There is no doubt that receiving an expertly delivered massage can support immune function, reduce anxiety and improve sleep. Ayurveda considers these to be the effects of the subtle internal changes, promoted by massage, that improve overall health.

The scientific basis for Ayurveda massage therapy can be found in the Charaka Samhita, where Sutrastana 22, verse 11 reads:

Snehan Vishyandan Mardavam Kledakarakam

In plain speak this means that by doing massage with oil (snehan) on the surface of the body, the liquefaction (vishyandan) process inside the body is improved making the body softer (mardavam). This practice increases the excretion (kleda) of toxins from the body, thereby promoting health and wellbeing.

Simply put, traditional Ayurvedic massage encourages the natural movement of substances from the thicker structures (tissues) to the hollow structures (digestive tract). This facilitates the removal of waste and toxins allowing the deeper tissues to be better nourished and to function more efficiently.

As with food, massage is only Ayurvedic when it is catered to the individual’s specific health needs. A skilled massage therapist will guide the client through the range of choices available to tailor the treatment for maximum benefit. The technique, stroke and oil must be chosen to treat an underlying problem, and in doing so, relieve the resulting symptoms.

While there are massages specific for each dosha, Vata benefits most from a traditional oil massage. Charaka Samhita, sutrastana 12, reads:

Sneho Anilam Hanti

Paraphrasing, this means that to manage Vata dosha the best treatment is Snehana (oil massage) because the qualities of sneha (oleated) substances will pacify the qualities of Vata dosha. The external movement along the skin balances the internal movement of Vata dosha.

With the appropriate choice of oil, Pitta can also benefit greatly from a snehana massage, however, they would most likely prefer, and receive a great deal of relief, from a mardana massage. The mardana is a more rigorous massage that nourishes the deeper tissues and is ideal for those wanting “deep tissue” work.

The mardana, or what I like to call the “yogi massage”, is an ideal weekly therapy for the avid yoga practitioner. Deeply penetrating, the massage focusses on the areas where most practitioners need nourishment – hips, back, shoulders and hamstrings. The mardana is a whole body massage and can energize a tired practice and allow room to be found in areas that are stuck.

Ayurveda offers the udvartana massage for Kapha types who are suffering from a meda vriddhi (increase of fat tissue). This massage is localized to a particular area and makes use of a coarse herbal powder mixed with oil. The herbal powder contains bitter herbs which are absorbed into the skin and then removed, along with the excess fat tissue, through the hollow structures. Vata is not aggravated with this treatment but excess Vata is removed.

With the appropriate choice of oil and therapeutic touch, massage offers an effective means to go beyond the superficial towards deeply healing the body and restoring balance to the physiological functions. Make sure you keep a regular appointment.

A chapati is a very simple food made, in its basic form, using only flour and water. Despite its simplicity, chapatis are one of the most nutritious side orders to a meal and can provide a very necessary source of dry, rough quality that enables our food to be more properly digested.

You will also find people who consider themselves gluten intolerant who have no problem digesting chapatis. Why? Because gluten isn’t the problem. Remove the yeast, salt, sugar and industrial processing and the digestive tract finds a way to do its job efficiently and effectively. Perhaps that lesson is also true outside of gluten.

Besides, if you’ve ever spent time around ashtanga yoga practitioners you’ll have heard them pass along this piece of wisdom from Pattabhi Jois:

Eat more chapatis!

So, let’s get on with making chapatis.

The ingredients list is short: flour and water. Once you become more skilled in making chapatis you can add all sorts of wonderful spices and oils – ghee, turmeric, cumin, sesame seeds, etc.

Grab Some Flour!

How much flour you use depends on how many chapatis you intend to make. This is impossible to measure because it will depend on how hungry you are and how many friends have come around to taste your delicious cooking. Over time you will become more adept at knowing exactly how much flour is needed for each occasion.

I make my chapatis on a clean countertop and so this is usually where the flour gets dumped. You can use almost any surface but wood tends to be more difficult to work on when the flour gets sticky.

Build a Dam!

We’re not trying to recreate the Aswan dam with our endeavor but you are wanting to construct a neat border that will hold back the water as you pour.

This will make more sense the first time your dam breaks and water runs all over the counter.

 
 
 

Add Water!

It’s time to add the only other ingredient – water. If you’re new to working with flour then I’d suggest adding it slowly, perhaps adding too little in the beginning. This approach will save you from having to add more flour and possibly making a lot more chapati dough than you intended.

If you look carefully at this picture you’ll see there was a leak in the dam (top left). Even when you feel you have become a chapati master you will still be humbled by your own exuberance. The good news is that you become a lot more capable of catching things when they get messy.

