Winter is here. That means cozy blankets, socks, and hot chocolate. But along with it comes imbalances in our system. Your nutritional needs change with the season. Your body’s internal system needs to feel warm and your mind should be strong to keep calm against winter tantrums.
In ayurveda, the mind-body relation is given a lot of importance. People are described based on their mind-body type known as doshas. Vata, pitta, and kapha are the dominant doshas that are derived from the five elements. By catering to your specific dosha and creating a lifestyle around it, you can be happy and healthy.
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Kapha Type
Kapha represents the elements earth and water. People who are dominated by kapha dosha are mostly calm, easy-going, patient, and steady. On the physical front, they are strong in built, with good stamina, soft eyes, and have thick, dark hair. Their skin is soft, oily, and pale.
If you are dominated by the kapha dosha, here are the foods you need to eat during winter.
1. Focus On Pungent And Bitter Tastes
Kapha people need their food to be light, dry, and warm. Their diet should revolve around pungent, bitter, and astringent foods. Vegetables are a good source to satisfy these cravings. During winter, avoid raw vegetables and choose to eat cooked, less-oily food. You could have as many vegetables as you please.
Try to avoid heavy and watery vegetables like cucumbers during this season. Instead build your diet on bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, beets, leafy greens, radishes, white potatoes, mushrooms, artichokes, Brussels sprouts, eggplants, and asparagus. Make sure to add garlic, ginger, and onion to your dishes for heat. Soups and stews cooked out of these vegetables are good options to keep yourself warm and away from colds and coughs.
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2. Fruits You Can Eat
You could have fruits that are not very sweet and aren’t heavy. Apples, dry figs, peaches, pomegranates, apricots, pears, and cranberries are amazing choices. Dried fruits are good for kapha type. Eat the fruits individually. Avoid sour fruits like pineapples and cold fruits like bananas.
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3. Reduce Dairy Consumption
You would need to reduce dairy in your diet during winter. Dairy is heavy for kapha people. If you are finding it difficult, opt for low-fat milk or goat milk (this is lighter than cow milk). The best way to have your milk would be to boil it with spices like cloves, cardamom, and ginger. Masala chai can give you a good dose of comforting warmth and a boost of spices.
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4. Add Snacks To Your Diet
Snacking between meals is important because during winters, you would find yourself eating quantities larger than usual. This is due to a digestive fire that ignites during this season, making you crave for more food. Nuts like almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts, and pistachios make a good snack bowl. But avoid snacking in the night.
You could add flaxseeds and chia seeds to your snacks.
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5. Look For Kapha Pacifying Grains
When picking grains, look for light, dry, and rough. Quinoa, wild rice, amaranth, buckwheat, millet, polenta, rye, and wheat bran satisfies a kapha person. Keep in mind to have small-to-adequate portions of these grains. You could have them with vegetables and legumes. You would want to avoid flour, wheat, pastas, and white rice.
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6. Spice Up Your Life
The best part about spices is that everything balances well for kapha people. Add basil, cardamon, cayenne, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, fennel, fenugreek, oregano, paprika, and saffron to your dishes. Adding turmeric to your diet is one of the best health decisions. Turmeric milk nicknamed the “golden milk” is great to shield you from common colds and flu because turmeric has antimicrobial properties.
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