it became either intimidating, outdated, [music] or reduced to trendy buzzwords with no real guidance. So, I wanted to sit down with someone who could strip Ayurveda down to what truly matters.
(01:32) Simple, actionable remedies that actually work in modern, high-functioning lives. I'm joined by Nidhi Pandya, an Amma certified Ayurvedic practitioner, and a globally recognized personality for making [music] ancient science feel relevant, intuitive, and deeply practical. Welcome to the Masoomi Navalani Show. So happy to have you here all the way from New York.
(02:00) I am so happy to be here, Masoom. It's always such a pleasure chatting with you. We've been chatting for years now, which is incredible, and I love that this podcast is actually bringing back so many connections, and I feel like I have a knack of, you know, always being able to identify like you, like the brilliant expert that you are.
(02:21) And before we kind of dive into the entire conversation around Ayurveda, I love that you talk about these really unique concepts. One of them being your ideal inner climate. And I'd love for you to talk to me about that. Why does Ayurveda represent the ideal inner climate? That is I've never started a podcast with that question.
(02:45) Okay, so Masoom, the whole idea is this, right? The The I'll answer this question in two parts. The first part is that we have been so confused about health. We become so confused about health, right? And as human beings, we're supposed to be the most intelligent species on the planet. And yet when you look at animals, for example, you look at deer, you look at tigers, they know exactly what to eat.
(03:07) The deer will wake up in the morning. No alarm clock needed, and will still graze. And we are asking questions, what should we eat for lunch? What should we eat for breakfast? What should we eat for dinner? So basically, one of the ideas for me to bring a concept that was very comprehensible was realizing that the more information we've had, the less wisdom we have.
(03:27) We've kind of lost this deep connection of how to live that our ancestors did. So it started with that question, right? So then why did it come to the inner climate? So when I looked around the world, Masoom, and there is this realization that there's the only planet, right, where life thrives in the entire solar system of the galaxy as we know it, is planet Earth.
(03:49) And why? Because the climate is right. So when the climate was right for 4 and 1/2 billion years from single cell organisms we've become these full-blown mammals. No work required. And today climate is wrong and we're questioning life. So similarly, right? Similarly, there's a climate inside our body.
(04:11) Our body is home [snorts] to trillions of microorganisms. And when the climate inside our body is correct, is right they thrive. We We need very little work. Now they're called microbes, microbiome today. And my question is how do I make this very simple for people? What is the ideal climate? Because you don't need 100 different health tips and advice.
(04:32) All you need is to come back to your optimum inner climate. So Masoom, this conversation will not be complete unless I just explain what that ideal inner climate is. So I'm going to indulge you a little bit. So you're going to have to do this with me. So Masoom, you take your palm, you cup it in your hand and you exhale into it.
(04:51) >> [sighs and gasps] >> What do you feel? What is the like what is the temperature of your breath? Warm. Warm. And is it dry? Is it moist? Generally, what is breath? Moist. >> Moist. Yeah, so it's warm and moist. Now tell me Masoom, you've been a nursing mother. I mean you've had two two children.
(05:16) What is the temperature of the mother's milk? What is that quality? Warm. And moist. Mhm. And moist. As human beings, we are warm-blooded mammals. It's warm and moist. What kind of people do you like? Hot-tempered, cold? Warm. Warm and moist. What is love? Warm and moist. What is gratitude? Warm and moist. What are all the foods in the world that feel nourishing? They're warm and they're moist.
(05:40) Microbiome in our gut used to be called flora and fauna. They used That was the previous name for it. Where Where flora and fauna grow in the world? Places that's warm and moist. Mhm. What are Indian foods? We start cooking our foods, we put oil first or ghee and we put spices. We add warm and moist right there. If you look at fermented foods that the entire world is talking about, oh fermented foods are so good for your health, they're so good for your gut microbiome. They're warm and moist.
(06:05) So the climate inside our body, the climate in our nervous system, the climate in our emotions, every place that we're getting to is warm and moist. So I wanted to offer this framework to people and say you don't really need a lot more. Your journey towards health, towards coming back to yourself, mind, body, spirit is coming back to that warm and moist space.
(06:26) And then I teach people how you can do it in your foods, how you can do it in your daily rituals, how you can do it in your relationships, in your emotions, all of it. So that is the idea of the inner climate. Any deviation, inflammation, heat, cold, dryness, there's of course things happen when climates change. So I talk to people about their bodies like there's a climate inside.
(06:45) So tell me, how would you tell me to bring in more warmth and moist into my life? So the first thing that I would ask you to do Masoom is to kind of understand where is your climate, right? Where is your climate? So for example, there are some people who feel really inflamed and heavy. That's hot and tropical inside.
(07:01) There are people who feel just cold and dry, a lot of anxiety, dry hair, dry skin, etc. So usually it starts with people identifying their climate. But even if you were not to do that, right? Let's say somebody is like, "I don't know how to do that." Mhm. I still say you can start with warm and moist. So the question is how would you bring warm and moist into your foods for example? Super simple.
(07:22) You do and that's what all ancient traditions done. If you were to look at every blue zone, that's basically what they did. They just ate warm and moist foods. So the first part of warm and moist is simply just cook your foods. Cooking warms your foods, releases moisture. You want to build it up, you add a good fat, pair it with spices.
(07:39) And of course do a lot more like adding spices to your food does a lot more, and talk about that later. But a good fat is a moisture, the spice is the warmth. You want to do something else? You look at traditional Chinese medicine or East Asian cultures, they slightly ferment their food. If anybody has fermented anything, they know it's a warm and moist process.
(07:58) It requires warmth, and there's this is an aerobic process, so there is a certain expiration the bacteria has, and there's always a little moisture created. So that's very It's as simple as that. Consume warm beverages, keep everything warm, and you can bring warmth even if you're doing a salad, right? If you look at salads, Masum, traditionally, salads were always paired with olive oil and vinegar.
(08:19) Olive oil brings in the moisture. Vinegar is a fermented food, and it's sharp. That brings in the warmth. So there is nothing in the world that can release what we say prana. When you have When you want energy to flow through something, it has to be warm and moist. Even a river, if it's not warm and moist, it's either frozen or it's stagnant.
(08:39) But if it's warm and moist, it's flowing. So that is the idea. So what would you say are some foods or habits in our daily lives that are not warm and moist? That's a That is a brilliant question. So I'll tell you we're actually living in this hot and dry system, right? So everything that we believe in in the modern day, overworking, hot and dry.
(09:02) Overproductivity, hot and dry. Working out excessively, hot and dry. Caffeine. What does caffeine feel like? Dehydrating, right? Hot and dry. And I'm not saying don't do it. I teach people modifications. Alcohol, hot and dry. Staying up late at night. I mean, we experience it. People stay up at night, eyes are red, throat feels a little sore and dry. Mhm. Hot and dry.
(09:21) So what I say we we're becoming very solar beings. I mean, global warming outside and global warming inflammation inside the body is the same thing. So we've become really solar beings, and we're on this go go go mode. And then there's a certain percentage of the population, Masum, that's become stagnant.
(09:40) That's become on the other side of warm and moist, which is just like humid and stagnant and dense, which is a sedentary lifestyle. Like if you're not moving, if you're not exercising, you're eating cold heavy foods, you're consuming excessive dairy in terms of cheesecake and cheese, etc. And you're not pairing it right.