Knead!

This is where you slowly begin to bring in the dough and mix in the water.

It’s important to work slowly in the beginning until you get a feel for how the flour and water mix. There seems to be a point at where the water suddenly is no longer separate from the mix and you can begin to work the dough a little more vigorously.

You might feel the urge to add more water but be careful. Even though the dough looks dry in the picture, I did not have to add any more water to get it to the perfect consistency for chapatis.

The goal is to end up with something like this – not dry but also not sticky to the touch. The reason it’s not possible to measure the ingredients it because to get it to this state, consistently, will depend on the humidity, temperature and several other factors.

This is possibly the most difficult part of chapati making and yet, once you master it you will consider it trivial. The more often you make chapatis the more effective you become at getting to this point.

Make Doughballs

If the dough is too sticky then the next step becomes nearly impossible. There needs to be enough flour in the dough to allow you to separate the dough into little balls without it feeling as though you are working with glue.

Each ball should roughly fit in the palm of a larger sized hand. The size of the ball depends on the size of your tava pan and how large you want to make your chapatis. Larger doughballs means larger, or thicker, chapatis. This is another trail and error step where, once you’ve got the hang of it, you’ll wonder why I bothered to mention it at all.

After you’ve divided up the larger dough into smaller sizes, it’s time to coat them in flour. In India they usually just throw each ball in the flour tin and give the tin a little shake. I do the same because it’s simple and quick (two good reasons when you’re hungry).

If you’re concerned with germs (I’m not) or that the flour will become manky (mine doesn’t) then you can use another method such as shaking flour through a sieve over the dough.

Roll It!

The next step will become the bane of your chapati making existence. Until you master it of course. In the beginning you will roll all manner of shapes and sizes. When I started rolling I would often try to tell which of the chapatis most looked like Norway – yes, I was just that terrible.

I would highly recommend buying a chapati rolling board and pin. First, the chapati board lets you know just how big to roll out your dough and second, the pin is so small and easy to work with that you will wonder why you ever used anything else.

After trying several different methods for achieving the perfect circle, I found that I was more successful when I started with something that already resembled a circle. To follow this method, first push the ball flat with your fingers so that you end up with a thick, round circle.

With this circle as a base I work the dough with the pin, turning the rolling board and adding more flour as needed. What you eventually end up with is an evenly rolled, round and ready for cooking chapati.

This may take several months to get right, but if you follow PJ’s advice and eat more chapatis then you’ll be a skilled roller in no time.

Cook It!

Now it’s finally time to cook the dough and make your first chapati.

Pre-heat the tava pan… yes, you almost certainly have to use a tava pan to make chapatis. You can try and use a non-stick frying but I wouldn’t recommend it. The heat required to cook the dough will almost certainly damage the non-stick coating or worse, cause the coating to become toxic. Tava pans are thicker than most other frying pans and won’t warp due to the heat.

So, a tava pan it is.

Pre-heat the tava pan using a medium heat and then lay your rolled dough on it. The dough will slowly being to bubble and eventually need to be turned.

There are several schools of thought with turning chapatis – some will say only turn it once while others don’t care. I say turn it until it’s cooked. Keep going if you like it crispy or stop early if you prefer the softer chapati.

Puff It!

Possibly the most satisfying step of all – except for the eating – is when you get your chapati to puff up when it’s cooked.

To do this you’ll need to take the cooked chapati and gently drop it flat on the naked flame. The cooked chapati will very quickly puff out and begin to look more like a balloon than a flat bread.

It’s important to note that not all chapatis will puff so don’t leave the chapati on the flame in the hopes that it will eventually puff. It’s a good way to ruin a perfectly edible chapati.

Chapatis can be used to compliment almost any meal as a side dish, in place of bread as a wrap, or any other use that might take your fancy.

Always prefer whole grain when choosing a flour for your chapati mix but also be adventurous and try several different varieties. Spelt flour is especially beneficial for vata and pitta types while buckwheat is ideal for kapha types.

Maybe not.

When you really consider our effect on the world, it’s the smaller, less obvious, decisions that actually define who we are. Someone cuts us off in traffic, we get pulled over for speeding, we smoke, we drink, we overeat. Our reaction, our chosen response, this is who we are. The accumulation of these moments, this is the true expression of our spirit.

The trick is to realise that you are always doing what you want to do. Always. Nobody is making you do anything. Once you get that you see that you are free and life is just a series of choices. Nothing happens to you, you choose.

Every minute of every day we are choosing to be the person we are. We are always behaving the way we choose to behave. We are always treating people the way we choose to treat them. Sit with the reality that the person you have been is the person you are, not the person that the ego has rationalised to others. It might be very uncomfortable.

