Chronicles

Softening summer's edges

How to take the edge off of summer?

A lot of people may be asking, what edge?

It’s not even officially summer yet, so it’s hard to imagine summer burn out, especially for those coming out of epic, long winters. Our bodies feel so much stronger with the help of the super-powered sun, giving us the warmth and electric oomph that is lacking in the frozen months, when colds and flus are more likely to invade, and lethargy becomes the norm. Despite the sun feeling so wonderful on the skin, and the warm nights feeling so ripe for a cold beer or a few, now’s the time to keep an eye out for the inevitable pitfalls of summer fun: burn out, crankiness, anger and temper flares, inflammation and pain, puffiness, and a bone-dry, leathery fatigue that feels much different than the heavy tiredness of the cold months.

So let’s make a plan. This year, take a look at what summer overdose looks like for you—do you get crispy and ungrounded or “airheaded?” Do you get short-tempered and feel your heat rise? Do you puff up at the end of trip to the river? Maybe you are looking super cute with your cherry-red summery lips, but hey, your lips are super chapped and you are bone dry!

No need for drastic measures. Let’s keep it simple, with seasonal foods, soaking and soothing cool drinks, awareness around habits, and above all, a hearty dose of self-inquiry and knowledge around your body’s communication and needs.

Cherries: A great remedy for those experiencing an uptick in pain and inflammation when temperatures rise. Clinical trials demonstrate that cherries are excellent for abating inflammation, which is key for people dealing with injuries, gout, arthritis, and aching muscles. Inflammation is increasingly targeted as the foundation for many diseases, including insomnia, depression, and gut discomforts. Many aspects of the standard American diet are inflammatory, as well as stress, and inflammation can exist in people who are cold—you don’t have to feel on fire to be dealing with inflammation.

So eat your cherries. As one excellent and, sadly, recently departed herbalist, Cascade Anderson Geller, always said, “Eat as many cherries as you can afford.” Cherry juice will do too, and even 10 pieces of the fruit per day can have an impact—in clinical trials, people reported less pain after heavy exercise due to cherry consumption. Take some on your next hike! While the fruit is in season, buy a few pounds cheaply and freeze them for anti-inflammatory treats all year round.

Coconut: Coconut has a few strikes against it for not being a local product—I really like to keep it local—but this nut is such a big helper, I often turn to it. As so many know, the water is very hydrating—turn to it when you’ve been in the sun all day to stay juicy. The oil is an excellent culinary and body care oil for the summer—I like to apply coconut oil before my bath in the evening and I can feel the cooling nature of coconut oil pulling heat out of my skin after a long hot day.

Soak chia seeds in coconut milk for a hydrating, cooling summer breakfast. Add a big spoonful of coconut oil to steamed summer veggies. Coconut is cooling, hydrating, and tasty—an excellent summer food.

Aloe vera: Summertime is aloe time around my house. We drink 1-plus cups per day, usually before bed, but sometimes, all through the day. The inexpensive gallon from Trader Joe’s is a fine choice. Aloe is a primary medicine in my life. It’s great for female reproductive issues, liver support, hydration support, fat and sugar metabolism, hangovers, and much more. Basically—do you have summer issues? Kumari (aloe in Sanskrit) will help you!

Summer is a great time to cut out drinking, though it seems tough for some who just love a patio brew on a hot night. But alcohol has the potential to be more problematic in the summer—it’s dehydrating, inflaming, causes over-do-it syndrome, and can crank up the cranky meter in the long run. Aloe is wonderful for those experiencing blood sugar shakiness due to cutting out the booze—a few cups throughout the day should help stabilize the transition.

Herbs: Make moon teas to soothe the summertime blues. Simply cover herbs with cold water and let the tea steep overnight under the cooling light of the moon. Great summer choices: chamomile, mint, marshmallow root, rose, hibiscus.

Just say no: Avoid nightshades, chiles, and all spicy stuff if you are summer vulnerable (prone to diarrhea or loose stools, skin irritations and acne, inflammation, dryness, hot emotions). Eschew inflammatory table salt in ALL forms—including in restaurant food and processed food. Prefer mineral-rich salts like Celtic sea salt and Himalayan pink salt. Avoid ALL fried foods, including those tasty camping-trip chips. Avoid all cooked fats, like fried foods, sauteed foods, stir-fries, etc.—steam your food and pour high-quality fats over the food once it’s cooked. Avoid iced drinks and cold or frozen foods—damps out digestion.

 

Just say YES: Eat more raw food in the summer, especially if your digestion is strong, and cool soups too. Coconut oil, hempseed oil, and Udo’s Oil are great, hydrating, brain-supportive fats for summer nourishment and grounding. Enjoy cucumbers and melons, making sure to eat melons at least ½ hour before a meal or 2 hours after. Melons are quite hard to digest, be sure to eat away from other foods. Enjoy lots of seasonal fruits and veggies this summer, keeping an eye on the Clean 15/Dirty Dozen—be educated on which to buy organic! http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/

It’s your life: What’s your style? Are you going to jam-pack every summer weekend with goodies, and then have an existential crisis in late August? Are you going to take a weekend or two off this summer in order to do some self-care? Happy living in our bodies seems to be a combination of self-awareness, moderation, and knowing your remedies.

We know hydration is key. Puffy, chapped, not going with the flow? Put hydration in check. Drink ½ ounce of water per pound of body weight daily, increasing that amount of water if you are drinking alcohol, sweating, etc. Supplement with chia water, flax tea, or coconut water, or this hydration support drink courtesy of Dr. Vasant Lad of the Ayurvedic Institute:

    1 cup of water

    pinch of raw sugar

    pinch of Celtic sea salt or Himalayan salt

    juice of half a lime

Mix and drink for hydration support.

 

Avoid rigorous exercise and sun time between 10 am and 2 pm to beat the heat—this is key! Explore swimming, restorative yoga, or moonlight walks as exercise alternatives, and make sure you take a cool shower and cool off after intense, sweaty exercise regimens.

The summer is so intense! Everything is fully popping, life is bursting with fertility and promise. It’s time to swim, it’s time to camp, it’s time to stay up late, it’s time to party! But I’m here also reminding you that it’s a great time to take care, too. I will always remind you to take it a little slower, with a little more self-care, and I do this because I notice that people need to hear this message! I once really, really needed to hear this message. Our high-performing societal structure can cheat us out of that placid feeling of surrender to the body; we must give ourselves permission to be different than the examples around us. Sometimes that isn’t even enough! If you need me to give you permission to do less in order to be better, call me up!

Because what’s good for the body is good for the whole. What’s good for the person is good for the planet. So let’s get to work—by doing less! Getting to know our bodies better, listening to the messages of symptoms and expressions. May summer’s gifts truly be a balm to your soul!



Eva Saelens is a professional member of the National Ayurvedic Medical Association, with over 1500 hours of training in Ayurveda, massage therapy, and Ayurvedic treatments. She graduated from the California College of Ayurveda in 2013. Subsequently, Eva spent a year interning and studying Ayurveda, Tibetan medicine, whole foods nutrition, aromatherapy, and pancha karma at the dhyana Center in Sebastopol, Calif., and in India. 

Dessert is not for winter: Seasonally balancing cravings and needs

Golden milk paste, a medicinal sweet-treat alternative

Golden milk paste, a medicinal sweet-treat alternative

Dessert is not for the winter.

If there’s anytime to say an unequivocal no to sweet stuff, this is the time—from right now into spring, into stone fruit season even. Now is the time to take it easy with the sticky buns, candy hearts, mid-afternoon cookies, and panna cotta at the fancy restaurant. Even fancy fruity smoothie, it’s just not the right time for you.

While it can feel so good to snuggle into your warm spot with a sweet thing this time of year, if you want to avoid the pitfalls of colds and flus, sinus infections and yeast overgrowth, and the energetic seesaw of overconsumption of sugar, you should avoid it this time of year. And maybe we should talk about reforming your whole notion of sweetness in your life and in your way of eating.  