(09:56) So I become either very sedentary, but I would say most of the urban population has become go go go. And we're we really just as a climate climate cannot survive in this global warming situation, our bodies cannot thrive when we're so hot and dry. And it also leads to infertility. I have to say that. So let's say there's someone who can tell, okay, they have the signs, they feel inflamed, they feel bloated, they feel tired, they feel uncomfortable.
(10:24) Could be a weight issue, could be a health issue. But basically, their inner climate is unsettled. Let's talk about how they can settle that inner climate. >> Yeah. Right? And let's talk about it and how they can do it probably with daily remedies to instantly reset it. >> Yeah. So for example, what could be a morning drink that they could start with? So you know, that's a great question.
(10:48) Like what was your morning? What was your afternoon? What was your evening look like, right? So Masuda, this is for anybody, no matter where your climate is. You want to wake up in the morning and knowing that everybody's bodies are a little bit stagnant in the morning. And I always tell people to look outside in the nature to see what's happening in the body.
(11:04) We are diurnal mammals, which means we wake up with the sun and we sleep with the sun. And um one of the biggest concepts of the Vedas is yet pinde brahmandi, which means as is the macro such is the micro. So anyways, when you look outside and you were to walk on grass in the morning, it would be dewy. It would be wet. Our bodies are wet and stagnant in the morning from the night's sleep.
(11:24) That's why people can have nasal congestion, eye boogers, your joints are padded. So if you were to go to a yoga class, you can't really show off in the morning because you are not as flexible. So, in that state where your body is stagnant, your body needs to be fired up right away. I would say before you do a beverage, you want to exercise.
(11:45) That's the first thing. I I mean we have high cortisol, we have high blood sugar when you wake up. That's just how we are as human beings. If we did not have that little glucose surge, we would be sleeping in our bed. We would never be excited for our day. So, you wake up, you want to exercise. And then the first beverage you want to have after that is a hot cup of water with ginger powder.
(12:07) And if your exercise is going to be a little bit later, let's say 10:00 or 9:00 instead of early morning, then you can do the hot cup of water with ginger powder first and then you can move towards exercise. But, that is a great way to clean up the previous day's gunk, the hot water with ginger powder. It's to really start kindling your agni or your digestive fire.
(12:26) And it is a great antioxidant right there, really upgrading your detox mechanism first thing in the morning. And there's also other morning rituals which I highly recommend, but I mean this is a basic start. If you want to pile it up, Masoom, then I would say the single most practice that I tell people that you want to borrow from Ayurveda is the practice of abhyanga, oiling up, oiling your body.
(12:51) And this is really your food more than your breakfast because your skin is a channel of consumption. Now, when you're exercising, you don't want to exercise with food in your gut. And yet a lot of people feel like I need something before I exercise. This is it. You oil up your body very, very nicely.
(13:08) If you look at Indian wrestlers, Masoom, you'll see that they have all these shiny oily bodies. Now, that's just not an aesthetic. That actually is done to This is their nourishment before you before they would go and wrestle or before you work out. And what this does is it creates lymphatic drainage, firstly. That oil goes [snorts] deep into your tissues and really starts nourishing you. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin.
(13:31) We do this for babies as well, right? Like we oil them up, we give them some sunlight. That's the best way to strengthen your bones and get that vitamin D working for you. It's a fat-soluble vitamin. Early morning sunlight, I mean, it's a no-brainer, right? And not only that, the microbiome that lives on your skin is lipophilic, which means they eat fat.
(13:51) So, that is going to enhance the microbiome in your skin as well. So, it's going to relax your nervous system. It's a self-loving practice, which releases oxytocin, which is your love hormone. It is the most brilliant practice. And now when you go and exercise, right? So, you oil your body, you can wipe it down a little bit if it's too slippery for you.
(14:12) Most of us all the oil will get absorbed. Wash your hands, and then you exercise. And then you shower, and you'll have a completely different skin. You'll have a completely different result from it. The one last thing I'll say that oil what oil also does is if you were to just spill a little bit of oil on this, right? And then you would go away for some time.
(14:33) You would come back and that oil would almost be mucky. It would be grease. Oil would become grease. Anyway, any surface. Because oil has this potential to lift grime up to the surface. So, when you massage your body and then you exercise, anytime you sweat, all your toxins from within your pores actually come to the surface. And now when you take your body to the shower, you have had a tremendous detox and tremendous recovery from your exercise.
(14:59) So, I would say hot water with ginger powder, oil your body, get get your exercise, and you had an amazing Ayurvedic morning. And what oil do you use? So, look, traditionally you would use sesame-based oils like there's Dhanwantaram oil, there are Bala Tailam, etc. But I don't tell people to start there. I don't even tell people to start with sesame oil.
(15:22) I tell people to start with a simple body oil. Any oil that they like. And gradually move to a sesame based oil like a or a plain sesame oil, organic sesame oil. And you don't want to do toasted sesame oil, you'll be smelling like fried rice, so that's not what you're doing. Regular sesame oil. And then when you feel comfortable with that, then you move to like a Dhanwantaram or a Mahanarayan Thailam, which is more Ayurvedic.
(15:44) But you start at an easy place because you're just building a habit now. You're building a practice that you want to love for the rest of your life. Mhm. >> [snorts] >> So coconut oil would do? I would say coconut oil is not technically considered an oil in Ayurveda. Coconut it does not come from a seed.
(16:02) And it's very thick, so it's not going to penetrate your skin as well. It can feel nicer in the moment and it can smell more pleasant in the moment. But it's not going to do the work that sesame oil or another body oil could do. Like give me some examples. So I know because body oil is in body oiling is in, you get a lot of brands.
(16:20) They have their own blends of like jojoba and a little bit of almond, etc. And and they also have hopefully essential oils and not artificial fragrances. That's a great place to start because um then you kind of it becomes a very indulgent, a very loving practice. And when you experience the benefits, which I don't know in my practice maximum of 10 plus years I don't know anybody who started this and left it.
(16:48) Like that is Really? >> Yeah. Everybody, all my clients, everybody that I work with, this is the this is their number one. This is what brings love back to yourself. Also for women in perimenopausal and menopausal years sesame oil regulates both progesterone and estrogen. To me this is HRT, hormone replacement therapy without actually taking hormone replacement therapy. therapy.
(17:11) That's super interesting by the way. >> It's a fantastic practice. Wouldn't give it up for anything. >> [snorts] >> Is there a breathing ritual that you would recommend? >> Yeah, absolutely, right? So, I always like to stack things for stack things for people. So, I always say this is a bare essential, this is number two.
(17:28) So, then we can we can all we can build it all out. And somebody can go all out, right? So, if you want to do more than this, I would say I think a breathing ritual can be very beneficial to people. Not just in the morning, I would say more so at night because how you do your night determines how you do your morning.
(17:46) If you do if you So, breathing practice is very effective at night and then you can do it in the morning as well. So, the breath the the breath practice that I always recommend to start with is Anulom Vilom Pranayama, alternate nostril breathing. Again, balancing to the lunar and the solar sides of your body. It is the Pranayama that brings you to warm and moist.
(18:03) So, the right side of our body is our solar side. So, it's the sun. The left side of our body is the moon. And when you do alternate nostril breathing, I mean, at least sun and moon energies, alternate nostril breathing, you're actually bringing your body to a point of warm and moist. You're activating that warm and moist.
