Step 1: Understand the importance of maintaining the cleanliness of the body and the digestive tract as a whole. Recognize that physical health, and to a large extent psychological and even spiritual health, depend on how our digestion works. In Ayurveda, it is said: «It doesn’t matter how much and what you eat, what matters is how much you can digest and metabolize». This, in turn, depends on the digestive fire.
Step 2: You need to change your eating habits and lifestyle as a whole. Especially if you have a coating on the back of your tongue in the morning, and even worse, if it persists throughout the day, if your stool sinks (often indicating toxins), emits a foul odor, and you have bad breath, and you can’t easily empty your bowels in the morning, and ideally in the evening too.
The following tips will help you either completely or 90% solve digestive problems, thus becoming healthy and attractive.
1. Eat as little dry, drying food as possible: chips, salty snacks, fried nuts, dry cereals (muesli, various flakes). It is highly desirable to completely exclude products containing various synthetic chemical additives.
2. In the morning, after you wake up and brush your teeth, drink about a liter of clean water (warm or room temperature) within 15-25 minutes, and usually within an hour, your bowels will empty.
Ayurveda also strongly recommends drinking at least a glass of clean water after waking up. And throughout the day – no less than two liters of clean water. But it is important to remember that the water should be room temperature or even warmer. And refrain from drinking 40 minutes before and after meals.
The habit of drinking coffee or black tea can lead to constipation, as these drinks have a drying effect. We wrote in detail about water and maintaining water balance in the first issue of our magazine.
3. In general, the main cause of chronic constipation is considered to be a lack of fluids in the body, which leads to drying of the large intestine.
4. It is important to eat as much fiber-rich food as possible: this includes vegetables and fruits. But please note that if you eat a lot of green leaves, fresh cabbage, onions, oranges, especially during the cold periods of the year, it increases the Vata dosha (air element) in the body. This, in turn, contributes to bloating, increased gas production, and constipation. Therefore, especially in the winter period, it is recommended to dress food with natural vegetable oils (olive, sunflower, etc.), slightly stew vegetables, and avoid eating vegetables or fruits cold.
Also, dairy products, whole grains, bran, and porridge increase the volume of intestinal contents. Food should be oily; sesame or olive oils are particularly useful. Fruit juices are beneficial: plum, grape, cherry.
Modern dieticians say that fiber is found in bran, cereals, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds.
WHERE IS FIBER NOT FOUND?
These products simply block and poison the digestive tract: meat, fats, sugar (white refined), and industrially processed foods (dry concentrates and canned goods, biscuits, premium bread, various sweets), and premium flour.
General information about fiber
One of the most important components of nutrition, which can increase lifespan and promote health, is dietary fiber (fiber itself, pectins, etc.). Fiber is a relatively rigid substance that makes up the outer layer of plant cells. Fiber has the property of absorbing harmful substances.
Since fiber itself is not digested and is excreted from the body, it also carries away a significant portion of any «dirt.» Otherwise, these waste products would be absorbed into the blood and poison the body.
Our intestines can contain many different harmful substances. They can enter with food or form during digestion. In addition, our gallbladder releases a certain amount of bile into the intestine, which itself contains cholesterol.
Thus, fiber acts as a kind of cleaner for our intestines. Additionally, fiber stimulates digestion. Increased consumption of plant-based foods helps to remove toxins and cholesterol from the intestines.
Eat more foods containing fiber and drink more water to facilitate the passage of food through the digestive tract. By the way, for those who want to lose weight, consuming fiber allows them to do so safely and effectively. The mechanism of weight loss lies in the fact that fiber helps normalize metabolism and reduces appetite.
5. Do not store and especially do not consume products made from white refined flour, especially with white sugar, such as various hamburgers or pizzas, especially meat ones.
Minimize the consumption of meat products (completely exclude pork and beef), especially with potatoes and white bread, as well as the consumption of refined sugar.
Minimize consumption of meat products (especially pork and beef, completely eliminate them), especially when combined with potatoes and white bread, as well as reduce consumption of refined sugar. Remember that food from McDonald’s and other American fast-food chains seems to be specifically designed to clog the intestines, cause excessive weight gain, disrupt digestion, and harm overall health.
All these hamburgers, pizzas, chips, etc., washed down with cold soda on the go, can turn you into an invalid in 2-3 weeks. True, now they are adding a little greens under criticism. But these genetically modified and chemically pumped tomatoes, cucumbers, greens, etc., not even the hungriest worm will touch.
White bread made from refined flour with lots of chemical additives (or even without them) brings nothing beneficial to the body. And if you mix it with melted cheese, meat (loaded with chemicals), it becomes a heavy, harmful mass that the body cannot digest. Fast food, which is also junk food, cannot bring you anything good.