It’s clear that Americans need to examine their sweet intake in general, but I’m not suggesting that you should quit cold turkey from now until forever. Sweetness is a therapeutic flavor, according to ayurveda, and that’s one of the many things I love about this folk medicine. It’s not austere—ayurveda recommends that we use our resources to lavish love upon ourselves and our cherished people to bring balance using the creative flourishes of ancient wisdom and tradition. While most of us want to reward our achievements with a beer or a piece of pie, ayurveda doesn’t hate on that. This system of medicine wants us to reward ourselves, sure, but with better choices that make us feel better in our bodies.

While that sounds like a crock at times when we’re robust and rearing to devour the world, but when we’re sidelined by a cold or flu for weeks, that kind of advice makes a lot of sense. Hey, maybe my gut doesn’t have to be adversely affected every time I get a high-five in my work or passion—maybe I need to reward myself with better choices here and there too!

Is there a such thing as a healthy sweet? In the winter, not so much, especially when we are talking about the baker’s rack. But still, the sweet flavor needs to be a part of our diets. We digest best when all six flavors are a component of each meal—sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent. And sweetness can show up in unexpected ways—grains are sweet natured in ayurveda, as well as fats. A healthy sweet flavor could present as a pinch of sugar to round out a spice mixture used to marinate a protein.

Moderation should always be the guiding light in terms of your relationship with sweets, but in the winter and spring, there should be more restriction. Sweets should be rare.

The winter and into spring are the worst times to consume sweets because sweets are too dampening for us when we already have slushy or rainy overload mixed with the lack of sun and warmth. Wet wintry and spring weather is like a delicious cheesecake—cold, moist, and likely to give you mucous unless your inner fire is cranked appropriately. Well, keeping that fire cranked—in order to burn up digestive mucous and the viruses that like to make a home in that snot—is a really tough job in the winter and spring, and eating sweets just adds to that difficulty. Take a good look at your lifestyle and you might be able to pinpoint a weekend cupcake binge as the root of your last cold or flu.

Some of us look to sugar to boost life’s sweetness, or to perhaps cover up life’s bitternesses, or to bribe us to take those last exhausting steps during our mid-afternoon energy crash. Those of us who use sugar like that have a front-row seat to the ways sugar undermines immunity and subverts healthy energetic momentum.

Obviously, none of us are going to forlornly mourn our sweet times and be perfect students until June or so, when sweet consumption is less cold-and-flu-provoking. We will still celebrate birthdays, weddings, holidays, and have the occasional treat. But let me give you some advice on how to experience sweetness in the cold months without imbalancing yourself.

Timing. The best time to eat sweets is when the sun is at its highest, 10 am until 2 pm. Then, our digestion is strongest and most able to digest the heaviness of sweet stuff. Eat sweets rarely in the coldest months, as I said, but if you must, eat them at this time of day, even before a meal instead of after. Your digestive fire is sharpest then and most able to properly incinerate the sweet. If the sweet is a rare treat, enjoy ceremoniously, no rushing.

Digestive helpers. If you do have that rare sweet, have it with a cup of ginger tea or cumin/coriander/fennel tea to assist the digestion of the heavy delicious treat.

Medicinal honey. Research your favorite immune herbs and make an immune honey. This is quite easy, mixing powdered herbs with raw honey. Raw honey is full of immune-enhancing properties and will still give you that sweet flavor you crave without the pitfalls of refined sugars. Possible herbs include: powdered astragalus, ashwagandha, shatavari, reishi—don’t forget to add one or two powdered digestive herbs like cinnamon or cardamom to the honey, about ¼ of the total powdered herbs by weight.

Protein? If you crave sweets intensely, you may be protein deficient. Eat protein at every meal. If you are vegetarian or just looking to get more protein, try taking 2 kelp capsules at every meal to boost your protein consumption. If you take thyroid meds, please check with your doctor about consuming seaweed.

When sweet thing’s your everything. Some self-medicate with sweets because the dampening and grounding effects of these foods feel soothing to burned out, scattered, spun out people. This is emotional eating and improper medication. In these cases, people need to get to the root of why their lifestyle is uncomfortable and start slow on the steps to nourish and protect themselves from stressors. Where is life’s sweetness? It should be in the form of relationships, passions, spiritual practices—all the stuff that suffers in the cruel machinations of our imbalanced culture. Sweetness should not only be on the plate, but built into healthy life. This can be an area of personal activism for some; in my experience, it was the only way for me to cut ties with my sweet addiction as an overweight youngster.

As I said, I don’t want to suggest that everyone get cut off, get a box of raisins and a pat on the head until come late May when maybe it’s ok to get down with a fistful of frosting again. Taking the intensity of sweet cravings down a few notches is a good idea in general, avoid the bingeing cycle. Sweet, warm milky teas have been a great way for me to indulge sweet cravings while getting some herbal medicine support. Golden milk is my favorite beverage in this category at this time.

Golden milk is like sunshine in a mason jar—it has a milky, solar radiance that just looks delicious and right on bitter, cold, grey days. Its chief ingredient is turmeric, a great herb for the stressed or sugar-addled. If you have known pain and wanted to get away from Advil, you may already know turmeric. A dazzling yellow spice with a bitter flavor and anti-inflammatory qualities, turmeric has actually shown as much efficacy as Advil in clinical trials. Turmeric protects the liver and helps the flow of bile, protects the cells from radiation, protects nervous system cells from environmental toxicity, and is a preventative for countless cancers. Stress causes brain damage, for real, and turmeric helps to reverse this damage.

Golden milk is not only a beverage, but a medicinal, spiced paste—you can eat it right out of the jar and it tastes like pumpkin pie! This recipe is from Lily Mazzarella of Farmacopia in Santa Rosa, CA. Lily is an amazing teacher at the Northern California Women's Herbal Symposium most years and her herbal knowledge is inspiring. She also sells a coffee additive/alternative called Reishi Roast—an awesome way to moderate your coffee habit, or leave it behind. 

Lily’s Divine Golden Turmeric Paste

Ingredients

  • ½ cup organic turmeric powder

  • 1 cup filtered water, plus ½ cup

  • ¼ cup raw honey (optional)

  • ½  cup organic virgin coconut oil

  • ½-1 tsp organic black pepper

  • 1-2 tsps combined spices:  nutmeg, garam masala, cinnamon, cardamom, etc, to taste

  • A pinch of pink Himalayan salt

All measures are approximate.  You can adjust amounts of powder, water, and oil for desired consistency.

How to make it:

Whisk water and turmeric together, and bring to a simmer.  Continuing whisking as you adjust water amount for desired thickness.

Add black pepper, other spices and salt.  Continue whisking for 4-5 minutes.

Add coconut oil and whisk until fully combined.

Turn off heat.

While cooling, add the raw honey and blend thoroughly.

While still runny, pour into clean jars and refrigerate.

Turmeric is powerfully anti-microbial (as are most of the ingredients). This should last many weeks in the fridge, especially if you dip in with clean spoon each time.

How to Use it:

+ Eat by the teaspoonful—it will stimulate digestion, bile flow, and the bowels

+ Add to smoothies, yogurt, curries, or pumpkin pies

+ Heat with whatever milk you desire for a morning or before bed treat

See the original at farmacopia.net/lilys-divine-turmeric-paste/

Eva Saelens is a professional member of the National Ayurvedic Medical Association, with over 1500 hours of training in Ayurveda, massage therapy, and Ayurvedic treatments. She graduated from the California College of Ayurveda in 2013. Subsequently, Eva spent a year interning and studying Ayurveda, Tibetan medicine, whole foods nutrition, aromatherapy, and pancha karma at the dhyana Center in Sebastopol, Calif., and in India. 

Foundations—Hot water

Springtime at one of my favorite hot springs. 

Springtime at one of my favorite hot springs. 

As I write you, rain is lavishing on my town, flooding cracked, dry earth. We are in the midst of a frightening drought. Our rainy autumn and winter weather has largely disappeared for years. Fat, rolling clouds of moisture and slate-colored days were erased by dazzling, endless months of naked, burning sunlight. While we Californians were the envy of our compatriots, as we sunbathed in January instead of chipping ice off of our porches or even needing to grab an umbrella, we could not savor the bittersweet gift of infinite picnic weather for dozens of months. After a while, it started to feel weird, completely not right.

Now, as we receive this gift of precious water, I notice the dimensions of enjoyment in a winter rain. The sloshing cut of a car through a street puddle is musical to me. The sound of rain on the roof elevates a bedtime cuddle to decadence. My garden’s colors popped with life as the sheets of rain came and came. I noticed how plants are differently happy when they get rain from the sky, as opposed to getting the good stuff from an irrigation hose.