(18:21) What is the benefits of doing this? So, the I'm going to go into this So, the right side of our body is metabolic. Our liver is on the right side. And the left side of our body, which is our spleen, is more of the lymphatic drainage and you know, it's a more fluid. Our heart is here as well. And what happens that we are either too active either our liver is too active, our mind is too active, or we're too stagnant.
(18:43) So, again, you want to come back to that center warm and moist. Now, this helps in many, many levels. So, first, nervous system, you'll feel it right away. Brain coherence, you'll feel it right away. But what people know less about is that it resets the body clock. You know, we have hormones, we have neurotransmitters. And in the life that we're living today, they're running all over the place.
(19:04) Like at night we're feeling like it's morning because we have high cortisol, we're so excited. So, Anulom Vilom resets the body clock. It can impact your pituitary gland, which is really the command center for every neurotransmitter hormone in the body. So, hormonally, for your digestive system, for your nervous system, and for your emotional health.
(19:24) And resetting your liver, it all helps to cool down the liver as well, and bring it to that central place of warm and moist, rather than being very overactive. So, you know, I've my grandmother and always always practiced anulom vilom, and she always encouraged us to But, I think what happens is that when this practice or the recommendation comes from a place of you should do it, it's good for you, versus you should do it because this is how it's going to impact you.
(19:53) It's a very different interpretation, um which is where I think experts like you play such an important role today, right? Because you break it down to the why. And I I have never known this, and it's been something that's been such a familiar practice to me my whole life, but I haven't really understood the benefits of it. Um I love that.
(20:14) I love that knowledge is so accessible today, and it's and it's so intuitive as well, right? Like because a muscle we all know, like my idea is I'm so careful that while I try to give the science, I don't throw in jargon that people don't understand and make it intuitive. And everybody knows that your liver is on the right, and your heart is on the left, and your liver is your heart organ.
(20:36) We know that different sides of the brain function differently. So, that alternate nostril breathing like rates everything from brain coherence to regulating the body and the emotions and the mind. Um and the more regularly you do it, the better the benefits. You know, which is not really the case with many thing may with many other things.
(20:54) For example, if you're exercising, and they say, "Here, lift weights." Now, suddenly 10 lbs are no longer heavy for your body, and you need to go higher, right? So, you need to do more to get the same result. But, breath practice and meditation are two things that the more you do, you actually get exponential results.
(21:13) It's not that you have to Yeah, yeah, to get the same results. So, it's amazing. And of course, you know, then I tell people you want to stack it up further. Masoom, it wouldn't be fair if I didn't talk about a couple of other practices of Ayurveda in the morning. So, another practice that I love is and simple, takes less than 10 seconds, is tongue scraping.
(21:31) And while I know that a lot of households in India, you know, this was part of our morning ritual, I think it's kind of underrated and under-thought about. So, let me um let me explain what it does, right? So, at night when we're sleeping, there's a metabolic repair that happens inside. Pending digestion takes place. So, literally our stomach is kind of cooking and our mouth is closed.
(21:52) And in that experience, just as gunk, like right, just as we have a bowel movement in the morning, there is gunk from our digestive system that comes all the way to the mouth. And that kind of sits. And people often see it as a white coating in the morning. And just as you would take your trash out every day, this is what you kind of And And you would have a bowel movement every day, you want to kind of cleanse your tongue in the morning.
(22:14) But not only that, what it also does is that the minute you clean your tongue and you use that copper tongue scraper on your tongue, you start toning your tongue and you also start signaling your digestive system that wake [snorts] up now. It's a little knock on the door of the kitchen, you know? And that kitchen is your mouth.
(22:33) So, you're It kind of starts waking up. It starts releasing its digestive juices. And then whenever you finally you go and eat and you're ready to eat um this has done. So, it's such a little practice, but it goes such a long way. And what's even more powerful these days um that people are adopting, which we again neglected for so many years, was oil pulling.
(22:54) The practice of oil pulling, Masoom, is phenomenal. It is your dental insurance. because it firstly goes and replenishes the microbiome in your mouth. It goes into tiny crevices, prevents cavities in your teeth. Works with the bacteria inside, enhances your gum health. You will significantly feel the difference.
(23:23) If you I can guarantee somebody that, right? If you stop flossing, and I know all the dentists out here going to hate me, but if you oil pull really well and you swish your oil really well for 6 months, and you go to your dentist and don't tell him you've done anything. >> Mhm. He will ask you, "What have you been doing? Your teeth are so good.
(23:40) " And especially people who are prone to cavities, try oil pulling. If you have um gingivitis, try oil pulling. It is a phenomenal practice. But tell us when to do it, which oil to use, >> Yeah. how to do it. >> Yes. Yes, very relevant. So, you tongue scrape, you brush. After that, you take Start with sesame oil, right? For some people, I've seen that sesame oil doesn't work really well, which means that if you're seeing that you're breaking out, or if you feel like um you have a gag reflex, which is not everybody, very uncommon, then you
(24:13) can switch to coconut, but otherwise I'd start with sesame. And you hold a couple of tablespoons of oil in your mouth. I like to keep it in one of those olive oil dispenser bottles, so you're not really playing with a spoon. I just like literally keep your bottle personal and you just take it in. And then you swish.
(24:30) Literally. You can swish You can start with 2 minutes. You'll see that it's it's an effort, and it also really works um supports the jaw muscles as well as the muscles of your face. After a couple of minutes, you can go to your trash and you can spit it out. Don't do it in the sink. Don't do it in the toilet because you're going to clog them.
(24:50) You can spit it out in your trash can. And then you can gargle with warm water, and rinse your mouth with warm water, and you're done. This is one practice that you can do then for 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes. So, what I do is I take my oil. I don't do it every day. I do it maybe three times a week. I take it in the shower.
(25:08) While I'm showering, I'm swishing. So because I think a very important part of my work is to say how do I make it easy. If I give you a long list of things to do and then I [laughter] don't tell you how to multitask and how to do it well, it's just it's more overwhelm for people. I was just going to ask you, Nidhi, how long is your morning routine? That was literally my next question.
(25:29) I'm so big masoom on saying level one, level two, level three. And I also ask my day like I ask myself. I said, "What is my day? Is it a level one day? Is it a level two two days? Is it a level three day?" So, it depends on what what level I'm at. And I tell people to do the same thing. And you know, as a result, you can actually sustain your practices longer because people are like, "I'll do everything or I'll do nothing.
(25:52) " People are like, "Oh, today is a busy day. I'm just not going to do anything." And that kind of like just then you then as women we bring shame to ourselves and we get guilt to ourselves. And then and the process of shame shame and guilt kind of actually takes us away from the goals. But if you have a I I give people a 10-minute routine.
(26:08) I'm like, "You don't have only 10 minutes? Let's just take 10 minutes. That's less than 1% of your day." And so oil massage is my practice. It's non-negotiable. Tongue scraping is non-negotiable. Warm beverage in the morning whenever I can get to it is non-negotiable. And then the stacking happens as and when. So, you know, I love what you're saying because I truly believe in this and I I believe that one of my strengths is consistency.
(26:35) But I've always been super consistent with my work. Only in the last year have I actually been applying this principle to other facets of my life as well, like my health, my eating habits, my movement habits. And the way I look at it is that consistency is not showing up every single day. It's actually showing up consistently, whatever that might mean for you, in phases.
(27:02) Being able to take breaks, but consistency means coming back. Consistency is not a 1-month period. It's a 5-year period. Have you been consistent over 5 years? Then the Sundays and the weekends, it blurs out because that's kind of what your consistency should look like, and I think this has worked really well for me.