6. Many yoga exercises (asanas) increase the digestive fire and improve digestion.
Also, those who engage in a lot of physical labor, physical exercises, especially long-distance running, cycling, swimming, etc., are said to be «able to digest stones.»
7. It is highly desirable to cleanse your body 1-2 times a year, at least the intestines and preferably the liver. This can be done through enemas, juice therapy, etc., there are many books written about this — you can choose the cleansing method that suits you best.
8. Fasting once a week or, even more beneficially, twice a month for 11 lunar days — Ekadashi.
9. Do not touch food from the microwave. This food is dead from all points of view. Look it up – there is a lot of information published on this topic now.
10. One of the most difficult rules – do not overeat, leave the table with a slight feeling of hunger.
11. It is important not only what you eat, but how, and even with whom, and in what mood. You need to chew food 32 times before swallowing it.
«Solid food should be drunk, and liquid food should be chewed,» asserts Ayurveda.
Eat in a calm state; pleasant, quiet, calm music can play, but not heavy rock or TV blaring. After eating, you should sit quietly for 5-10 minutes, not jump up and rush off somewhere. If you eat in company, the conversation should be pleasant and unhurried.
Do not eat with people who dislike you, with enemies. Just their gaze at your plate can turn the food into poison for you. In the East, people never ate with enemies, and even more so, not at their homes. Food should be consumed in a clean place, it should be pleasing to the eye and smell nice.
12. Fruits should be eaten in the morning, as they become toxic to the body after sunset. In one Ayurvedic clinic, they almost snatched an apple and an orange from my hands at 6 PM. The doctor, speaking poor Russian, said: «Fruits after sunset are poison.» It is also not recommended to eat fermented dairy products in the evening: yogurt, sour cream, cottage cheese. In general, any food after sunset is poorly digested and practically not assimilated. Therefore, try not to eat in the evening, or eat light food: stewed vegetables, buckwheat, you can have a few nuts.
13. Ayurveda claims that suppressing bodily urges is one of the main causes leading to illness. If a person has not emptied their bowels for some reason before 9 AM, then everything in the intestines starts to be absorbed into the blood, poisoning the body. This also applies to the skin. Therefore, if you have not showered before this time, all the toxins on the skin, which the body eliminated overnight, begin to be reabsorbed into the body, poisoning it.
14. Psychological factors can cause constipation and digestive problems: fear, anxiety, insomnia, depression, gloominess, overexcitation of the nervous system, etc., as well as smoking and prolonged TV viewing.
15. It is desirable to add the following spices to food: asafoetida, ginger (better to chew it fresh before meals), cardamom, fennel.
16. I highly recommend consuming the amazing Ayurvedic powder – Triphala (it includes three fruits from tropical trees: amalaki, haritaki, and bibhitaki). It is now available not only in India; I bought it in Moscow and Canada, and it is relatively inexpensive. It is one of the most beneficial natural supplements with no side effects. If you take it for 3-6 months, the body is thoroughly cleansed. I read that English scientists
conducted studies and found that if taken for more than three months, the cleansing occurs even at the cellular level.
17. Using many other types of laxatives – even in small courses – can lead to dependence on them and weakening of the colon tone, disruption of other organ functions, increase of Vata dosha (air element), as well as poor appetite, insomnia, diarrhea or persistent constipation, dizziness, weakness, anxiety, and increased heart rate. Therefore, they should be used only in extreme cases.
18. I recommend in case of constipation or just for its prevention to do the following 1-4 times during a two-week period twice a year: have your last meal at 6 PM, and at 8 PM mix 3-5 tablespoons of castor oil with a glass of milk or tomato juice and, as usual, with deep gratitude to the Almighty, drink this nectar for the body.
Castor oil cleanses the intestines very well (you will be convinced by morning), and the body does not get used to it. In my opinion, it is difficult to get used to castor oil in general, let alone become dependent on it.
In general, the big plus of all these cleanses is that it will be easy for you to give up harmful products because, being relatively clean, you will feel how much more contaminated you become compared to people who do not cleanse themselves.
19. Bathing in natural bodies of water has a very beneficial effect on the digestive tract and mind. Bathing in the sea is especially beneficial for the digestive fire and the entire digestive tract, while river bathing is beneficial for mental calmness and, consequently, the nervous system.
Keep in mind: ice cream is harmful… It practically doesn’t go well with anything. Ayurveda says it disrupts the balance of all three doshas (biological elements). If you are going to eat it, then do so in the summer. My wife sometimes makes it from whole milk, organic fruits, and cane sugar. It turns out very tasty… and even healthy.
All this may seem too complicated to you, but actually, only the first few months are difficult, then you get used to it and start to truly enjoy life and food.
Understand: billions are spent to accustom us to unnatural food, drinks, alcohol, and an incorrect lifestyle in general because enormous profits are made from this: tens, hundreds of billions.
Article from the magazine «Gratitude with Love» №4.
Dr. Rami Bleckt