We are so thankful for water today—it’s security, it’s flow, it’s a reminder that life isn’t just a drive to make, spend, make. Life is also about shelter, about huddling together, sometimes life is even about doing less. California’s drought inspired a state-wide mania, if you ask me. When it never rains, an everyday parade seems apropos. But I think many of us Calfornians can testify at this point of drought—that’s completely exhausting. Rain and inclement weather are excuses to not be fabulous, to not be busy, and to feel the meditative, quieting side of life’s flow.

I think about water a lot, and not just because I live in this place that has serious water issues. I also think about water because it is a foundation of my well-being and an essential part of my health practice.

Being conservative about water has not been easy for me in the drought. I am happy to flush the toilet sparingly, I am happy to be nit-picky about washing dishes, but giving up my daily hot baths has been really hard.

Hot water is a foundational medicine for me, and perhaps my first medicine. I was thinking this morning of my first express kettle, the little electric hot water pot that I installed in my room when I was a junior in college in East Lansing, Michigan. My first hot water kettle was crappy and plastic but it was a revelation to me: Hot water made me feel so much better.

I once read an interview with an Ayurvedic doctor, early in my interest of this medicine. It was a long time ago so I can’t find the article, but I remember the doctor’s answer to this question: “If you could give the American people any medicine, what would it be?”

The doctor said, “Hot water.”

That hits home.

Hot water is simple, available, versatile, and cheap. How you use the hot water is up to your situation and your body. Just start thinking of this medicine in these terms: Cold water is not the best way to take your water; iced water is downright terrible for you.

Even in the most wretched summer heat, cold water is not the best choice—iced water is difficult for your body to assimilate, and rather than being cooling, the body has to work to warm the water and regulate your body temperature. It’s even worse in the winter: Taking in cold things, including ice cream, anything frozen, ice cubes, even excessive raw food, can be the choice that turns that little inkling of a cold or virus into a full-blown issue.

ON AGNI

We speak of “agni” frequently in Ayurveda; agni is the Sanskrit word for fire. For most Ayurvedic counseling purposes, we think of agni as the “digestive fire.” Agni turns food into energy, agni keeps pathogens and parasites in check with its forbidding intensity, agni keeps the body warm to the core. When agni, pronounced “ug-knee,” is correct and burning efficiently, digestion is optimal, appetite is good, circulation is flowing, energy is appropriate, the body feels and smells good, and immunity is strong.  

As you may know, the digestive system is at the root of everything in Ayurveda, both positive and negative. So as you can imagine, healthy agni is beyond essential; it is the very definition of vitality and stability.

We sabotage our agni all the time, and unknowingly. For instance, skipping meals robs the agni of consistency—think of it like a campfire, if you don’t eat all day, and then eat a big meal at the very end of the day, it’s like throwing a huge load on a smoldering, struggling fire that has been aching for steady kindling since breakfast.

Agni can be too high—think diarrhea and malabsorption, or too low—think nausea and digestive mucous, or variable—think gas and constipation.

There’s an art to agni, and no surprise, it’s the tightrope walk of life. Being warm but not burned. Being determined but not pushy. Being hungry but not hangry. That tightrope walk is the path of self-knowing; if you don’t know yourself, or ask yourself questions about yourself, you are in the dark. How to even know if you are too hot, or too cold, or anything about your physical function, unless you ask, and pursue knowledge. This is a lifelong path.

We can start here: Agni loves warm water. Agni hates iced water.

But in America, we drink a lot of iced water. When we order a beverage in a restaurant, it often comes with ice. Ice is a funny luxury, I suppose it represents a triumph over nature: We will have artificially iced beverages even if we are in a highly heated environment, sheltered from the snow storm outside! But ice is the enemy of agni, even for someone who has very high agni. It is better to cool a high agni with better food choices and herbs and spices than to count on iced water to douse a diarrhea-prone gut. Drinking iced water snuffs out the precious digestive fire completely. Some feel the effects more than others. Ever eaten a bunch of ice cream, even on a pretty hot day, and become constipated the next day? Like, frozen solid, no chance of movement? Ice cream is the likely culprit. It smothered your agni, it froze the fire.

HEALING WATERS

Like most of us, I had no idea whatsoever of the energy of my life imbalances when I was a 20-year-old college student. I was chilled to the bone, I became completely depressed during winter, but I figured, that was normal. Right?! I wouldn’t have known where to start with exploring the idea that maybe being shiveringly cold all of the time was maybe not normal. But amazingly, my body craved warm beverages, and that’s elemental medicine right there: Cold? Apply hot.

Around this time I started drinking herbal tea for the first time. The discovery was profound. For those who grew up with herbalism or even the faintest hippie-ism in their households, that might seem crazy, but for me, these hot herbal beverages were big news. Chamomile was completely exotic and I couldn’t get enough.

I was overweight and sluggish, often bogged down by my desire to change my life and my body, but I was also shattered and unsure of where to look, where to start. I look back with pride for my young instincts; hot water was a great place to start. An easy, foundational place to start.

In retrospect, I know that I was weighted down by ama, which is the byproduct of incomplete digestion. Ama could be called “toxins” but I find that is a divisive word; instead let’s see ama as the lingering matter that clings to our bodies when the digestive system doesn’t have the proper heat or moisture to fully conduct its business.

Think of a casserole pan, caked with leftovers. How are you ever going to get that crap loosened in order to have a clean pan? Hot water. It’s the same principle with the body. Hot water helps loosen unwanted plaque and flush it out. Hot or warm water help to arrest the development of ama before it forms.

Hot tea was my gateway. Steaming mugs helped me with tummy aches, sleeplessness, gripping chills, and period pains. I started slowly, very slowly, adopting better habits and even losing weight. Craving tea got me interested in herbs and my fascination with plant medicine sprouted.

But it didn’t stop there. It took about 10 years of party-woman lifestyling to move beyond hot tea into other realms of hydrotherapy, like the ceremony of a hot bath. When I started my “bathing-as-church” phase, it was time to shed the brittle, tumultuous party life. Hot baths soothed the transition. 

I lived in a lot of cruddy punk houses over the years and eschewed daily bathing for a long time, to be honest. Bathrooms were often shared with too many people and privacy was nonexistent; long bathing sessions were out of the question. I also had a poverty-consciousness kind of outlook on self-care—why bother with wasting water? But when my husband and I got married and moved into a studio of our own, with a clawfoot tub and plentiful hot water, I started feeling more drawn to bathing with more regularity.

Epsom salts, candles, incense, good music—over the years my bathing rituals became more adorned with my special touches. A crystal on the rim of the tub. A diaphoretic tea to get sweat going if I felt a cold coming on. Eventually, I migrated toward Ayurveda in part because of rituals like abhyanga, which is the warm oil massage before the bath. I figure I was able to let go of drinking as a nightly activity because of bathing. Drinking wasn’t serving me, it was hurting my body, but I couldn’t have let it go without that nightly bath that still felt like a special communion with myself, an intoxication but in a different and healthy way.

I used the money I saved from not drinking and spent it at hot springs, like Wilbur Hot Springs here in Northern California and Breitenbush in Oregon. I spent hours and days in the hot sulfur waters, over and over, melting away the stuck stuff. The emotions, the past, the fears, the ama. Hours and hours in the aromatic waters, facing myself, being naked, being in the presence of other people using the waters as sacred mirrors. I cried into my elbows, I laughed and looked at the stars. I felt hopeful, and I noticed that hopefulness was not solely a mental outlook, but a feeling of being truly free of the limiting crap. I could feel the limiting crap flow out my pores, dislodge itself from my person, floating away in the flumes.

I can’t always afford or find the time to get away to hot springs. But hot water therapies are always a part of my life. Often, I improvise. I will take baths at home, I will seek out steam rooms in gyms, I will even prepare a steam inhalation if I can feel lung funkiness coming on.

A steam inhalation is easy and great for clearing the sinuses and lungs, promoting deeper breathing, and some say will help ease the pain of TMJ. It’s easy: Fill a deep pot or large bowl with near-boiling water. Add herbs—mullein is great for the lungs and TMJ, chamomile works nicely for colds, there are many options. Then, when the steam of the boiling water feels cool enough, position the face over the steam, cover the head with a towel to make a tent, and breathe in the vapors. Stick it out under the towel for as long as you can.