I don’t really care about what you say so much as what you’re doing and they don’t seem to match.

If I am responsible for my choices then my behaviour is not governed by external factors and I really am that person. It is only when we fully accept ourselves, the product of our choices, the “good” and the “bad”, that we can begin to glimpse the vast power of our nature.

Our fear is not that we are weak, our fear is that we are powerful beyond our wildest dreams.

Whether we like it or not, we make these decisions deliberately, perhaps not always consciously, but our brains have full information. We sometimes chalk up our behavior to our nature, that it’s our “personality”, that we are “born that way”. But what we have done is to switched those interactions to auto-pilot. We might be busy, tired, distraught… and not “allowed” the time to be present.

A small part of us is asleep at the wheel.

Can we react authentically all the time? Can we choose to be the person we want to be at every junction? It’s as possible as we allow for it to be. The effort we make in being more conscious, more authentic in our decisions is rewarded in each deep connection we share with those around us.

Living in the now is hard work, it’s a relentless effort to focus the mind and reconcile your behaviour with its effects on others. You can’t just disconnect. You can’t claim distraction. You can’t say it’s too difficult and painful to bear the full weight of this moment.

To know this moment is to accept that we are not where we thought we might be. We must consider the one that got away, the supposed mistakes we may have made, the joy that we failed to see at the time. But here we are.

Our simple instruction, to quote Ram Das, is this:

Be here now.

Be. Here. Now.

In order to accept this instruction we have to accept our deepest pain. In accepting our deepest pain we can attune ourselves with our deepest joy. To express the up you have to express the down, this is how the universe works. If you run away from the down, then you’ll never feel the deeply rewarding up.

Know yourself by knowing your actions. Don’t explain away your treatment of the person you ignored because they asked for a dollar, the same goes for the slow bank teller or the troublesome co-worker. This is who you are. This is your life. Live it wisely.

Forget Ekhart Tolle’s longwinded advice. Your next everyday, regular, habitual, ingrained choice? That is the power of now.

I’ve detailed the effect that the seasons have on the body and how the body can become congested over the colder seasons. While this is a common occurrence, cleanses do not help to remedy the imbalance that has set in. In fact, they can further disrupt the physiological processes of the body.

Ironically, a cleanse does not clean. Instead, these short term acts disrupt the doshas and create the illusion of feeling light, which can create many more problems longer term. A cleanse is a bit like fad diet, a way of eating that severely restricts nutrition to achieve weight loss. This approach often weakens and deprives the body. Ayurveda, on the other hand, works with food to restore the natural balance of the doshas while strengthening and fortifying the body.

A cleanse would also have us believe that our body has collected muck and dirt, thus requiring the need for a cleanse. When the doshas are out of balance our digestion is impaired and we accumulate more toxins. So there is some truth to the definition of a cleanse, however, when we attempt a short term cleanse, we disrupt the doshas. Strongly.

If we work to balance our digestion we will begin to remove toxins. However, it is impossible for this process to happen overnight. It takes time. We need to work diligently to kindle the agni (digestion) and balance the doshas. With our digestion primed we begin to burn through the accumulated toxins and have more energy, sleep better and ultimately, feel better.

When we eat a poor diet and don’t follow an effective exercise regime our doshas adjust, to some extent, to the poor choices that we make. In adjusting to a deficient diet and lack of exercise, the doshas keep us (somewhat) healthy in the short term.

Respecting the current state of the doshas is an important step towards determining a treatment that will restore balance. If we fail to honor the body in it’s current state, we throw the doshas into disarray and impede the digestion. With an ineffective digestion we have a vulnerable immune system and a tendency to accumulate more toxins. In essence, the short term cleanse has made us worse off than doing nothing. For once, paying no attention has more benefit.

Rather than relying on a short term spring cleanse, focus instead on healthy eating over the course of the year – paying special attention during the colder months as the restrictions on healthy eating tend to be more onerous. Not only will you be strengthening your good habits but you will be laying the groundwork for excellent long term health.

Panchakarma is the only Ayurvedic treatment what would in some way resemble a cleanse. However, panchakarma is always undertaken in a clinical setting and supervised by a knowledgable and experienced physician. In these circumstances the physician is monitoring the subtle balance in the body and providing herbal medication and treatments to ensure the patient leaves the clinic in a much better state than when he/she arrived. It is simply not possible for us to objectively provide such a treatment for ourselves.

In short, move away from the short term fixes and focus instead on healthy eating for the long term. Your digestion, immune system and health will improve to such a degree that you will clearly see the wisdom of this approach.

