WHY IS IMMUNITY-BUILDING CRITICAL DURING THE MONSOON?

MAINTAINING DIGESTIVE HEALTH

The gut plays a crucial role in protecting and maintaining your body’s health and immunity. That’s why it is imperative to keep your gut healthy and ensure proper functioning of your digestive system. During the monsoon, the humidity in the air causes mand agni (weakened digestive fire), making your digestion and metabolism sluggish. You may experience a loss of appetite. Furthermore, the cravings for fried, heavy and unhealthy food makes the case even worse; giving rise to gastro-intestinal problems. The following changes are suggested for a healthy gut during the monsoon:

Even though a nap after lunch sounds tempting, try not to give in to these urges during the day.

What Does Ayurveda Say?

A daytime nap lowers your body’s temperature, leading to kapha vitiation and formation of aam (toxins). This further slows down your metabolism and hampers digestion. You may correlate this with heaviness and stiffness in the body and a feeling of lethargy after you wake up from an afternoon nap.

Monsoon-specific vegetables like lauki (bottle gourd), karela (bitter gourd), tinda (Indian squash) and parwal (pointed gourd), and fruits like cherries, jamun, litchi and pomegranate are loaded with fibre, rich in immunity-boosting nutrients, and great for the digestive system.

What Does Ayurveda Say?

Nature provides exactly what our body needs to adapt to the current season and environment. Seasonal produce, which is grown locally, harvested at its peak and delivered fresh, retains its full nutrient content and a richer flavour profile. These fruits and vegetables are also highly digestible and are best suited for increasing your immunity.

Opt for light whole grains like barley, rice or wheat in your meals.

What Does Ayurveda Say?

Since the later part of the evening is a kapha-dominated period or kapha kaal, consume foods that will help balance kapha and not aggravate it. Most grains or cereals prominently produce sugars after digestion and leave you feeling sluggish, which is why you should eat only one of the above options of carbohydrates at dinner time

Consume lentils and green gram (moong) daily as they are a high protein source.

What Does Ayurveda Say?

Plant-based proteins are bioavailable and do not overload your digestive system. For dinner, avoid large quantities of meats or non-vegetarian foods, as they’re heavier to digest.

Wash veggies thoroughly, and consume them in boiled, steamed, cooked or sautéed preparations to ensure that any microorganisms present are killed.

What Does Ayurveda Say?

The presence of microorganisms in unwashed, unpeeled, raw vegetables can cause stomach infections. It’s better to steam or stir-fry carrots or beetroots, instead of eating them raw in a salad.

Even though green leafy vegetables and root vegetables are a good source of essential vitamins and minerals, they are heavy to digest and should be avoided during the monsoon.

What Does Ayurveda Say?

Leafy greens and root vegetables are grown in water-holding areas and thus exposed to a lot of microorganisms or contamination. These veggies also burden your weakened digestive fire, causing indigestion, bloating or an upset stomach.

For dinner, you can opt for warm soups or stews prepared from seasonal vegetables, pulses, sprouts or lean meats.

What Does Ayurveda Say?

Digestion takes place during 10 pm to 2 am which is the pitta kaal of the night. While you sleep, this process is slower as all organ systems are at rest. That is why your dinner should always be lighter than lunch. If you consume a heavy meal, it will lead to a disturbed sleep and improper digestion. Having a single bowl of soup can keep your stomach feeling full yet light throughout the night, and ensure less load on the digestive system.

During the monsoon, avoid foods that take a longer time to digest such as curds, basundi, shrikhanda, pizzas, burgers, and heavy, spicy non-vegetarian dishes.

What Does Ayurveda Say?

Replace curds with buttermilk, which is a more digestible format. Go for clear soups and stews of boiled vegetables or soft non-vegetarian foods instead of heavy-to-digest spicy gravies and curries.

Since our digestive strength is weak during the monsoon, it’s important to eat freshly prepared, hot meals.

What Does Ayurveda Say?

Freshly cooked meals have a higher nutritive value and nourish the body tissues, leading to better immunity and strength. On the other hand, stale food can have a larger presence of microorganisms if not stored properly. This can cause stomach disturbances or diarrhoea. Especially avoid stale heavy-to-digest foods like milk or milk products including basundi, paneer and cream or fondant-based cakes, non-vegetarian foods, eggs, mushrooms, and soya-bean.

Even though it might make your food bland, limit the addition of green chillies, red chillies, and chilli powder to your meals.

What Does Ayurveda Say?

Vata dosha is aggravated by excess of katu rasa (spicy), tikta rasa (bitter) and kashaya rasa (astringent). Spicy foods can irritate your stomach lining and lead to indigestion, which is why you should reduce their intake. Add fresh ginger/sunthi powder or black pepper instead to increase the palatability as well as digestibility of food.

Add the goodness of pure cow’s ghee in your daily diet. It not only adds an amazing taste to food but also aids in digestion and improves gut health.

What Does Ayurveda Say?

Pure ghee enhances the digestive fire, settles vata which is provoked in the monsoon, and lubricates and nourishes body tissues and organ systems, thus providing strength and immunity.

Eat a small piece of ginger with rock salt before each meal as this helps improve digestion.

What Does Ayurveda Say?

Ginger with rock salt improves your sense of taste, stimulates the secretion of digestive juices, strengthens your digestive fire, prevents indigestion, and pacifies vata.

It’s natural to crave hot, savoury, fried snacks like bhajiya, pakoras and papads during cold, rainy evenings. But instead of the deep-fried version, you can try baking, grilling or using an air-fryer to make these snacks healthy.

What Does Ayurveda Say?

Fatty, oily snacks lower your digestive fire, leading to vata aggravation and indigestion. Use ghee instead of oil whenever possible, as food fried in ghee is less greasy, easier to digest and also helps lower cholesterol.

It’s advisable to filter and boil tap-water as the water available in reservoirs during monsoon is comparatively heavier to digest and there’s also a risk of microorganisms.

What Does Ayurveda Say?

The boiling process (Agni sanskar) kills microorganisms that are known to attack your digestive system and also makes water lighter which helps enhance digestive fire.

During colder seasons, you may not drink as much water as your thirst decreases. However, it’s important to keep yourself hydrated throughout the day.

What Does Ayurveda Say?

Vata is aggravated in the monsoon, and its dry nature absorbs moisture from your body tissues. Your decreased thirst and reduced intake of water can lead to low urine output, irritability or fatigue. That’s why you need to stay hydrated with plenty of water and a liquid-based diet in the form of soups, stews or porridges to support your digestion process and metabolism. Drinking lukewarm water mixed with a little honey helps keep your throat lubricated and clear, and benefits your immunity.