Wow, there so many ways to turn hot water into medicine! Like, soaking tired feet in warm water and Epsom salts, or soaking feet ravaged by athlete’s foot in the Indian sulfuric salt kala namak. Or soaking a washcloth in hot water and using it as a compress for an area of lymph stagnation. Or using a hot water bottle to warm the belly in cases of constipation or menstrual cramps. And, um, try Googling “yoni steam” and get down with that amazing concept! Women swear by it for a variety of reproductive disturbances.

If that’s all too adventurous for you, bring it all back to the cup of warm, steaming water. Add lemon juice and stimulate the gall bladder and liver first thing in the morning, aiding in elimination and hangovers. Or add a few pinches of high-quality salt like Celtic sea salt to your hot water and get a dose of electrolytes, which aid cell function and hydration.

Have you ever had a big old meal, a bunch of wine, and then a honking piece of birthday cake, followed by a big, foreboding sneeze, spraying frosting everywhere? I’d say that’s a good time to have a nice cup of hot water, maybe toss in some powdered digestive spices like cardamom, cumin, fennel, or ginger. That mucousy sneeze is letting you know that digestion is looking compromised, please help! Keeping fresh, powdered digestive herbs around, like the aromatic seeds of cumin, coriander, and fennel, are amazing aids for eaters and so easy to pop into a cup of hot water. No steeping, cooking, or decocting required. 

These days of rain seem to be saying, hey, Californians, looks like we might have some kind of winter after all. And as long as I can have my baths, teas, and hot water bottle, I’m game. 

The absence of wetness made my heart grow so fond, evaporating my disdain for rainy days. Water is solace and a great relief. Each time I lower myself into hot water, spontaneous gratitude flows forward, and a comforting notion of It's all okay comes over me. Water is the most essential medicine. Hot water is elevated medicine, gently encouraging the warmth within, amplifying the potency of herbs, making a tub a sanctuary.

The Ayurvedic doctor who recommended hot water as medicine reminds us that our culture is misguided in many customs around food and drink. Additionally, our standard medical system has little to no guidelines for prevention, thus the pathways of disease are not recognized, self-knowing is under-emphasized. Disease is made overcomplicated and hard to understand. Hot water is simple, but so are many imbalances at the core, especially when approaching imbalance before it blossoms into disease.

Hydration and healthy warmth—we all need some, especially in winter. Luxuriate in simple medicine. It prevents disease from becoming you. 

Eva Saelens is a professional member of the National Ayurvedic Medical Association, with over 1500 hours of training in Ayurveda, massage therapy, and Ayurvedic treatments. She graduated from the California College of Ayurveda in 2013. Subsequently, Eva spent a year interning and studying Ayurveda, Tibetan medicine, whole foods nutrition, aromatherapy, and pancha karma at the dhyana Center in Sebastopol, Calif., and in India. ​

You are what you digest—holiday edition

Enjoy holiday foods, don't let your celebration cause you discomfort.

Enjoy holiday foods, don't let your celebration cause you discomfort.

In America, we think a lot more about food than we used to. Exotic ingredients are more commonplace, palates are opening, and the idea of food as medicine is a plausible notion for more and more American eaters. Americans are waking up following the post-World War II era of dreary, unhealthy national food approaches.

Food became corporatized, taste trumped effect, poor-quality fats, salt, and sugars smothered taste buds. As a obese teenager, I often cried with confusion: Why were the only choices bad choices? Childhood obesity was not a mainstream notion at the time and it felt very lonely to have a disease that was not yet recognized.

I lost 50 pounds over some years and America changed as I did. Obesity was recognized as an epidemic. Culture shifted: soda was branded as harmful, fast food restaurants were implicated in promoting dangerous diets, people began to explore whole foods traditions. Now you can find kombucha at Kroger and goji berries in mainstream cereals, and that’s kind of like progress but there’s an important missing component: digestion.

Because you aren’t what you eat. Not at all. You are what you digest. And what you don’t digest is you too, in the form of what Ayurveda calls ama—basically the bi-product of incomplete bodily function. Built-up ama threatens the vitality of the human body. Big time. Let’s talk about that more one of these days.

Now, I have a long-saved message I’d like to air here. Foodie-ism is a concept I can kind of get behind. I enjoy chefs and diners unearthing and enjoying unique cuisines, funky mixtures, and adventurous eating in general. My beef is with the lack of digestive awareness around foodie-ism.

See, the impression I get is that many devoted foodies are wrecked intestinally, plagued by poor combinations borne out of gluttonous, joyful eating. I am all for joy, but just as I am showing up for joy, I want to show up for the less appreciated side of foodie-ism: wretched farts, painful diarrhea, hard stool and hemorrhoids, offensive belches, and more. Ever eaten a rich and highly expensive meal and had to retreat to the bathroom in order to double over with insane cramps? And then go back to the table in order to pay the hefty bill?

Doesn’t that feel like a rip-off?

That’s what bums me out about many whoo-hoo-type dining experiences—it’s a big old waste. Wild flavor mixtures, poor food combining, excessive alcohol consumption during the meal, overindulging in sweets on top of it, well, I’d be more for it if it wasn’t sick-gut city. If we actually assimilated the calories from these over-the-top experiences, that would be nice too—and a fitting tribute to the many people who make extravagant meals happen. Instead, most of us are pooping out these challenging foods as fast as we can, or amassing intestinal plaque in the case of those without the constitutional heat or moisture to properly, um, dump em.

As a cook, I can’t help think of two celebrity foodies—Anthony Bourdain and David Chang. These chefs present televised ape-shit eat fests, devouring fritters and cocktails, weird meats, a gallon of beer, some strange crab, a yummy but puzzling watermelon salad thingy, maybe some gummy bears, and a 5 pound banana split, and I can’t help but wonder, how do they survive? Do they have lovers or are their farts simply too stinky? While these two are certainly not Michael Pollan, with his moderate, educated style of eating, they do represent a facet of American eating that is rarely discussed but is actually a huge part of many people’s lives: overindulgence and the lack of know-how to avoid the pitfalls of overindulgence, or the education to make better choices.

And here comes the holidays, a challenging time for all of us in terms of making good choices around food. And here comes cold and flu time of year as well, unfortunately because poor digestion and lackluster food habits increase vulnerability to viruses.

But don’t worry foodies, I am not looking to ban your pleasures, or shame you in public (sorry Chang and Bourdain, but we were all thinking it!). I am going to arm you with suggestions and remedies to avoid the pitfalls of inevitable holiday overindulgence. This is what one of my  instructors once called “cheating with Ayurveda.” But I’d like to avoid calling it cheating; none of us are perfect. Most of us know what caused our pain and are on the lookout for tools to modify and improve life. This is why I love Ayurveda!

How you eat is important

Oh man, there are so many supplements for digestion out there! But I like to start with the free approach to better digestion: how you eat. If you have challenged digestion, you can make huge strides in your troubles by eating mindfully. Beware: This is very difficult at parties, but practice at home!

Began meals with a prayer of gratitude—it’s a cheesy concept to some, I know, but it can serve as a Pavlovian signal to your body to get ready, food is on the way. Perhaps it is also a nice technique for those who find eating terrifying because of digestive disorders (eating for some means a potential for an accident, or an embarrassing sprint to the bathroom).

Other mindful eating techniques include: sitting quietly for 10 minutes after eating, eating in silence, never eating when walking or driving, etc. Yeah, these techniques won’t work at a party, but could be helpful in those days of unbalance after several parties. The nervous and digestive system are of course connected; these approaches honor that connection.

Ginger

I am in love with ginger. Ginger makes it all better, from nausea to gas. I recommend fresh ginger for everyone—powdered ginger is very hot and not suitable for all. People who experience fiery digestive symptoms like burning diarrhea should avoid powdered ginger and take fresh ginger moderately.

Fresh ginger can be a pain to process; I find that I am less likely to use it if I just have a big pile of unpeeled ginger root in the fridge. When I buy ginger, I peel it, chunk it, and pop it in the food processor to be pulverized. Then, I fill a jar with my processed ginger and it lasts about a week. I add it to veggie dishes, I make tea with it several times a day in the winter, I add it to my krauts.