The distinction so clear and so demarcated that I noticed the day the weather shifted from winter into spring. With a keen sense of the Vimshati Gunas (or 20 attributes) through my study of Ayurveda, I sensed the shift from the cold, dry, sharpness of the Maine winter to the warm, damp, softness of spring. That day, this year, was Wednesday February 20th. That was the date spring chose to exert it’s influence upon winter. In Ayurvedic speak, that was the date a long dormant Pitta began to nudge a well established Vata to the side.

This doesn’t mean that we should all start unpacking our summer clothes just yet – the process of the seasonal change happens over a period of weeks and months. Pitta was simply shaking off the cold and making it known that Vata’s time was coming to an end. Pitta’s dominance needs time to build and the long influence of Vata must slowly be diminished.

Changes in season are an important time to review our diet and lifestyle. Ayurveda says we must consider the influence that each season has on our body and Ayurveda also illustrates the individual changes we need to make in order to counter that influence. It is not possible to simply eat the same food year round and expect to remain healthy.

As if to demonstrate the importance of this principle, it was less than a week after I noticed the seasonal shift that several friends fell ill with identical symptoms. The symptoms? Head cold, congestion and a persistent wet cough.

When we eat inappropriate foods during the cold months, a subtle congestion begins to set in. We don’t notice the congestion because the dry and cold qualities of the season are keeping it at bay. However, as soon as the damp warmth of spring begins to make itself known, the congestion begins to melt and follows two paths.

The first path is for the congestion to flow into the incorrect shrotas (a sanskrit word meaning channel). With congestion interfering with the natural movement within the shrota, disease is inevitable. The second path for the congestion is to become blocked in its own shrota, creating further congestion. There are several solutions to this problem but each requires a degree of foresight on our part.

The first is to ensure that we don’t create the congestion in the first place. We can do this by changing our diet as soon as autumn begins (September and October time in Maine). We can also ensure that we remain active during the cold season – even moderate amounts of activity, along with a focus on diet, can ensure the congestion is kept to a minimum.

The second step in the solution is to ensure that we receive keep ourselves unctuous during the cold season – but not by food. We do this by receiving a regular massage with warm oil. The heated oil will keep both Vata and Pitta under control and ensure that the dryness of winter doesn’t penetrate our tissues.

Another solution is to focus on making small, incremental changes as we navigate the natural shift in the seasons. These incremental changes to diet moderate the external effects of the seasons and ensure that we remain balanced and protected. Overcoming the obstacle in knowing which changes to make can be made simpler by visiting a skilled Ayurvedic practitioner.

The goods news is that spring is arriving and heat of the Pitta months is imminent. Use this time to prepare for the cold months of 2013/14. A modicum of effort in the summer will result in far less time spent hunkered under the blanket reaching for the tissues…

Ayurveda would agree with his approach and treatment methods as they are in accordance with the principles of Ayurvedic therapies. Dr Esselstyn advocates a diet that is typical of an Ayurvedic anti-ama diet, ideal for those who accumulated a significant amount of toxins in their body. However, this diet does not follow the one-size-fits-all approach to health.

In Ayurveda, the following are typical recommendations of an anti-ama diet and follow closely with Dr Esselstyn’s advice:

• Fruit: No sweet fruit, only sour – cranberry, lemon, lime, grapefruit
• Vegetables: Steamed sprouts, steamed vegetables – some raw salad is good for Pitta. Lots of greens. No root/sweet vegetables or mushrooms
• Grains: Kicharee, barley, quinoa, millet, rye, rice. No bread/ pastries. Less wheat and oats
• Beans: Mung
• Nuts: None, some pumpkin seeds
• Dairy: None. Goats’ milk is slightly astringent and is less Kapha forming
• Meat: No shellfish, fish, fats, red meat, pork, eggs
• Oils: None. Ghee okay in small quantities as are mustard or linseed oils, which are drying
• Sweeteners: None. Sugar is Ama forming. Honey is okay (2 tsp/day).
• Drinks: Ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, fennel, dandelion root coffee.
• Fasting is good for removing Ama but not for long periods (once a month for a day is sufficient).

This is what my teacher, Atreya, has to say about an anti-ama diet protocol:

The main ama reducing diet is a Kapha diet that is higher in fresh foods and eliminates all animal products. It is Sattvic and only small amounts of food should be eaten when hungry. This diet cannot be used when the patient is too weak, young or old as it is strongly reducing. Fasting is also recommended if possible. Vegetable juice fasts are better than fruit fasts for most people. Spices are important to keep up the Agni at all times during this diet or when fasting.