(27:21) So I love that, and you know, before I work with any client, this is the first thing I tell them. And it's so funny using this you you you use the exact same words. I'm like, consistency is not that you won't have days that you won't do do what you're doing. Consistency just really means coming back. Like, having that in your mind that that I'm going to do this for the rest of my life.
(27:38) So if I have a couple of days, you know, it doesn't mean that I'm not uh at it. So it's kudos to you. Thanks. I want to now move on to speak about Ayurvedic eating and remedies for your life being on your plate. So talk to me about what that principle really is, right? What is the core Ayurvedic rule of eating when it comes to great digestion? Yeah.
(28:03) And, you know, right now I'm teaching a nutrition program, so I have to say that it is a lot more than what you're eating. Okay. So I want to come to that last because people love that. People are like, "Oh, tell me what to eat." And I'm like, I'm not going to do service to you because if I tell you what to eat, but I don't tell you how and when, then I'm just, you know, it's going to beat the purpose.
(28:23) And you're going to try it and you're going to be like, "I tried it and I didn't feel good." So I think the most important thing is how do you break your meals down? That is more important than what you're eating first. Right? And again, I'm going to go back to this idea that we are diurnal mammals, which means we rise with the sun and we sleep with the sun.
(28:39) And if you look at all mammals on the planet, if you've ever gone for a safari, which I'm sure you have, Masoom, they'll always tell you, "Hey, if you're going out at this time, you'll most likely see these animals. And if you're going out in the morning, you'll see these deer graze and the monkeys. So, which means that every animal has clock for digestion, for eating.
(28:58) And so do we. Which means that the digestive juices in our body, they have a natural circadian rhythm. For us in the morning, I see morning is light and warm. Right? The whole idea of a big breakfast is only a 1900s concept. We've been on on the planet for about 400,000 years. It's a very recent concept.
(29:19) It was just when industrialization happened and they wanted workers to eat a big breakfast and then go to work so they could work a longer shift in the morning. So, you eat a light warm breakfast. You eat a big indulgent lunch because as the sun peaks in the morning, so does your agni or your digestive strength. Modern science is today realizing that your insulin sensitivity, which means your ability to break down sugars, is the most strong at that time.
(29:47) Gastrin and other digestive juices are at their highest performing. Mhm. So, whatever you eat, your body will be the most forgiving during the hours of 11 and 2. The morning, not so much because you have high cortisol, your body's still wet and stagnant from the night. So, afternoon, you eat whatever you want.
(30:08) I tell people eat all you want to eat for lunch. Then as the sun begins to set muscle and your digestive fire really sets. Before electricity, which is again only a 100-year old phenomena on our planet, our ancestors were not eating 9:00 p.m. dinners. Nobody was lighting lamps and saying, "Let's throw dinner parties." So, our body stopped digesting at night and our insulin sensitivity is the lowest, which means we're almost part diabetic, most people after a certain age, in the evening time, only in the evening time.
(30:40) Your body doesn't break down carbs and sugars as well. So, I tell people that you want to eat by 6:00 6:30, make it a supper. And then if you're hungry because you're used to it, drink a cup of hot milk, warm milk before you go to bed. So, basically this is how you lay out your day where you do a light breakfast, big lunch, supper, milk, call it a day.
(31:03) You need a snack, you can do for example coconut water between that so-called breakfast and lunch. You can do a fruit. You can do a fruit anywhere till about 3:00 or 4:00. So, that is how you design your your meals. Now, what do you eat during those times, right? So, when I say warm and light breakfast, it could mean a cup of spiced milk with almonds on the side, which is my breakfast. It could be a porridge.
(31:26) It could be a dalia. It could be sweet roasted sweet potatoes. It could be a stewed fruit. The one thing you don't do in the morning is do fruit in the morning. You don't do fruit in the morning. And I want people to just test it test this out, right? Because I know that in the last 50 years, the world has sung praises of consuming fruit in the morning.
(31:46) I'll tell you almost instantly people who have congestion, give it 3 weeks. You'll see that your morning congestion, your allergies will be a lot less because your body is wet and stagnant in the morning. Fruit is wet and stagnant. All fruit is mushy and slimy. And kids get sick all the time because of eating fruit in the morning.
(32:03) Fruit can be eaten at 10:30, 11:00, no problem as a snack. All blue zones, which is places where people live more than 100 years with great health, they eat warm breakfast or they eat something small and fermented. None of them eat fruits for breakfast in the morning. So, you want to eat that warm light breakfast.
(32:25) So, all of these options, you can eat some Indian breakfast as well. You can eat a little bit of poha, little bit of upma, little bit of cheela. I like the other breakfast I eat all the time is moong dal cheela. Right? So, that's my that's my go-to. >> I love It's my favorite. Yeah, that's my complete go to. And then lunch, you eat Of course, you want to eat.
(32:42) Now, I don't say you have to eat Indian to be Ayurvedic. You don't. But you want to make sure that your foods are cooked with a good fat. Good fat is ghee. Good fat is olive oil. Good fat is a good non-refined oil. If the oil is refined, which means heat has been put to that oil. It's fossil fuel. And fossil fuel is what creates global warming outside.
(33:04) This is what creates inflammation in our body. So, it has to be unrefined. Unrefined groundnut can work. Unrefined depends if you're living in a northern northern part of the world. And it's really cold in the winters, mustard can work as well. So, good fat, good spicy. Spices good spices are anything which is known as a spice.
(33:26) You'll find it in the spice aisle of the grocery store, but it's not spicy very much on your tongue. So, if it's going to if it's going to be red chili powder, if it's going to be a lot of green chilies, that's not a good spice. You can include that in your meal and it can open up your channels, but that's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for cumin.
(33:42) I'm looking for all your other Indian spices. I'm looking for turmeric, haldi. They're all anti-in- anti-oxidants. What are anti-oxidants? I like to explain what anti-oxidants are. Anti-oxidants are those that neutralize free radicals. Free radicals are just think about molecules in your body that are creating havoc.
(34:01) The waste products, metabolic waste, in other ways because of processed foods. And they're kind of hanging around in our body and they create havoc. They can cause cancer. They can cause other things. So, anti-oxidants neutralize those free radicals. And then you want your plate to look full.
(34:18) I'm vegetarian, so I can talk about what that means. You want to have little bit of I like to include rice more than wheat. Make sure the rice is always aged. If you're buying rice in India, 99% it will be aged. The varieties I like is Sona Masuri and Ambemohar, which very easy to digest. You want to make sure you have some kind of lentils.
(34:38) Now, this could be either mujadara, this could be dal chawal, this could be kitchari, this could be anything. It also could be black beans with rice. I don't care what cuisine that is. You want to have some veggies. You want to make sure there's some green leafy in there. There are some fleshy veggies, which would be like your gourds, your dudhi, lauki, etc.
(34:55) And whenever you get a chance, you want to include some root veggies like sweet potatoes, beets, etc. Maybe two or three times a week. You want to make sure you're bringing in root veggies. And then you can make bowls. You can pick any cuisine. I tell people you can eat any cuisine you like. Just make sure it has all of these elements for lunch.
(35:12) And dinner is usually much lighter, like a stew, a soup with a little side of something. So, little side of rice or a little side of stir-fried veggies. Um and that's a really, really great way to end your day. So, tell me, Nidhi, that based on the principles of Ayurveda, there's someone that's really suffering from digestion.