Ginger is also the main ingredient in the “Ayurvedic appetizer” popularized by the world’s most beloved Ayurvedic doctor, Dr. Vasant Lad. This is a great remedy if you have constipation, lack of appetite, or feel over-full and sleepy after meals:

Ayurvedic appetizer

Take a coin-sized, thin slice of peeled fresh ginger, squeeze lime juice over it, sprinkle high-quality salt on it, and eat before a meal, especially a large, celebratory meal. This will get your digestive juices flowing.

Ginger is your go-to if you have a digestive oops. It will help you fart when you are bloated, it will abate mucus if you overindulged in sweets or dairy. The rhizome is also makes a great tea for colds and flus, as well as the prevention of those, so drink up!

Mint

Painful, hot digestive experiences can be so disruptive to people’s lives. “Hot” digestion is the quick kind that burns upon wiping, and can be fast, explosive, painful, and embarrassing. Those poor souls with Crohn’s, IBS, and other inflammatory bowel diseases—try mint! Mint tea, day and night, adds tremendous relief to symptoms. It’s the ultimate tummy soother.

Bitters

Bitters formulas can be found in tinctures, as well as in the liquor cabinet, and both are great for digestion. We are just learning the power of the bitter flavor; in turns out the body has many receptors for the bitter flavor. Bitter plants helped secure humans’ health throughout the ages, aiding in bile flow (too much alcohol and or rich foods, among other aggravators, can congest the liver and gallbladder, thus stagnating bile flow) and also in digestion. Turmeric, gentian, artichoke, chamomile, and yellow dock are just a few bitter herbs. If you want to explore bitters, pick up a digestive bitters formula from your local health food store, or try Fernet Branca, a famous bitter digestive alcohol from Italy.

Avoid bitters if you are a dry type; bitters are drying, and if you experience hard-to-pass, pellet-like stool, bitters could be too drying for you.

While I’m at it, I’d like to recommend a bitter that is not a tincture, but a juice: aloe vera. Having an oh-shit moment, knowing that you’ve overindulged? Aloe vera juice to the rescue! Trader Joe’s has a reputable, inexpensive brand of aloe vera juice, sold by the gallon, that is an amazing remedy for tummy aches and pain, as well as hangovers and that too-full feeling. Add a pinch of turmeric to a cup of aloe juice, go to bed by 10 pm, and you have a simple, do-able daily liver cleanse. People withdrawing from alcohol can drink up to four cups per day of the juice and find it helps reinstate balance. It can be quite cool for some; add fresh ginger or other warm spices to aloe in the winter if you are chilly.

Spices

Ayurvedic practitioners often prescribe spice blends to assist clients with digestive woes. Spice blends change lives. People with miserable digestive health find hope with spices, as well as these other remedies—but spices have a special portability. Distressed digesters will carry their spice blends in a plastic bag or jar, and sprinkle it on food, especially potentially problematic foods. Condiments not supplements!

While you’ll have to come in to Elemental Ayurveda for your personalized spice blend recipe, I can recommend a spice tea that is suitable for all, and tastes delicious.

Cumin, coriander, fennel tea

Add a quarter teaspoon of each seed to a cup and a half of boiled water, cover, and steep until cool enough to drink. Feel free to strain the tea, or to drink it while chewing the seeds. For a stronger brew, gently boil the seeds in two cups of water for about 10 minutes. Either preparations can be boosted with a spoonful of fresh ginger.

This tea can be taken long-term by anyone. Make this tea when you are the chef and you have served a meal that you recognize could be problematic in richness; your guests will thank you. Maybe Bourdain carries a thermos of it, and this is what allows him to share a marital bed?

Love obviously trumps silly stuff like smelly farts, but let's face it, it's a lot easier to be in a body that doesn't have putrid emissions.

Know yourself, know your remedy

Yes, you can “cheat” with Ayurveda, but only if you can identify what your problems are, and what triggers you. Ask yourself: What are my symptoms? Vurps? Burps? Rumbling belly? Post-overindulgence constipation? Hangover diarrhea? Undigested food in the stool? Even simple old gas, which so many of us experience, is a sign that food is not being properly digested and assimilated.

Pre-Thanksgiving, go ahead and skip a meal that day, leave room for the indulgence to come, and maybe do a dropper of bitters before the meal begins. Or the Ayurvedic appetizer might be appropriate if you anticipate an uncomfortable food coma. Have a cup of ginger tea with that slice of pie—you’re going to need it.

Having little rabbit pellet poops the day after a big meal, or can’t go at all? Try eating a bit less next time, over a longer period of time, and make sure that the majority of your food is well-cooked. Skip the salad, double up on the mashed potatoes with extra ghee, and make sure everything is moist and oily. I mean, if you have dry-verging-on-constipation digestion, can you see how it would be super hard to digest a baguette for instance? Butter it up, no skimping! Or better yet, skip it.

Having acidic digestion with bouts of diarrhea? Go easy on the alcohol this holiday season, and if that’s not so easy, at least steer clear of fried foods including all chips, avoid crap candy in favor of more wholesome sweets like baked apples or pumpkin pie, and don’t forget your aloe before bed! No spicy for you, either, and while we’re at it, dairy should be limited.

And if you anticipate gaining weight this holiday season, enjoy ginger and spices with meals. Be moderate with dairy and sweets. Be wary of symptoms like mucus and lethargy after eating—you are headed into imbalance. Pack your bitters alongside your potluck contributions, and don’t forget, a brisk walk after a big meal will help the over-full feelings.

The holidays aren’t the times to skip our favorite foods, even if our faves knock us out of balance. Moderation and awareness will facilitate true enjoyment, instead of that lopsided mouth-joy-gut-misery dynamic. I say this a lot and I’ll say it again: Ayurvedic disease pathology points to the digestive system as the seed of the eventual blossom of disorder. Digestion counts. Big time. Our digestive system is at the core of our person; how we feel there affects our attitudes, our worldviews, our relationships. The holidays are a time when families and friends come together—feeling good matters so much at these times. Go ahead and walk your tightrope of balance and indulgence; Ayurveda will hold your hand.

Eva Saelens is a professional member of the National Ayurvedic Medical Association, with over 1500 hours of training in Ayurveda, massage therapy, and Ayurvedic treatments. She graduated from the California College of Ayurveda in 2013. Subsequently, Eva spent a year interning and studying Ayurveda, Tibetan medicine, whole foods nutrition, aromatherapy, and pancha karma at the dhyana Center in Sebastopol, Calif., and in India. ​

Medicine maker's digest: Perfect pesto

Leaves, bulbs, roots, and fruits=pesto!

Leaves, bulbs, roots, and fruits=pesto!

Medicinal pesto is everything I love. It’s a therapeutic food, full of enzymatic herbs that compliment digestion. It’s customizable. It’s full of raw oils, which are essential for brain health. Making it is a creative process that even the most clumsy cook can pull off. Maybe what I love the most is that it makes easy, somewhat boring meals more healthy and more delicious. Having a hard time getting something green into every meal? Well, then pesto is for you.

I used to think of pesto in a strict way: basil, garlic, olive oil, Parmesan, and salt. Italian and traditional ONLY! Many chefs are hung up like that, but hey, when you reform your idea of pesto as being this platform for creative nutritional play, as a way to make eating healthier more easy, it’s becomes more natural to break the boring old rules. Especially when it tastes this delicious.

Pesto is a great gateway for home cooks struggling to mobilize from beginner to intermediate. Pesto is an excellent way to illuminate the medicinal properties of culinary herbs, which are hella materia medica in Ayurveda. Herbs and spices are preventative medicine, aiding absorption and elimination in the digestive system. An unbalanced digestive system is the first place where disease manifests, says Ayurveda. Ayurveda also says that beneficial foods should taste good. If your austere or super regulated is dull and uninspiring, it’s going to be hard to stay on that diet, and if you aren’t having those vibrational “yum yums,” something is off. Food should taste good. When it tastes good, we are getting more out of it.

But let’s reform our ideas of tasting good. Cross out overly sweet foods, processed foods, foods laden with refined salt, foods heavy with rancid, inappropriate cooked fats. Let’s try fresh pesto, with raw oils and medicinal properties in tact, with raw seeds for further EFA support, and let’s salt it to taste with high quality mineral salts, like Celtic sea salt. And then, let’s put it on everything!

