Don’t eat too many vegetables
Q: Who do the texts say is healthy?
A: Those who eat healthy foods & eat in small quantities & avoid veggies.
Ayurveda recommends against eating too many vegetables. That is actually what is said in one of the respected ayurvedic commentary (aka tika). It seems crazy to us of course. It is entirely counter intuitive via our modern view of nutrition. What could the Reshis possibly been thinking when they said this?
The explanation, as taught by very learned teachers, includes several considerations:
First on a practical level what is being indicated here is just that you don’t prioritize veggies over other foods. Meals should be composed first of grain & protein (meat or beans or dairy) with veggies there for flavor & texture. But why?
When deciding what foods to eat regularly the most important thing is digestibility or bio-availability. This is almost diametrically opposed the the modern science perspective that is based on chemical (vitamin, mineral) density. There are many things with lots of vitamins & minerals in them that we do not eat. Like trees & rocks. Obvioously despite the great nourishment that ‘might’ be extracted from a tree or rock we do not eat them because they are not digestible. If we want to preserve the longevity of our bodies we can’t ask them to do things that they are not capable of. Asking our body to digest the indigestible will not have a good long term effect. This is why when you see an Ayurveda practitioner they will often ask you to stick to simple digestible foods & avoid nutritional supplements-- at least until it is clear what you are able to digest. Most veggies are hard to digest. Green leafy veggies are great food for cows with their 4 stomachs. But they have components which human digestive tracts can’t process despite their nutrient density . Eating a lot of them will bog down the digestion (among other things). Eating them cooked with good oils and spices will make them more easily assimilable. Here is how to do it:: Haak Kashmiri Collard Greens.
Like increases like. If our main intention is to strengthen & preserve our bodies so that we can live comfortably a long time then we are working to embody the quality of sthira or stability. Things that have sthira have long lives, take a long time to mature, last a long time & create these qualities when consumed. Foods with ample sthira quality include grains, beans, meats, ghee. Most vegetables mature quickly & decompose faster. Within any category of food the items that take longer to mature are better for the body than those that mature quickly, for instance rice that grows in 60 days is better than that which matures in 30 days. Beef is better than veal. Veggies like sweet potatoes, beets, squash are preferable to leafy greens and sprouts.
Vegetables that support a long healthy life:
Squash & gourds, both summer & winter variety. Look for Opo, snake gourd, tinda, winter melon in Indian or other Asian markets
Okra & eggplant are especially good for calming Vata.
Cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli (cook with ginger, mint, coriander, cumin, hing, onion etc to make more digestible.)
Daikon radish -- cooked
Yam-- especially one called Surasa or elephant foot yam-- tastes like a potato but even starchier.
There are specific veggies which are known to cause special issues when consumed by humans:
Tomatoes: Ubiquitous & troublesome, they have the quality of ‘abhishandhi’, which means they increase doshas & secretions & villainously trap them in the body. This causes blockages. The blockages then damage ‘plasma’, ‘blood‘ & ‘marrow’ tissues leading to all sorts of things including swelling, skin problems & joint pain.
Potatoes: They are guru / heavy and kshay / astringent; they create blockages in the gut that can cause bloating, constipation, ‘beer gut’ type of protruding abdomen, heartburn, restricted breathing, heart problems & other problems that arise from the proper flow of things getting blocked up.
Green Leafy veggies: Krumi (or parasites, candida, amoeba, lice, molds, fungi & lots of other mysterious symptoms) are related to eating an excess amount of these. It is very commonly seen here in the US where so many people try to live on salads & green drinks. Cooked greens are also culprits but at least are easy to digest.
Mushrooms: India is one of those places where mushrooms are considered suspicious. Mostly because they live on dead stuff. They are thought to have a tamasic or dark & lethargic effect on the body & mind. They increase all the doshas; vata pitta kapha. This is bad.
Sprouts (sprouted grain, nuts, beans etc) are foods to keep to a minimum. Partially because babies are not nutritious because they lack the quality of sthira or stability. But also because they are neither seed nor plant, the body doesn’t know what to do with them. Their use is cnsidered responsible for eye problems & quickly aging tissues.