(35:32) Mhm. What is a daily habit that they can take on to help with that? Yeah. So, I'll say a lot of people struggle with digestion. Um A is because they start their days cold. Mhm. So, one thing is you want to start your day with hot water and that ginger powder, right? Don't do a lot of ginger powder. I will give a disclaimer.
(35:52) You want to do a few pinches only, three or four pinches. >> Okay. Okay. But then, one of the other things is that and I always ask the question, what are you doing that your digestion is bad? The other thing is people are eating on the go and people are eating too fast. And Masoom, when I say people, I mean everybody, right? Even if you're not eating on the go, most of us are holding up our esophagus.
(36:11) So, we're not breathing enough when we're eating. We're eating like this in a heightened state. >> clenched and anxious. Clenched and anxious and we're hasty. And if you like something, we're eating really fast. Sometimes we're eating really fast because we're on the go. I'll tell you this one method, right, that I I created with my clients.
(36:31) I feel like it has solved most people's digestive issues and sometimes even food sensitivities. And I'll tell you what that method is. I call it the spoon down method. So, the way this method works is you take a bite of whatever you're eating. And then you take your hands and you place it on your lap. Okay? And you put your fork down, put whatever down, put your hand down. And then you chew.
(36:50) And I'm not saying chew slowly, I'm not saying chew fast. You chew. But right before you chew, you want to just sense the food again in your mouth. So, you want to feel the texture. And you'll realize most of the times you're ready to swallow your food without even like chewing it. So, you just notice the texture. Mhm.
(37:07) But, here is where the money lies. Before you go and you get that second bite, right, or the next bite, you want to make sure that you have exhaled from your nose. So, it's not an active exhale. You're not sitting and doing Kapalbhati. Nobody can even actually tell that you're doing this, right? It should just be like most of the times you're not exhaling.
(37:25) And exhaling is what relaxes our body and enhances our digestion. Puts us in the parasympathetic mode. And we're eating in like strong, short inhales. So, you want to make sure you've you're exhaling and your body is just kind of going back a little bit. Your diaphragm has kind of loosened. Your stomach has relaxed. And what this does, it massively enhances digestion.
(37:47) It releases your own GLP-1, which is Ozempic. So, it enhances your own body's satiety. It awakens your cellular intelligence, which means cravings for foods we crave it the most when we're in a sympathetic state. When we have high cortisol in our body, we crave tremendously. When our body is relaxed, you're going to eat the right amount, you're going to digest better, and you're going to be really, really happy.
(38:12) Well, if that's not all that and you want more than this, I say that after you're done eating, depends on when you When somebody says I have poor digestion, if you're bloating, you want to have um I swear by the the by uh this ancient so-called ancient remedy, which is you want to have ajwain carom seeds with black salt.
(38:34) Works each time if you're bloated. If your issue is that you're done eating and you still want to keep snacking, chew on sauf fennel seeds, roasted fennel seeds. That kind of seals the deal to your digestion. It gives you that sweet flavoring in the mi- [snorts] in the mouth, but it also has an astringency, which is a taste we use in Ayurveda to kind of say shut up to your digestive system and say, "Okay, chill.
(38:54) Take a chill pill. We're done. Food is done." So, those fennel seeds can really really work. And then the other thing that I'd say, one last thing I'll say, is I tell people fantasize, don't deprive. People end up eating a lot towards the evening because people are addicted to food. And we all need to heal from the day.
(39:12) You know, everybody's exhausted from the day. By the time you're at night, your brain is not working. People are using food to heal. Absolutely. So, I tell people that firstly, you want to have an evening breath practice. That's why I always emphasize on a transition, like from What is your transition ritual, right? We talk so much about morning rituals.
(39:29) What is your transition ritual when you go from day to evening? When we didn't have electricity, our body made a very beautiful transition inside. When your transmitters just gradually changed as the sun would set. And our body would transition. We don't have that. In the absence of that, we need a transition ritual.
(39:46) So, you have a transition ritual, so you're not craving and binging at night. And I I say fantasize, don't deprive, which means if you want to eat something at night, don't say, "Oh, it's night. I can't eat it. Nidhi said I can't eat it." No, fantasize that you're going to eat it for lunch.
(40:00) Prepare your body ahead of time. So, you say, "Oh my god, I'm going to eat this amazing decadent chocolate cake for lunch tomorrow morning." And when you do that, your body doesn't go into deprivation, and your digestive system works much better. Wow. This is brilliant and so much to think about as well.
(40:17) If every home could make just one Ayurvedic spice mix, >> what would you recommend that to be? Oh my god, that's a very loaded question. Okay. >> [sighs] >> One spice mix. See, I will tell you that spice mixes go on top. And then Ayurveda we talk very much about blooming your spices, which means adding them before. And that's never a mix because they go in step by step by step.
(40:42) So you want to use your cumin, which is your non-negotiable blooming spice. Mustard in very cold months. But if you want to do the sprinkling, I would say your sprinkling should always have on top when you're adding. You definitely want to have turmeric. I know it sounds cliche, but you cannot say no to that. You definitely want to have that.
(41:02) You want to have cumin, roasted cumin. You want to have your dhaniya, your coriander powder. And I think what's a little bit underrated is also having a little bit of fennel powder in there. And small amounts of black pepper. I know that in most parts in India, you know, Maharashtra and below they've stopped using black pepper as much.
(41:23) And then again in the southern parts they they do they do use it. But we have a whole chunk of our country which has minimized the use of black pepper. And I would say that's something that you can bring back again into your diet. Okay. What is your go-to pre-meal and post-meal remedies? That really aid with, you know, better inner health, better digestion. Okay.
(41:44) So I think before you eat, I can recommend firstly, you want to be sitting and eating. And if you can sit cross-legged, nothing like it. Even if you're in a chair, right? Like I go to restaurants and nobody can tell that I'm sitting cross-legged. And what that does, it actually closes what I call the anal sphincter, which means the bottom of your anus literally.
(42:04) It kind of shuts it down. And it creates a grounding for your agni, for your digestive fire. So it makes your digestive fire a very steady. Versus if you're sitting with like your legs apart and literally that's a vent. That opening is a vent for your body. So, you kind of close that window and let your fire be steady. Then I can offer a practice that you can eat before you start, which is right nostril breathing.
(42:28) And the way you would do this, right, is you would take a hand, you can lock your armpit like literally and and even if you don't need the armpit, you can just take block your left nostril and you breathe in and out through the right nostril. And what this does, it activates the sun side of your body, the solar side of your body, activates the liver.
(42:48) So, now your digestion is much more ready. So, you are sitting down, your right fire is active, your legs are crossed. Before you eat, you want to kind of at least what I say measure your plate, which doesn't mean the quantities, but you want to really look at it, scan what you're eating. Again, that's going to start enhancing your digestive enzymes.
(43:07) We think that intervention always has to be consumption of something. It does not have to be consumption of something. When if you even in our right nostril, if I tell you to imagine lemon juice, right? Somebody is like just squeezing out a lemon in front of your eyes. Even the imagination can make you salivate. If you think about it hard enough.
(43:25) So, which means that even our mind thinking starts digestive response in our body. Saliva is the first digestive response. So, you want to look at your plate, you want to look at all the colors, the smells and just think about what you're eating. And then right before you eat, one thing if you still want enhancement, you take ginger strips, right? Little julienne ginger, really thin narrow strips, fresh ginger.