 

The Herbs

Basil is a great place to start. It’s the traditional choice and many people have bumper crops each summer. Vatas and kaphas especially benefit from basil’s warming energetics. Pittas, who have more fiery tendencies, may want to put basil in their pestos only in the cooler months, though I don’t find basil to be quite as heat stimulating as, let’s say, chiles. Basil is said to be great for the memory, a nervous system soother, and a diaphoretic, which means it opens pores for perspiration. And it imparts that classic pesto flavor.

I turn to cilantro always for those fired-up pittas, but it’s by no means off the table for vatas and kaphas—the cold and cool constitutions. Cilantro makes a pesto that tastes quite a bit different from the usual basil, but I think you’ll like it. And mixing cilantro and basil is always nice because cilantro is often cheap year-round, while basil is more difficult to obtain inexpensively when it’s not in season. Cilantro is far more wonderful than you may know! Also known as coriander, this herb (called “soapy” flavored by some, reportedly loathed by culinarian Julia Child—more for us!) helps to remove heavy metals like mercury from the system, as well as dispelling digestive gas, relieving hay fever, alleviating skin conditions, chilling inflammation, and soothing the urinary tract. Cilantro is reportedly so amazing at filtering out heavy metals that researchers in Mexico have used to the herb to make a water filter to remove lead, nickel, and other heavy metals. Researchers reported that just a handful of cilantro was enough to remove lead from the pitcher full of contaminated water! Imagine what it might do for you when spread on your daily egg sandwich! Those who want the medicinal effects of cilantro but perhaps are concerned about it being too cold for their system should add a big chunk of fresh, peeled ginger to their pesto to warm it up.

Who doesn’t love arugula in salads, why not try it in pesto? This leafy green is a mild bitter—perfect for pittas and kaphas, as bitter flavors both reduce heat in the body (pitta) and can assist kaphas in their battles with excess weight and water. Arugula can be nicely inexpensive and wonderfully flavorful, as well as powerfully medicinal, aiding in skin conditions and assisting the function of the liver and spleen. 

While we appreciate the bitter splendor of arugula, why not tout dandelion greens? Also great for pittas and kaphas because of the bitter flavor’s action on the liver and spleen, dandelion greens are a top-notch cleansing food, and an affordable medicinal pesto base. Vatas and the chronically dehydrated beware: Dandelion greens help to rid the body of fluids and in some cases, will dry people out. However, as a dry person myself, I find that the greens, when pulverized and drowned in olive oil, pesto style, can be good for all in moderation. 

Punch-packing herbs: You can put any herb in pesto, but many culinary herbs are far too strong to use as a base herb. Cilantro, basil, arugula, dandelion greens or a mix are the best herbs to comprise the bulk of your herbal paste, but feel free to try to add bits of these other herbs to supercharge the medicine, to customize it for whatever’s up with you these days. Beware: some combinations may be too intense and taste less than delicious. Start simple!

Rosemary VK- P+ (aka good for those who are on the cold and cool side, less so for those dominated by heat) Rosemary is considered an ancestor plant, a grandmother. Add rosemary to your pesto in tribute to those who’ve passed, or enjoy its stimulating energetics. It improves circulation, clears mucus from the respiratory system, and aids brain function. 

Thyme VK- P+ Another pungent, thyme is amazing for the lungs, dispels gas, and aids in immunity. It’s quite powerful, use it sparingly at first and add more if you like it.

Celery leaves VK+ P- Great for pittas, if your celery leaves manage to escape the stock pot, throw them into a fresh pesto mixture. Celery will cool off pittas and are hydrating in the short term—beware long-term overuse of this delicious leaf, it could have astringent effects over time. 

Marjoram VK-P+ A pungent that expels mucus, but again, very strong! Go slowly when adding to pesto.

Mint V+P- K= (neutral) Mint is the best friend of those suffering from inflammatory bowel diseases like colitis or Crohn’s disease. As well as soothing inflammation in the digestive tract, mint relieves nausea and refreshes the body. 

Dill V-PK+ Dill is comforting to those with griping gas pains, and it helps to build gut flora.

Fennel bulb, VPK=, while not an herb, is a creative pesto component that is approved for all bodies, a perfect tri-doshic veggie that actually goes great in pesto. Rich in minerals and electrolytes, when chopped roughly this hydrating bulb pulverizes nicely into a pesto mixture, and the feathery fronds can be used to impart a mildly licorice-y flavor to your pesto. A great digestive calmer, also a hormone balancer, fennel will also combat bad breath. 

The pungents

Yes, traditional pesto reeks strongly of garlic, but raw garlic is not for everyone, especially fired-up pittas. But an allium flavor is always welcome in pesto. For a less biting pesto, use a leek in place of garlic. Leek is especially useful in the winter, when rich foods and lack of exercise add up to excess mucus. Leek helps to clear the mucus and free up the lungs.

Raw ginger is another stellar pungent to add to pesto, especially for those vatas and kaphas who crave extra warmth. Even pittas are assisted by raw ginger and should prefer it to the highly spicy ground ginger. Raw ginger can be peeled and chunked and added to the pesto mix. 

 

Finishing touches

Squeezing fresh lemon into the mix as it swirls in the blender or food processor adds to the flavor, as well as keeping it verdantly green. I also add a scoop of probiotic powder, sauerkraut juice, or whey to culture the pesto, keeping it fresher longer, as well as imparting beneficial bacteria.

Nuts: I like raw, unsalted pumpkin seeds. I don’t measure them, I just take a liberal handful and toss em into my pesto. Pumpkin seeds are tridoshic, excellent for men’s health and the prostate, said to release lactic acid from the muscles, and super for the nervous system. I am always tempted to buy pumpkin seed oil and then balk at the price, but adding pumpkin seeds to pesto brings that medicinal magic with much less cost. Hemp seeds are another great addition to pesto and are specific for those with nervous system issues—super food in your pesto, what’s up?!

Oil: You are going to need a lot of extra-virgin olive oil for your pesto. Way more than you thought you would. While organic is best, especially when it comes to fats, I can’t afford it, so I buy 3 liter jugs of Sagra or Partanna olive oil from Italy. Glug, glug, glug, if your pesto is not coming together, add more oil! While you should prefer EVOO for the majority of your pesto oil, go ahead and experiment with flax oil or hemp oil. Hemp oil has the optimal omega-3 and omega-6 ratio of essential fatty acids, and flax oil also is rich with EFAs, helping to fortify the myelin sheath, which protects nervous system cells and their function. Or even better, add some Udo’s Oil to your pesto blend, which is an amazing and kind of expensive blend of EFAs that are optimal for brain health. Eat fat, support your brain! Much, much more on this later.

Salt: You get what you pay for when it comes to salt. Invest in the good stuff. Celtic sea salt, Himalayan mineral salt, French Atlantic grey—these salts are much tastier than your average refined sea salt (see the 75 cents per pound varieties) and better for you. Not all sea salt is alike! Prefer the salts that are on the expensive side, prefer the salts that seem a bit moist in their container, prefer salts with variation in color and texture. Consume these salts and feel better. Always prefer these salts in your pesto. More on this coming soon!

The process

You will absolutely need a blender or food processor to make your pesto. It’s quite possible that your pesto will come out like a paste and with less texture than some pestos, and I think that’s fine. When you have many disparate ingredients, it takes more effort to blend it all together and the results come out with less texture. When loading your pesto ingredients into your appliance, place the oils, salt, nuts, garlic or leek, and fennel bulb at the bottom near the blade, followed by the leaves; this makes for a more even blending. You may have to frequently agitate the contents of the blender jar or processor bowl, you may have to add more oil than you expected, you may want to add more kraut juice to get it juicy enough to blend evenly. Don’t be afraid, just do it! 

When I first started exploring Ayurvedic studies, I was spooked by the different food categories for different people. I mean, if you are an ice-cold vata living with a smoking-hot pitta, how the heck do you eat the same meals? If people can’t break bread together, so to speak, doesn’t that mean the destruction of relationships? I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. But it’s not that bad! Make a base pesto blend and customize it for different family member’s diets, it’s pretty easy. 