The problem with the anti-ama diet is that it is a shodhana therapy – a reducing therapy that moves toxins from the thick structures (deep tissues) to the hollow structures (digestive tract). It is intended only in cases of moderate to severe toxicity and only indicated for those strong enough to endure the intense purification. Crucially, shodhana therapies are always countered with a period of brimhana therapies – therapies that build up the body, bringing strength (but not ama) back to the tissues.

In Ayurveda the administering of shodhana and brimhana therapies is overseen by a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner who ensures that there is a balance between the removal of ama and the strengthening of the body. A weak body without ama is not necessarily preferred to a strong body containing ama. It is always a balance.

So while the Engine 2 diet provides a great deal of healing to those suffering from chronic conditions (conditions usually caused by ama), it does not provide a meaningful way to find balance in the longer term. Specifically, it is the exclusion of oil in the Engine 2 that needs particular focus.

Oil and Ayurveda are often inseparable as anyone who has been treated in an Ayurvedic clinic will attest. Oils are used liberally in massage therapies and ghee is the principle ingredient in any panchakarma treatment.

So why then, is oil contraindicated when a large amount of ama is present? Ama interferes with the proper digestion of food and excessive use of oil can reduce the efficiency of Agni (digestive power) so this can lead to the further accumulation of Ama. So avoiding oil under these circumstances can be immensely beneficial.

However, the nervous, muscular and skeletal systems each require oil in order to adequately perform their associated functions. The nervous system needs oil to insulate and prevent it from “burning out” and the muscular system needs lubrication to allow fibers to slide over and across each other. Creaking joints and inadequate synovial fluid can also be signs that the body is not receiving an adequate supply of oil. As much trouble as we may have with our adipose tissue, having a regular amount of it critical to the correct functioning and maintenance of our bodies.

It is important to recognize the importance of oil in any diet. The question is always a case of which, how much, when and for that you can read more here.

Removing vital ingredients from our diet without a proper understanding can cause more harm in the long term so it is important to work with a knowledgeable practitioner who can support and advise us in our journey to better health.

lower body mass index, lower levels of cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and less incidence of heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, renal disease, metabolic syndrome, dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders.

In the case of any doubt, Ayurveda is clear that a diet free from animal products is strongly indicated for long term health and only ever prescribed in cases of severe emaciation or weakness. Having said that, this post is not a debate around whether or not a vegetarian/vegan diet has health benefits. What I am going to discuss is my experiences of becoming and being a vegetarian/vegan.

What is often not mentioned when a person attempts the switch from meat to not-meat is how fraught and difficult this process can be. And not for the reasons you might think. You see, omnivores have a generally adopted logic when putting together a meal plan. Even if the meal is a light snack the first question they pose is:

What should I have?

That might seem obvious, don’t vegetarians do the same thing? The difference is in how the question is, somewhat unconsciously, answered. Omnivores almost always follow this logic:

Meat, sauce, side, vegetables.

The Meat. It’s the epicenter of the meal and all accoutrements extend from that decision. What type of meat? How will it be cooked? What goes well with it? The most difficult transition that an omnivore must make when attempting the vegetarian route is to change what has become an ingrained way of thinking when planning meals. Trying to follow the same logic as a vegetarian will result in stumbling at the first hurdle, leading to:

Sauce, side, vegetables.

Perhaps appetizing but for how long? One meal, perhaps three or four and then it’s going to get old. With meat you can forgo the subtlety as the flavor and texture can vary greatly on that single ingredient. You can eat the same sides/sauces/vegetables and just by changing the meat you have discovered a whole new meal.

I say this from experience.

With vegetables things get complicated. Steamed vegetables were an edible side with a steak but on their own they can look a little sad (go to any restaurant that “caters” to vegetarians). Spaghetti bolognese with no meat is just pasta with tomato sauce. Yes, these are fine but you will get bored quickly and then succumb to the cravings of meat. Understand that these cravings are not for meat but for variety.

Variety of flavors and textures are the cornerstone of every meal and it’s important start to think in a different way when it comes to vegetarian food. For example, the way of the vegetarian might be:

Texture, sauce, side.

Or perhaps:

Flavour, texture, side.

So if I were to make a decision to eat chapattis and dahl the choice may have centered around the softness of the bread along with the spices and heaviness of the dahl. Even the ingredients of the dahl would have been considered along the same lines – lots of ghee and mung beans is heavier and more unctuous than perhaps adding summer squash, zucchinis and carrots.

So how do you get around this strange, often subconscious obstacle? The advice I often give is to prepare to spend the next 12 to 18 months becoming a vegetarian. Think of it as a process that you undertake to change habits that you have lived with for an extended period of time.