(43:50) Soak it in lemon or lime juice with a little bit of salt. That can be kept there for about 30-40 minutes. So, when you're prepping your lunch, that's the time to make this. Right before you eating, you can take one or two of the ginger strips. You can place it on your tongue. Just like suck it.
(44:06) If you've ever been to a din tai fung going anywhere in the world, they actually give you something like that. And that again really activates the digestive fire. You know, there is a glucose goddess, uh, a very famous nutritionist she's a biochemist and she talks about how can you break down sugars better in your body? And she talks about starting your foods you starting your meals with a fermented food.
(44:29) And she talks about apple cider vinegar which I think personally is too pungent. But you don't have to go all the way. If you look at every tradition we had some sort of a pickle we started with. This is it. This little fermented ginger 30 minutes soaked in lemon juice with little bit of salt is the same thing.
(44:45) You activate your system so much that whenever you whatever you eat when you eat next will be broken down in a much more efficient fashion. I know exactly what you're talking about. I don't know what it's called. Huh? But I've seen it on my dining table my whole life. It's orange. So I think it's also soaked in turmeric.
(45:04) Yeah, some people soak uh soak it in turmeric as well. That is absolutely right. >> my whole life and this is the first time I'm understanding why it's been there. And I've lived in a joint family my whole life. So my grandparents and my grandfather was really passionate about food. So he always had like lots of pickles and you know, he was just Wow.
(45:22) >> that, right? Like how much of this is already brought into our lives but like >> Exactly. It's already been there and we just don't know and understand the why of it which I think is so fascinating. Super super fascinating. >> it. And after post meal something that everybody should do is chew on roasted fennel seeds, especially after your lunch.
(45:42) What does good sleep look like in Ayurveda? Yeah. So sleep is such an important pillar, right? There are three things that nourish us. Food, sleep, and then there is restraint of how you use your reproductive juices. These are the three things ahara, nidra, brahmacharya. Okay. Everything else you do on this planet, you're depleting.
(46:05) You're basically it's it's a matter of depreciation. So, you need refueling as well if you're driving your car. These are the three things. So, sleep is as important as food. Now, one of the first things is when do you sleep? Look, the ideal window to sleep for most people in most parts of the world is 10:00 p.m.
(46:25) You want to sleep by 10:00 p.m. as much as you can. But if you can't, then make it 11:00. And bring it as close to that 10:00 p.m. mark. I tell people don't do it overnight. If you've been sleeping at 2:00 a.m., gradually move it to 1:30, 1:00, 12:30, and then eventually be as close to 10:00.
(46:40) Because what happens between 10:00 and 2:00? Modern science has come to this same point now of understanding this 10:00 to 2:00 window. But if you look at the ancient Ayurvedic Ayurvedic texts, they've been talking about this since 5,000 years. Between 10:00 and 2:00, what we call the pitta time of night, which means it's the time that your body undergoes an internal metabolic repair.
(47:03) So, you're sleeping and your body is healing. You're sleeping and it's like your body has gone to the doctors and the therapists and come back. And like when you wake up, you are this renewed person. But the caveat is that this happens only in the window between 10:00 and 2:00 Mhm. for most people. And most people, right? You will realize uh Masoom that sometimes people wake up.
(47:24) People will tell you this that they wake up around 1:30, 2:00. They want to urinate or they wake up in a sweat or they suddenly are feeling hot. That's a signal that your body has kind of completed that metabolic repair. Now, it doesn't happen with everybody, but usually people with active uh bladders and active livers, that can happen.
(47:42) So, that's the usually a signal if that's happening that your body has done that first round of metabolic repair. But you want that to be very, very effective. So, the timing matters. Um the environment matters. So, the environment means what are the what is how should your room look like? 100% dark. We know that today.
(48:01) Also, what we call you want to bring in a guru element, a heavy element. So, the heavier the blanket, the better it is. The cooler the room, the better it is. So, while I have that is about everything warm and moist, the one time you bring in cool is when you're sleeping. Keep the room cool. And keep a blanket heavy.
(48:19) So, it could be open windows, fan, and if at all a necessary evil for some people, air conditioning. Every woman is shaking hearing because every woman I know freezes because of their married woman, because of their husbands always just keeping it too cold. I'd say wear an extra layer. Wear socks. And we also talk about how to prevent heat loss and why that happens to women.
(48:40) And then So, these are the things. And then if you need more, I would say there's one practice which I highly recommend is putting massaging your feet with oil at night or with ghee and wearing socks. And that the minute you oil up your feet, there's a certain marma that in Ayurveda we call it the talu hriday marma.
(49:01) It's a very important energy point. And in traditional Chinese medicine is also that same point is very important. That's where all your nerves end. That kind of like rests your heart. It enhances the flow of energy through your body. So, you massage there, so your nervous system starts to ground. You wear socks. And now, wearing socks, you're going to firstly prevent heat loss.
(49:24) Wear loose socks. You don't want your toes to be crunched up. And you're going to prevent heat loss and you're going to sleep much, much better. So, it's very simple, a very simple practices. But again, like I like to like to layer everything. So, I tell people if you need more, before you sleep, put your legs up against the bed wall uh in viparita karani, which means you bring your body to the edge of the bed and you rest your legs straight up against the wall.
(49:49) That lowers your blood pressure, regulates, down regulates your nervous system. And then again you can sleep deeper. It instantly lowers your resting heart rate. Mhm. So, your heart rate is much lower. And then you can rest deeply. And these are very simple ideas to sleep better and sleep deeper. Women do need more sleep than men.
(50:09) Um our bodies are more fluid. And night time is the only time our fluids are replenished in our body. Mhm. So, if we wake up earlier, um we remain dry. And I always say drying is dying. You spoke about Brahmacharya. Yeah, Brahmacharya. What is that? So, Brahmacharya, right? So, again, I it kind of links exactly just to what I really said last, which is drying is dying, right? So, as human beings, when you're kids and you have little children, you see they get sick all the time. But our bodies are very fluid.
(50:42) It's like this whole fluid manufacturing system. Because we're growing cells so quickly, and every cell is 80% water. And so, our bodies are very fluid. When we are adolescents, our bodies warm and moist, fluid and hot, ready to reproduce. For women, I always say we start out as grapes in adolescence. By the time we are postmenopausal, we're raisins.
(51:07) Right? But what what has that been? It's been a loss of essential fluids. We start wrinkling, we start crinkling our discs in our spine. So, we start losing water. Mhm. So, basically, what is the preservation of your longevity of your health? It's the preservation of fluids. Right? The concept of Brahmacharya, every time you lose reproductive fluids, and this is more for men than for women.
(51:33) So, we're preserving fluids. To preserve longevity, to preserve youth, you're preserving fluids. Right? Everywhere in the universe as well, like when it's autumn or fall, leaves will dry and shrivel up. So, drying is a natural process before dying. And that which of course means the opposite is building your fluids and retaining your fluids.
(51:52) So, brahmacharya is the act of preserving your reproductive fluids especially for a man. So, the more time a man ejaculates and loses his fluids. And this is what that's why yogis were brahmacharis. And the more your energy is going downwards, the less spiritual energy rises. And also you really really deplete your body.
(52:19) So, the idea for a man is to have some restraint in the amount of intercourse he has or how much sexual activity so he can preserve those fluids, preserve his resilience, and also create a base for a spiritual practice and his spiritual energy to rise upwards rather than to travel downwards with his fluids.