Examples: Pesto for your type

Vata pesto for a super dry, cold person with constipation: arugula, cilantro, basil base, with ginger and fennel bulb, small amounts of dill and rosemary, leek, fresh ground black pepper, pumpkin seed, flax oil, olive oil, Celtic sea salt, touch of sauerkraut juice and or lemon. Use generous amounts primarily on warm, cooked food. 

Pitta pesto for inflammation and angry attitude: dandelion, cilantro, arugula base, fennel bulb, a touch of mint, hemp seeds, hemp oil, olive oil, Celtic sea salt, touch of sauerkraut juice and or lemon

Kapha pesto for lethargic, heavy person: arugula, dandelion, cilantro base, fennel bulb, ginger, garlic, touch of thyme and marjoram, pumpkin seeds, fresh ground black pepper, olive oil, Celtic sea salt, touch of sauerkraut juice and or lemon

Screw juice, try pesto!

Pesto is our post-juice, super-nutritious, supplement-slaying heritage condiment. Juice is too cold for most, juice is stripped of valuable fiber, but juice drinkers do mean well; they just didn’t know when they bought an expensive juice, they should’ve bought pesto making ingredients. Pesto means pasta with a nutrient-boosting conscience. Pesto means there’s no shame in another night of beans and rice. Pesto on toast is a commendable breakfast for a light morning eater. Pesto travels well and injects nutrition into crappy on-the-road meals. Pesto keeps for weeks in the fridge, just make sure there's always a film of oil over the herb mixture to prevent mold. Make your pesto on a day off once a month, and enjoy the smells and textures of making your own awesome medicine!

Pesto means, somebody loves me, and that’s me!

Eva Saelens is a professional member of the National Ayurvedic Medical Association, with over 1500 hours of training in Ayurveda, massage therapy, and Ayurvedic treatments. She graduated from the California College of Ayurveda in 2013. Subsequently, Eva spent a year interning and studying Ayurveda, Tibetan medicine, whole foods nutrition, aromatherapy, and pancha karma at the dhyana Center in Sebastopol, Calif., and in India. 

Eva is a cook, an experimental musician and composer, a writer and proofreader, as well as an Iyengar yoga enthusiast. She grew up in Michigan and now lives in Oakland, Calif. with her husband.


Self-care: A love story

Making time for sacred self-care means getting to know yourself, and maintaining wellness. 

Making time for sacred self-care means getting to know yourself, and maintaining wellness. 

Ceremonial self-care is a descriptor for my work at Elemental Ayurveda, a phrase I’ve been applying to promotional materials, and my Web site, but I don’t exactly find it self-explanatory. I wanted to use this space in order to delve deeper and flesh out this idea. What is self-care, and why ceremonial?

Self-care was the centerpiece of our ancestors’ approach to health care. Wellness was more of a mystery before the laser-focus of modern medicine and advanced science, and access to medical professionals was rare. People had techniques rooted in their culture around what an average person needed to survive in a specific climate. Massage, saunas and sweat lodges, and herbalism are just the tip of the vastness of the ancient realms of self-care. 

As cultures meld together and people change habitats and migrate from the traditions that kept our predecessors afloat, self-care has become foreign to most of us. While these techniques of care made it literally possible for us to be here, protecting our ancestors from disease and downfall, we have lost the traditions, the nuggets of precious hard-won information about how to take care and thrive. But as so many struggle to find wellness, mental clarity, freedom from addiction, and more, it is clear that self-care is the quality-of-life piece missing from the puzzle. 

I was drawn initially to Ayurveda because of the emphasis on self-care. Self-care is creative and playful in Ayurveda, a time of doting on the self with intention and purpose. Ayurveda means “science of life” in Sanskrit, and upon studying the classic texts, it’s clear that the essence of Ayurvedic medicine is knowing the self with the confidence to perform the self-care necessary for wellness and seasonal harmony. Self-care techniques are usually the centerpiece of a person’s Ayurvedic wellness protocol as prescribed by a practitioner like me. Self-care is often inexpensive, taking more time than money usually, and can produce quicker, more tactile results than something like supplements, which can take big bucks to use and months to show results sometimes. 

Many chronically ill or unhappy people transcend their perceived limitations with self-care. It is the huge missing element when just taking a pill feels like simply not enough. 

You already have a self-care routine, even if you are sooooo busy, even if you eschew “preening,” but most likely, it’s kind of minimal. Hopefully, you brush your teeth and floss—you are not just waiting helplessly for your teeth to rot and pop out, you take daily action to support the health of your mouth. That is self-care. And every part of your body would like a little of that care and attention. The only thing stopping you is education! How to develop a reasonable, seasonally-adjusted self-care routine is not common knowledge. But I can teach you. 

Self-care can take a less than a half hour a day, or a couple of hours per week, or both, it’s up to you and your needs. There’s always results with self-care! 

I attribute my use of the word “ceremony” to my friend and fellow practitioner Cameron Free, as well as yoga teacher and friend Tirza Dawn. Both of these inspiring people use the word ceremony with a clarity and elegance that made me realize that “ceremony” is exactly what I want to cultivate in our community. Putting some ceremony in your self-care means making an intention, whether it be “I care for myself to avoid the cancer in my family” or “I do self-care to prevent depression.” Adding intention, anointing the experience with things like flowers, essential oils, candles, crystals, incense—self-care is supercharged as a ceremony. Many people fantasize about a sweetheart accentuating a romantic experience with ceremonial flair. Why shouldn’t we apply this desire to our care for ourselves?

Here’s a brief roundup of a few self-care favorites. These practices are not for everybody, all the time, and are most potent with some coaching from an Ayurvedic practitioner. 

Abhyanga

Abhyanga is a warm oil self-massage, preferably a daily ritual for those who are chronically dry, experiencing anxiety, or just can’t relax. It is indicated in all mental health disorders, as well as immune issues. 

Sesame oil or coconut oil are most common in this practice—sesame for those who identify as running cold, coconut for those who are on the warm side. Feel free to change the oils as the seasons change. 

Starting from the feet, warm oil is applied liberally in the direction of the heart, feet to heart, hands to heart. It is important to oil everywhere, including the ears, face, genitals, nostrils, even the hair (beware, it can be quite difficult to remove oil from hair, more on that later). Think of all of the things we protectively coat with oil: wood utensils, furniture, leather, etc—oiling our bodies protects and nourishes our cherished vehicle. 

The massage oil can be warmed by putting the bottle of oil in a cup of boiling water. Drops of essential oil can be added to motivate the lymphatic system, elevate the mood, etc. Speaking of the lymphatic system, also known as the immune system, this oil massage is an amazing way to keep the lymph moving. Healthy lymph means a healthy immune response. More on this later as well. 

Always follow the abhyanga with a shower or bath. This might surprise you, but it’s important to wash off excess oil that will feel sticky and burdensome. Take care stepping into the tub or shower—oily feet are hazardous! While you’re at it, toss the fancy lotions and creams. Abhyanga is all you need. 

I have always enjoyed abhyanga before bed, but some prefer it in the morning. It’s an awesome daily practice, even for those who at first might pooh-pooh it. It’s addictive, and can be a great gateway to self-care routines in general. 

Salt scrubs

Salt scrubs are like abhyanga, but more active and investigative. Make a paste of regular old sea salt (not chunky or too fine, about 50 cents per pound in bulk) and organic sunflower oil (an energetically neutral, silky oil for all types) as well as essential oils, if you like. Get in the shower with the water off, start at the feet, work to the heart, hands to heart as well, and scrub the skin until pink. Avoid the face and neck. Be extremely careful, this can be a slippery mess!

The amazing effect of salt scrubs is that, upon turning pink, you will notice more effects on your skin, like marbling, intense redness, purplish hues, etc. These different effects are informative about the circulation and ease of lymph movement. Purple hues mean there’s coldness or stagnation in the tissue. Having difficulty turning pink at all means the lymph is not moving in those areas. 

Once completely scrubbed (don’t forget your back, your hands, etc.) run the bath and bathe in the salty, oily warm water. You will feel so refreshed, so rebooted, you may be surprised you were able to make yourself feel that good! 

