Reasoning for the Seasoning is to help you better understand other areas of digestion and food combinations. When digestion is overworked other systems in the body cannot maintain an even level either. A good example is when someone is in the stage of disease with diabetes. Western medicine address only the pancreas at this point, and eastern medicine addresses the spleen function. In later stages of diabetes, one may experience kidney problems, and eventually dialysis. Talk about taxing the heart and lungs! Not to mention weight gain, gland issues, etc. begin to settle into these systems at any point. Refer to http://www.babsbakery.com/intestines.html for a simplified, yet detailed understanding within Hildegard, Ayurvedic and Chinese systems. Karan will provide more articles, and simplify explanations, but in the meantime you may go to http://babsbakery.com/newsletter.html and email to be on an updated list for bakery reminders, and/or newsletter.

 

Food combinations are one of the most overlooked health issues on this planet.

This is one of the main reasons, excluding poisoning our water, air pollution, and Monsatos genetically modified foods, etc, for overworked and poor digestion. I just love it when someone tells me they have the best digestion. Then I ask them, have you ever been sick, and come to find out all the other major health issues they currently have or have had. Few people are blessed with good agni (digestive fire) that doesn’t require much balancing. Depending on your constitution, or elemental make-up, one will digest cooler foods and require less spices and herbs in a hotter nature- such as a pitta/fire constitution. Someone with a kapha/water type constitution will require hotter spices and herbs to digest properly. Only a strong agni can tolerate raw foods diet, and then not for a long time either. Tempering your raw foods is better for digestion for anyone, yet we can all tolerate some in the correct season and the correct type of raw food for the particular constitution. Even Hildegard talks about tempering raw foods, especially lettuce and how to eat your salad at lunch with spelt ‘berries’ (kernels).

 

 Food Combinations

Compatible foods are the key to digestion, while incompatible foods aggravate digestion.
Example of digestive combinations:

Spelt- sweet/warm/sweet
 **Hildegard regards spelt as eradicating black bile and is suited for digestion.

Oats- Sweet/cold/sweet A little heavy and hard to digest, especially with sugar and milk, will aggravate toxic blood conditions. ** Hildegard warns they are not to be consumed by the sick as they require good circulation for the digestive system. The mid temperatures/powers— goes cold in digestion. Thus, if you have a naturally weak digestion, this would not be as good to eat as spelt, as spelt is warm in digestion. Adding digestive spices, such as cinnamon and cardamom warms oats up and digests better.

Example of incompatible foods:

*Eggs & Cheese or meat & cheese. Two different proteins and the digestive system cannot prefer one over the other.

*Yogurt and other sour fruits (such as mango) in a smoothie. Sour combinations can damage a liver, as that is the taste for the liver and exceeding a taste is imbalances the organ, then damaging it and other channels and eventually other organs.

*Melons- eat them alone or leave them alone is a term used in the Ayurvedic books. They putrefy foods in digestion.

*Milk & bananas. Someone I know tried to prove this wrong and about day five they vomited quite profusely most of the morning. This person has a naturally good digestion too. I do not suggest trying to prove these systems wrong, as they can strongly disrupt many other issues. This person went on a special diet, including kitcthari and mostly spelt, to help balance digestion and then rekindle lost agni (digestive fire).

 

*Rekindling lost agni (digestive fire) can take years sometimes, depending on the imbalance. In Chinese medicine it is raising the lost Yang in digestion, also known as digestive breakdown.

 

Example of compatible foods:

*Salad is cold in digestion, thus a dressing made of vinegar and oil, and the vinegar taste is not to exceed the oil, with some salt/pepper/basil/ and spelt ‘berries’ (kernels) makes a good lunch.

*Cottage cheese sprinkled with black pepper, or pipali, and or cardamom is a good digestive.

*Basmati rice is good with many dishes.

Raw food diet:  From an oriental viewpoint, a raw food diet is a foreign diet to Chinese medicine and more popular- ‘trendy’ in the western diet. Raw is Cold and Reducing in digestion. Thus weak spleens, Cold people or deficient people will further weaken digestion by this type of diet. Our tolerance to raw food also depends on climate. In order to know the tolerance of raw food, one must know the constitution and factor in other major influences within the body. Long-term use may damage Digestive Fire.

Vegetarianism: Here you go with another ‘trendy” diet. You can only feel good on these type of diets for so long and then you will ‘cave-in’ just as the person did trying to prove that bananas and milk won’t bother me and they ended up in ruff shape! From an oriental viewpoint, if the constitution is strong you can sustain this diet, but the weaker we are, the more we may need to add some meat into the diet, or a more reasonable digestible substitute. Not too much meat, since it can tend to be dampening and that leads to accumulation of toxins in the system. It is quite easy for a vegetarian to become what is known as Blood and Yang deficient. This occurs when the attention to the diet is not given to eating a full range of tonifying foods and digestive quality. Vegetarianism is, for the most part, the main reason used in traditions within spiritual practices, such as Qigong and yoga. 

Hildegard recommends tempering foods. She also talks about how the body cannot exist without energizing food for the soul. Our soul receives the benefits from the types of foods we eat. As for Ayurvedic diets, they cook foods and regulate the energetic combinations for optimal digestion.

 

Allergies: In Chinese medicine the majority of foods that are identified as allergenic are classified as Dampening, while the underlying cause involves a spleen weakness and tendency towards dampness (Kapha in Ayurvedic medicine). Too much food at one time overloads the system by overworking the spleen causing dampness and now also involves a disturbance in the liver function. Allergies can also involve psychic and emotional issues that are rooted within the systems that need addressed, as well as the diet and constitution. Allergies may cause behavioral problems due to the disturbance to many systems, especially when it enters digestion. This is known as melancholy with Hildegard and the medieval ages or tamasic in Ayurveda.

 

Hopefully I will be posting a list of incompatible foods soon!

 

 

 

 

 

Recipes from some of the finest books!  BABS Bakery received exclusive permission from these authors/publishers to print a free recipe from their book. Ideas for BABS baked goods, spelt beverage directions, three traditional Ayurvedic meal-time teas, hint sheet, and standard use of measurements in baking! Click here- http://babsbakery.com/free.html  More authors & recipes/books will be added soon.