(52:41) And what does this mean for women? For women it is just the idea again of preserving our fluids, which means that when we become hot and dry as we spoke about earlier on the podcast, right? When we're in go go go mode and we are eating drier foods and we are living a drier and hot lifestyle through staying up through excessive working, excessive working out, we're also losing our fluids.
(53:06) We don't lose our fluids the same way as men lose our their fluids. Also back in the day before contraception women had more children. So, when we had more children, each time you have a child you become this fluid producing factory again. Amniotic fluid, breast milk. Yes. And that's how we had delayed menopause, you stop ovulating, you kind of extend that period for you.
(53:29) With less children, we kind of hit menopause a little bit earlier because we're running out of our eggs quickly, we're less fluid. So, it just means it's a reminder to say, "How many ways are you drying yourself? And how are you going to oil your body, eat nourishing foods, eat good fats, live according to the clock of the universe to keep refueling your body. Okay.
(53:50) Which actually also brings me to Ayurveda and what it speaks about fertility. Mhm. Mhm. I'd love to talk about that a bit. Fertility is increasingly becoming one of the most talked about women's health issues. >> Yeah. Um so I'd love to hear from you, you know, what are I know that in Ayurveda it fertility is a reflection of ojas.
(54:14) What does that mean? And Yeah. Oh, I love that question. So again, ojas and tejas are two concepts in Ayurveda. Ojas is moon energy. It's what lubricates your body. Tejas is what fires your body. You want both because you want to be stimulated and you still want rest. The center point again of tejas and ojas is warm and moist.
(54:36) Tejas is the sun, ojas is the moon energy. And again, what happens is as women, like I said, right? We basically we've become very dry. Now, I want you to think of Let's assume if I said here, you know, I presented you with a home and with a little piece of land. And the land that you see outside is dry, it's parched. You think you can grow something on that land? No, right? Because it's not it's not fertile.
(55:05) The whole idea of fertile means is it moist? Does it have the right sunlight? And when we're living this life where we've become like deserts, we become so hot and dry inside. Women, we are have a very go go go lifestyle. We are go go go in our minds. We're eating foods again which are hot and dry. We're over caffeinating. And that becomes the first one of the first lines of why fertility one of the first reasons for why fertility becomes an issue for some women.
(55:38) So when I work with women, I usually bring them back to this lifestyle which starts infusing warm and moist where they slow down. They slow down in their minds, they slow down in their bodies. Very often, their bodies feel safe and they will conceive. One of the other reasons my assume is also uh our hormonal clocks have gone completely off because we've gone off rhythm in every other clock of our body.
(56:00) So, when we're waking up, when we're sleeping. You know, I say often that imagine if the earth stopped rotating or rotating for just a minute. It's going to feel wrong. There's going to be great havoc. Or if there is a snow in spring time. I live in New York. We call that like, "Oh my god, there's season change happening.
(56:21) " Similarly, when we eat at wrong times, when we stay up regularly at a wrong time, what we're creating in our body is we're shifting our bodies' internal rhythms. Our hormones are also part of our rhythmic infrastructure. So, when people who have too many late nights or you're eating dinners at a very wrong time, that also starts confusing our hormones.
(56:43) As well as increased protein consumption, this excessive obsession of protein in the most unnatural forms. Protein is a very drying substance. It's meant It's meant for hard muscle as well, right? Muscle is drier than fat. Muscle is drier than some of our reproductive fluids. So, then women really really dry out.
(57:03) So, I tell people not to work out excessively, not to overdo their protein. Eat whatever protein you want in a traditional manner. Whatever traditional recipes there are, which are always cooked, spiced, fermented, that's how you eat your protein. But when you eat your protein in a powdered form, as an isolate protein, mhm, that can really really affect your body and over a period of time your fertility. Really. Mhm. Mhm.
(57:27) Protein and your testosterone levels are also very very linked. So, when you have a high protein firstly, that is affecting the microbiome of your gut. That is messing with your hormones. Has the potential, rather, to mess with your hormones. And as a result, lead to PCOS, PCOD, and then eventually infertility.
(57:49) But if you eat protein in healthy amounts, and you'll still meet your requirements, trust me. But if you eat them in ways that they were eaten traditionally, whether you're eating a sattu in spring, you're having your lentils or your dal, or you're making your sesame ladoos for the winter. When you eat it like that, you're still getting enough protein, but you're eating it in a way that your body can break down.
(58:16) So, you're trying to say that things like protein powder, artificial protein, things like that is >> Isolated proteins, yeah. is avoidable. Avoidable. Protein pasta, protein powders, where you just isolate the protein. Mhm. Protein is very heavy, and it needs it needs to be broken down into these several amino acids for your body to be able to use it effectively.
(58:35) The process, the journey from taking this protein to making it usable in my body without creating havoc, without messing my microbiome, is a really long journey. But we had hacked it. Ancient cultures had hacked it. Even if you look at East Asian cultures, I always look at traditional Chinese medicine, they fermented their tofu.
(58:55) [snorts] They fermented miso. So, they had fermented foods. Again, they brought in the warm and moist. They made their proteins easier to digest. >> Mhm. Can you share a food-based Ayurvedic remedy for fertility? The truth is that fertility has to do with many, many factors when they all come together. For example, if I give you a piece of land and I say it has perfect irrigation, but no sunlight, Mhm.
(59:20) you're not growing anything in it. If I give you a piece of land that says it has perfect irrigation and perfect sunlight, but I ask you to sow your seeds in the winter and the harvest and it's this is the crop that doesn't harvest that way. Mhm. It's not happening. If you're sowing the seed in the right time, but you're not tending to the seed, it's not it's not reaping into a sapling.
(59:40) So, fertility has to do with several factors and when they all come to play at the same time. The one thing though I tell people and I tell women this, that your body wants life. Life wants life. It's hungry for life. And to be fertile, you don't have to do much. You don't. Right? The western media, especially from where I come from, has made you believe that default for everybody is low fertility.
(1:00:05) That's not true. If you are If you have a proper life cadence, which means you're not really always on the go. You're sleeping well. You're using some sort of body oiling, hair oiling, some practice. You're consuming nourishing foods. You're doing a bigger lunch and a lighter dinner. There's no chance. And you're at a reasonable age. Mhm.
(1:00:27) Our our eggs do slow down after 35 and the number of eggs deplete more than slowing down. So, there is no reason for you to not be able to conceive very, very effectively and easily. Amazing. Yeah. And that's that's great to hear as well, to be really honest. Okay, so Nidhi, I'm now going to bring you to the last segment of our conversation, which is I want to talk to you about some of the most famous and most used wellness trends and used and least ones all over the world.
(1:00:59) And I'd love to hear your perspective from an Ayurvedic lens to these. >> Mhm. What is your take on intermittent fasting? And I have to say it's something that I do and believe in and I've seen phenomenal results with it. But I'd love to hear what you feel about it from an Ayurvedic perspective. >> Yeah.
(1:01:16) And it's really funny that it's become a trend now because 100 years ago that's how human beings lived. When we did not We did not have electricity, we did not sit and eat big dinners. We naturally stopped eating during sunset. Mhm. And then we would continue to we would start eating again after sunrise. So, we had this intermittent fasting period, which is really how our body clocks are designed.
(1:01:37) I'm not a big stickler for like 12 hours, 16 hours. I think uh it depends from person to person and where you're living in the world. In winters, you'll naturally have a larger window between sunset and sunrise. And in the winters I tell people to still continue to eat till about 6:00 anyways, but you'll eat more fatty foods and you can have a little bit of a longer window.