A practical way to achieve this is to begin by becoming a vegetarian for one meal a week. The following week add another meal. After seven weeks you will find yourself eating vegetarian for 7 of the 21 weekly meals.

Breakfast, with so many options, is a good place to start. It’s also a simple meal that requires little preparation and has a variety of animal substitutes (rice milk, soy milk, etc).

After 7 weeks the process slows a little. There’s no reason to rush and you’re doing exceptionally well, eating vegetarian food for 1/3 of all meals.

For the next step we work to remove meat from a meal every two weeks. The reason behind changing every two weeks is that you’re going to start altering lunches or dinners and this will be far more daunting and complicated than you might imagine. So plan ahead, pick the meal that you’re going to change and then buy specifically for that meal. Two weeks later add another vegetarian meal to your routine. And so on.

Another reason to slow down is that you’re going to need to think more carefully about your meals – how to cook vegetables so that you have variety and taste. You’re going to get into stews, soups, pastas and bakes. It will get tiring and you may find yourself drawn to faux meats and prepared meals – do you best to avoid this slippery slope because it will negatively impact your health and with all the strange ingredients in those you may well be better off eating meat.

But you’re getting there and at the end of the 21 weeks you will be eating the majority of your meals as a vegetarian. You will begin to notice changes to your way of preparing meals and your taste buds – vegetables that you used to dismiss as bland are now much less so. You will also notice how much more you are having to plan ahead while also realising that this is becoming oddly second-nature.

Depending on where you live and the habits of your close friends you have also noticed how difficult it is to eat out. Choices are often poor and the vegetarian dish on offer is what I like to call the “lowest common denominator”. It contains ingredients off the meat dishes in a mixed bag of spices to create a confused and often unappetizing meal.

The last hurdle can be the most difficult – changing your habits of the final third of your meals. As you have been doing, stretch out the timeframe of the adjustments to give yourself a cushion and so you can prepare in advance. Changing one meal every three weeks might seem like slow-going so close to the finish but you’ll also realize how quickly it is to give up entirely and undo the progress that you’ve made.

At the end of an astonishing 42 weeks – just over two months shy of a year – you have switched from what now seems like an exclusively meat-based diet to a plant-based, cooking-from-scratch diet. And this is how long it takes, perhaps even longer. Even with those of us who plan well in advance and have help and support through the process.

Good luck and don’t forget to be patient. Change takes time and the slower the change the more permanent it becomes.

diabetes runs in my family.

This is a statement that I have found difficult to accept at face value. While it is true that many people today have immediate or extended family members who have been diagnosed with type II diabetes mellitus, it is also true that the progression and incidence of diabetes has changed dramatically over the past 20 to 30 years. If diabetes was truly a genetic disease then the rate of progression would largely remain constant, as a percentage, of the population.

The best way to better understand diabetes is to watch this video from the Khan Academy. Using Khan’s explanation, cells simply stop responding to the insulin the bloodstream and the body is overwhelmed by excessive amounts of glucose. But why does the intelligent function of the body go awry?

Perhaps we can look at successful studies involving diet as a means to understand why the body has this reaction. Recent studies have found that diabetes remission is possible with diet and exercise, eating lentils or beans will reduce long term mortality associated with diabetes and eating whole grains reduces a risk of developing diabetes. A clear trend shows that eating whole foods and exercising regularly reduces the risk of developing diabetes and can reverse the symptoms associated with the disease.

It seems that when we eat processed, easy to access simple carbohydrates (such as high fructose corn syrup, white sugar, candies, etc) our cells are overwhelmed by the constant supply of refined glucose and inevitably become unwilling to further accept a substance which they have in abundant supply. It also shows how injecting insulin, while helping to remove excess glucose from the bloodstream, does not solve the cause of the problem.

When we switch to eating complex carbohydrates (such as unrefined wholegrains, fruits, vegetables, etc) the body is not hit with a surge of glucose. Instead the body receives this necessary component of energy in smaller, more acceptable doses. This slow absorption of energy gives us less of a “sugar high” and a more stable, sustainable experience of food as fuel.

From an Ayurvedic perspective, diabetes is a disease where an imbalance in the body has progressed to bheda, or the sixth and final stage of the disease process. Bheda means diversification and indicates that the body has not just one disease but many, a stage where a single ailment (the fifth stage of disease) has diversified and attracted complications.

The signs of impending diabetes, according to Ayurveda, are thick saliva and a tendency to shiver or spasm when passing the last drops of urine. An adult drooling in their sleep also indicates a pre-diabetic condition, a Kapha disorder and a sign of Agnyashaya (pancreas, literally “agni organ”) dysfunction or too much Kledaka Kapha in the Amashaya (stomach). This illustrates the complexity of diabetes and it’s affect on many tissues – including rakta (blood), rasa (plasma) and meda (adipose).