(1:01:58) But yeah, it is absolutely the way that human beings are designed to live. The only thing I say is do not fast during the daytime. You want to eat you want to train your agni for lunch. It is important to give your food during lunch. That's what's going to keep your digestive system going in the long term consistently. So, what is your take on skipping breakfast? Because that's a huge part of intermittent fasting as we know it.
(1:02:22) So, I think it can affect women over a period of time. We do need some replenishment. I tell people if you cannot do anything at all, just do a hot cup of spiced milk. But you want to bring that. You want to lower your cortisol in the morning because you don't want you to feel that hey, look I'm doing my intermittent fasting and I feel my digestion is top game or even my weight loss is top game, but at the same time my nervous system is is is out of whack.
(1:02:48) Breakfast is important. A little something is important to start fueling that morning fire. Even if it's a cup of milk. The one thing you absolutely don't want to do in the morning is black coffee, which a lot of people use to extend their window because what black coffee does, it's a nuclear blast in your system.
(1:03:05) It's the most hot and dry thing. Goes into your system, stimulates your nervous system, and extinguishes your fire after igniting it for a quick few seconds. And no wonder people don't feel hungry. Mhm. So, it's very dehydrating to the system. So, I said, "Don't do black coffee in the morning." And you want to look at long-term results, and this is going to give you more effective long-term results having a small warm breakfast, eating a big lunch, a supper, and you'll get better results.
(1:03:35) You talk about milk very often, but globally, the entire health industry is very anti-milk. Yeah. Yeah. But Ayurveda loves milk. Yeah, and I don't want to just say it like that as well. I'll tell you why, right? Look, the Indian cow was a very different cow from the cow in the West. It's a cow with a hump, a skinny cow.
(1:03:58) We have naturally A2 milk-giving cows. And it is a very different type of milk compared to what is available globally. At the same time, milk in our country and traditionally is always consumed warm. In certain seasons, it's it's consumed spiced. So, we knew how to do milk right. Has the milk industry been completely corrupted? Has the milk been adulterated today? I fully agree it has been.
(1:04:22) Are there people who are genuinely lactose intolerant? I think there absolutely are people who are genuinely lactose intolerant. So, my ask is that if milk works for you, something you grew up drinking, and you can continue to drink warm or hot and spiced, and you get the right type of milk, Mhm. give it a shot. It's a very nourishing food.
(1:04:41) It's the food that we grew up on from 0 to 6 months. A baby learns how to [snorts] make cells like the body knows how to build tissue just through the consumption of a mammal's milk. The mother is the mammal. Right? And all of Ayurveda is designed on this principle called like will support like, samanya vishesha siddhanta, which means what in the human body can I use, what in the human body needs to be supported, and what from the universe can I use to support it.
(1:05:11) So, we are not restricted to saying, "Oh, because you know, some people will say animals don't drink milk. Why do human beings drink milk?" Guess what? Animals don't walk on two feet. Animals don't sit on computers. Animals don't cook their food. This is divine by design. Human beings are more We're intellectual species.
(1:05:28) We've changed the way we operate. We're different from animals. We're civilized That's why we we created civilization. And in that, milk is a consumable food substance in Ayurveda. Mhm, interesting. What is your take on the air fryer? Absolutely not. There are certain foods that were meant to be fried, of course, fried with fresh ghee and not using the same oil or ghee again and again and again, ideally ghee.
(1:05:59) But, there are certain foods like potatoes, for example, right? In every tradition, for example, potatoes are either fried, creamed, buttered, they loaded with ghee, mashed, because they are so heavy and dense. So, what frying does, it goes to the depth of that substance that you're frying, and it starts awakening the prana in a very uniform manner in that food substance.
(1:06:22) Now, I'm not saying that frying doesn't make your foods heavy. To eat fried food, you need a good agni. You want to eat fried occasionally, sparingly, and for lunchtime only. But, when you take a food that is traditionally meant to be fried, and you put it in the air fryer, and you dehydrate it, you're actually doing the opposite.
(1:06:39) You're actually making that food drier. And making it drier means eventually it's going to start clogging your channels, and it's going to be harder for your body to digest. Mhm, low caloric content, but really weakening your digestive system over a period of time. So, you're almost saying that oiling and fried food is not so bad for your body.
(1:07:04) If you want to eat it, eat it fried, is what I'll say. So, I love my samosas. I will eat my samosas, not every day, but every time I go back to India, I will eat samosas and I will eat it for lunch and I will eat it fried because that's the only way potatoes can be digested or or potatoes can be mashed and really really cooked well with lots of spices and a good fat.
(1:07:23) So, you want to eat foods the way [snorts] that they were eaten traditionally because they were very very well thought out. And so, certain foods are meant to be fried. Otherwise, they're going to slow down your digestion and while the caloric content of that particular food will be lower, in a over a period of time, your body is going to have a hard time breaking down even easier foods.
(1:07:45) Now, this is the last one that I want to ask you is based on everything we've spoken about, right? How does Ayurveda feel about salads? Yeah. >> Because in the world that we're living today, there is a very common practice to have a salad for lunch and you feel like this is great as this amazing meal. I've had a really healthy lunch.
(1:08:04) But is that aligning with Ayurveda? So, a salad, the way we look at a salad today is anything but warm and moist, right? And none of the ancient traditions had just a salad for lunch. I'll tell you what raw foods do. We are very much careful about raw foods in Ayurveda. And when you consume raw foods, your body has to make a longer journey to start breaking them down.
(1:08:31) Your body has to work hard to release what we call prana. Cooking a food releases its prana, activates its life in it. Raw foods have prana, but they're locked the prana is locked inside the food. It's not opened up, right? So, I want to give you an example, right? If you put a raw broccoli on your counter top and you forget about it for 3 days.
(1:08:54) You're going to come back, it's going to be a little bit decayed, it's going to be a little bit shriveled up. If you put cooked broccoli on your counter top, you come back three days later, it's going to be rotten. It's going to be a mess. Which means that the life force in it is so active. It's very It's very active. It's very alive.
(1:09:14) It's very rapid. And that's what you want your foods to be. You want the life force to be full, active, rapid, and released. Raw foods, the prana has not yet been released, and you have to put in the work. Now, if you want to eat salads, you want to eat it with something warm and moist. That's certain traditions, for example, in Italy or in Greece, always with something that is warm, which is a good olive oil, a good fat.
(1:09:39) And and uh that's both of warm and moist, but also something warming like lemon juice or vinegar. And spice it up well. And a salad is always on the side, not as your main meal. Also, if you look simple Google search, anybody can do, and they'll they'll realize if you type in, "When was fire invented?" and what did that do to human beings, you'll see that we evolved into this species.
(1:10:06) And it's a Western uh researcher who's done this work. He had nothing to do with Ayurveda. We evolved into human beings after we started using fire to cook our foods. Because our gut became smaller, our brains became bigger, our microbiome changed. We developed an intellect, all after we started cooking our foods.
(1:10:28) Why would you want to go back to being primitive and eating almost only raw foods all the time? Very interesting, and I think that's an absolutely incredible finish line to this conversation today. So much to think about, and I love how unique your perspectives were. Definitely um loads to learn here, and thank you so much Nidhi for being here, sharing all the incredible knowledge that you have today with me, with my community, and really, really appreciate it.
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