Despite this, diabetes can be relatively simple to treat. Notice that I didn’t use the word easy. Treating diabetes in the pre or acute stages brings more hope for recovery than beginning treatment in the later, chronic stages. But treatment is always hard work and most importantly requires changes to diet and an increase in exercise, emphasizing a more active lifestyle.

The best approach to prevent or reverse the effects of diabetes is to reduce risk factors by exercising, avoiding processed and unnaturally flavored foods, drinking natural fruit juices (or better yet, water) and choosing natural foods at every available opportunity. To educate yourself on how you can prevent diabetes and for the treatment of diabetes it is necessary to seek an experienced health care professional who can diagnose the root cause and work with you to remove the underlying imbalance.

Mono & Di-glycerides, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate (SSL), Diacetyl Esters of Tartaric Acid (DATEM), Calcium propionate, Ammonium sulfate, Monocalcium phosphate

This is a list of the typical ingredients you will find in a store bought loaf of bread. Appetizing? If not, here’s a simple recipe that you can use to bake a healthy loaf at home.

First, the ingredients.

• 1kg regular flour
• 625ml tepid water
• 30g fresh yeast or 3 x 7g sachets dried yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 level tablespoon fine sea salt
• extra flour for dusting

You will also need a bread pan, an oven and a food thermometer.

Baking bread at home can appear to be an intimidating task but this recipe is surprisingly straightforward. You will refine the steps over time and get a hang of the different consistencies that vary with season, humidity and variations in oven design. Take your time, be patient and most of all, have fun.

Measure the ingredients

This may seem a trivial step but under-doing things here is going to cost you a loaf of bread later on.

Measure and mix the flour, sugar and salt.

There are two containers of flour in the picture because I use of a mix of refined and wholegrain. The ratio varies but it’s never less than 50% wholegrain. Using a majority of refined flour is going to cause you to come to a messy end. No, not at the end of the bread making process, I mean the end, end. Refined foods are to be avoided wherever possible and I only make an exception in the case of flour because 100% wholegrain can be a little much to digest for most people.

Add Yeast

The yeast is a vital ingredient in the bread making process. Measure carefully and keep it away from the salt initially – you don’t need to separate them like bullies in a playground, just don’t put the yeast right on top of the salt. The salt impedes the growth of the yeast while the sugar feeds it so you need both. It’s a balance that you work gently towards.

 
 

I tend to make a well with the flour and place the yeast in the middle. This allows the water to get to work on the yeast immediately – activating the yeast as it’s called.

 

Add Water

Fill a measuring container with 625ml of tepid (warm) water. On some days you’ll use all the water and then some while on other days you’ll have water left even after the dough reaches a perfect consistency. This is the art of bread making.

Pour 75% of the water into the well you have created in the flour. You can add the rest as you knead it.

Bring It All Together

This can be a tricky part of the process but it’s like anything in life – you get the hang of it the more often you do it.

Start with the well in the middle, tipping the flour into the water gently and methodically. Be careful not to create a weakness in the wall – the resulting tsunami will drench your counter.

Don’t add the rest of the water just yet, wait until the next step for that.

Need to Knead

This step involves some intuition and practice. You need to gauge just how much water to add and when to add it.

Follow on from the previous step by mixing everything together, chances are there will be too much flour and not enough water to get it to congeal. That’s a good start. Now add a little water at a time, kneading and mixing in between. Depending on the humidity and season, you will reach a point where everything has mixed together and the resulting ball has a slightly sticky but not wet consistency.

If the dough is too wet then your loaf won’t cook and won’t rise uniformly. If your dough is too dry the flour will burn without baking. Knowing the difference is experience and practice.

Oiling

Pick a bread pan that can handle the dough you’re about to bake. A pan with a small footprint will cause the dough to push up and over while a pan with a large footprint will make a flatter loaf. The right pan will make a loaf that is sized to your liking.

Drop some ghee or butter in the bottom of the pan and spread it around the inside. Dust some flour on top of the ghee.

Scoring

Perhaps the most satisfying step of all, carving lines on top of your loaf. Be creative and make the cuts fairly deep.

As the bread rises these cuts will allow the bread to spread and leave marks that will last as long as the bread does.

 
 

Proofing

Another important step that can be overlooked and underdone.

Find a cupboard that is warmer than room temperature, cover the bread and put it inside. It will take about an hour but the bread will expand to about twice the size if was when you placed it in the pan. This illustrates the effect of the yeast and is a sign that you’re on the right track.

Several websites will give you a hundred reasons you why you should proof several times. This recipe called for two proofings but dropped the second one because I didn’t notice the difference and the bread had a more “yeasty” taste that I preferred to go without.

Each to his/her own, you will know your way when you find it.

Baking

We’re almost done and while you might be excited to get this last step over with, you can so easily stumble at the last hurdle if you don’t bake the bread all the way through.

Plan ahead and pre-heat an oven to 400℉ so that the loaf has proofed when the oven is ready. Set a timer for 25 minutes and gently slide the pan into the oven. Check periodically so see how things are going. The bread is ready when the internal temperature at all levels is at 180℉ (hint: the top section takes longer). If the bread is not ready, wait 5 minutes and repeat (the timing of this largely depends on the oven being used).

If you prefer a soft crust, lightly browned loaf then I would suggest a couple of caveats to the baking step. Place a separate pan containing about an inch of water in a convection oven set to 400℉. After 5 minutes, put the proofed bread in the oven and set a timer for 15 minutes. When the timer goes off remove the pan of water, cover the top of the bread with tin foil (this speeds up the baking process and stops the bread from browning too much) and set the timer for 15 minutes. When that timer goes off check the temperature and wait longer if necessary.

Baking bread at home is healthier and costs far less than buying a loaf at the store. Add raisins, nuts and various other ingredients as you gain confidence and creativity. In no time you’ll be tweaking the main ingredients too and perhaps even scoring up a storm to impress friends at parties. Not that bread at parties is a big thing but if it was…

Has the root cause been removed?

So, does removing gluten from our diet remove the root cause or are we simply removing a food that aggravates our symptoms, making them more apparent? How can we discover the cause and if they are related? To answer these questions, let me begin by putting forward the Ayurvedic view of how we become gluten intolerant.

Ayurveda views gluten intolerance as a form of, and a precursor to, an autoimmune disease. Okay, let me back up a step and perhaps begin by explaining how a person develops an autoimmune disease.

At each meal our body must work to diligently digest the food we are eating. And to achieve complete digestion of food we must co-ordinate several functions of the body – endocrine, lymphatic, muscular and, of course, digestive. Failure to co-ordinate these functions results in the formation of Ama.

Ama is a sanksrit word that translates literally as “undigested food”. Modern science is beginning to appreciate that this literal translation is not a metaphor and is finding that inadequately digested food is the cause of a great deal of autoimmune responses.

The key to using this knowledge is to understand that the autoimmune response is just that, a response. It is not the cause of the disease, instead it is a physiological response to a deeper cause. And this is why the common allopathic treatment for these problems, immunosuppressants, do not provide long term relief.

Let me digress for a moment and use an analogy to simplify my point and to illustrate how gluten becomes a problem, but is not the cause.

Let’s assume you have a road. It’s a fairly busy road with several different types of vehicles traveling along it. Without proper care and maintenance the road gets a little bumpier over time and reaches the point where cars are spilling gasoline on the road as they travel (yes, it’s pretty bumpy).

Pools of gasoline start to form on the road and generally aren’t a problem until a particular kind of vehicle, let’s say a tank, comes down the road. Because of its metal tracks the tank creates sparks as it goes and, eventually, ignites the gasoline causing a tremendous amount of damage.

It makes sense to restrict tanks from the road. However, while this approach will solve the problem (no fires), it will not eliminate the cause (the uneven road). This solution also won’t clear away the highly flammable gasoline that has accumulated in the road.

In case it wasn’t clear – the road is the digestive tract, the cars are the food, the bumpy road is a result of poor diet, the tank is the gluten and gasoline is the Ama.

And this is equivalent to what is happening when we remove gluten from our diet. While we certainly will see a reduction in symptoms, it does not remove the cause and we still need to address the toxins that have accumulated in the digestive tract and the rest of the body. Simply removing gluten will not “detoxify” or allow the body to heal.

So, if removing gluten doesn’t treat the cause, what does?

By balancing Agni (digestive power) we begin to smooth out the road, allowing cars to move more efficiently. With more efficient movement comes more effective digestion and a reduction in Ama – not just in the digestive tract but over the body as a whole.

But there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to balancing the digestion and this is where Ayurveda embraces our uniqueness and offers approaches based on our natural constitution and the unique nature of our imbalance. In order for the digestion to find balance it must honor these two principles and it is the wisdom of Ayurveda that provides the key.

To solve this problem for yourself you will need to find an Ayurvedic practitioner who will provide a treatment enabling you to restore balance to the digestive tract and perhaps, in the longer term, adding gluten back into your diet.