Oil Pulling

A lot of us need a couple minutes when we wake up, a couple of minutes of solitude, without conversation, in order to adjust to another day. If you feel this way, oil pulling might be perfect for you! It's easy—just take a few teaspoons of oil in your mouth (sesame or coconut are both great, prefer sesame if you have issues with cold) and swish vigorously for at least a few minutes. Bonus: You can have a few quiet moments, because you can't talk with your mouth full of oil.

Oil pulling is supportive to the health of your mouth, good for nourishing tight jaws wrecked by TMJ, helpful for the constipated, and grounding for those who deal with stress on a daily basis. Once you've swished for a few minutes (feel free to swish as long as you like), just spit the oil out into the garbage or compost. Do not swallow. You will be amazed. The oil with be frothy with waste. 

Enemas

We talked about the gateway of our digestive systems, the mouth, early in this post, and how most people have a self-care routine for dental care. Now we'll discuss the other side of the digestive system, the colon. Discussion of this topic, somewhat embarrassing to some, is of paramount importance. Ayurveda says that all diseases begin initially in the gut and yet we are just learning to care for our guts as a culture here in America!

Whether it's chronic constipation or burning diarrhea, our colons put up with a lot and get very little attention in return. Giving yourself an enema is an excellent way to shed some love on this oft-forgotten part of our bodies. Enemas hydrate deeply, helping to soften and move old stool, which clings like plaque to the large intestine wall, much like plaque clings to teeth. Enemas help soothe the mucus membrane of the colon, providing cool relief to those who experience burning elimination. Enemas help gassiness, constipation, diarrhea, you name it. Once you do one enema, you will be hooked. It's just getting over the stigma and discomfort around that first enema.

While I won't go in-depth on this topic, I encourage anybody who really wants to try an enema to come and see me, or perhaps we can talk about it on the phone. I think everyone should try it, by the way. Along with maintaining the health of the gut microbiome, enemas are crucial to digestive self-care, and sort of scratch that itch you just can't seem to locate. Know what I mean?!

Bringing it all together

Every person should have 2-3 hours per week, alone in their own home, in order to do self-care. That's my vision, as unlikely as it may be for so many of us. There are many, many more therapies to trick out your self-care routine with: herbal steam inhalations, hydrotherapy and hot-cold bathing routines, yoni steams, neti pot, candle gazing, and much more. Even just a salt scrub and an enema per week, along with a couple of daily abhyangas, can have a revolutionary effect on health. 

Don't forget the ceremony! Put on the Alice Coltrane, write in your journal, spark up the incense, burn sage, light a candle, dedicate the ceremony to yourself, or someone you love. Self-care routines are an investment in time, but pay back with time! When your body's  needs are met, you have more time and energy because your pacified body acts with more grace and efficiency. 

Self-care is the story of the most important love that we can give: to ourselves. Because if we don't care for ourselves, we can't properly care for anybody else. 

Eva Saelens is a professional member of the National Ayurvedic Medical Association, with over 1500 hours of training in Ayurveda, massage therapy, and Ayurvedic treatments. She graduated from the California College of Ayurveda in 2013. Subsequently, Eva spent a year interning and studying Ayurveda, Tibetan medicine, whole foods nutrition, aromatherapy, and pancha karma at the dhyana Center in Sebastopol, Calif., and in India. 

Eva is a cook, an experimental musician and composer, a writer and proofreader, as well as an Iyengar yoga enthusiast. She grew up in Michigan and now lives in Oakland, Calif. with her husband.

 

Winter medicine: Stoking summer's fires

Happy equinox! Summer is over! As always, I have mixed feelings about summer's end. In the past, my feelings were dominated by fear: fear of cold and flu season, fear of those dreary, short dark days, even a weird fear of wearing jeans and socks again after months of unfettered enjoyment in flip-flops and filmy skirts.

Life experience, coupled with my Ayurvedic and elemental medicine education, transformed my cool weather fears into a protocol of prevention. And appreciation—if we were always illuminated by summer's brightness, lives would probably be shortened by the mania, and summer days wouldn't feel so special. Here in Northern California, our catastrophic drought has wrought a passion for wintry, rainy days, as the past years, stripped of most of those prohibitive-weather relaxers, has colored our communities with a steady, low-level fatigue. 

The sun provides so much energy. In summer's brightest days, we feel guided by the light, a robust invincibility. But it's actually that myth of invincibility that sets the stage for miserable winter sniffles and other maladies. Summer's intensity is intoxicating and the bad choices of summery free-for-alls can come back to haunt in the fall and winter, when the sun's firepower is lacking and we are more vulnerable to viruses and fatigue . 

But it's not too late, even if you spent your summer staying up all night, eating weird foods (tortilla chips and beer dinner at the river?!), overdoing the drinking or the drugs, and running yourself ragged from the euphoria of it all. Next year, I recommend you take it easier—and don't we all have moments in the midst of summer's overwhelm that we swear we will take it easier next year—but for those who are welcoming fall with a spirit of skepticism, here are some tips. 

Hydration: Going with the flow. If you spent the summer sweating, drinking alcohol, basking in the sun, and doing pretty much everything else summery, you may have experienced dehydration. Most people have difficulty staying hydrated in the summer, which leads to fall and winter problems. I believe that many of us don't even know what hydrated really feels like! Dry skin, gas,  poor nutrient absorption, constipation and pellet-like stool, anxiety, uneven body temperature, and a dry cough are just some of the symptoms of chronic, systemic dryness. 

Moisture is protective to our bodies—for instance, the moist lining in our guts called mucin feed the probiotic layer that enforces immunity; a properly lubricated body has strong protective mucus membranes, like the cilia of the nose and lungs, which filter out harmful inhaled substances;  even emotionally, Ayurveda says that a dehydrated person is more likely to have a restless and anxious mind. Moisture grounds, protects, and generally optimizes bodily function. 

It's never too late to hydrate—1/2 ounce per pound of body weight daily is a good start, plus more when taking in coffee or alcohol or sweating a lot. Hydration is a whole larger article, but a few recommendations: sip water frequently through the day, don't chug—sips help the body uptake the moisture, chugging can overwhelm a dehydrated system and the water gets urinated instead of absorbed; take in warm or room-temperature fluids—ice water is again, difficult for the body to uptake; supplement with coconut water, a great hydrating tool, but also quite cold in nature—cold-running people should grate ginger in their coco water or avoid it when chilly; fortify your water with electrolyte boosters (like high-quality salts, see Celtic or Atlantic grey) and demulcents like chia seeds, ground flax seeds, and powdered slippery elm, which bolster your water's hydrating power as well as have healing effects on the gut.

Beware over-the-counter meds that harshly dry out the mucus of a cold. These remedies counter your body's natural urge to eliminate pathogens through mucus, as well as leave you bone dry.  

Acknowledge when you are tired and act accordingly. This seems like an easy one but it trips us all. I am so relieved for the essential term FOMO—fear of missing out—because it is a description of a syndrome that leads to leaky noses and feverish nights, as well as general, undiagnosed crankiness. Know your limits, know how to say no, be comfortable with the unglamour of staying in when your body says, "No more!" Talk about cheap medicine, this policy will likely save you money! 

Know yourself and plan for the future months with that knowledge. Are you like me, and summer's end gives you a trembly anticipation of shivery days, inconsistent digestion and elimination, and probable colds? If you are like me, then you are more on the cold side in your constitution, so your seasonal transition should include phasing out raw foods in favor for oily, spiced cooked dishes; taking in more warm teas like tulsi and ginger; and being extremely vigilant about covering your neck, midriff, and feet on those iffy, kinda-warm, kinda-cool, days. 

If you are more on the warm side, and the cooling of fall actually gives you some sweet relief from loose stools and your firey personality, your protocol is a bit different. Warmer people need to beware extending their hot-weather habits into the seesaw temperature days of fall. Avoid iced drinks, melons, dairy products, ice cream, excessive raw foods, and the other cooling-off habits that you turn to in summer's steamiest days. While the heat of summer has been probably antagonizing you for months, keeping those fires healthy and strong into fall will be to your advantage. Be warm, but don't be hot and inflamed. We'll talk more about that concept in time in this space. 

Eat for immunity. Notice your post-digestive experiences. Foods that are generating mucus should be avoided, like dairy. Mucus is the first sign of imbalance for those of us flirting with a cold. Slicing up some fresh ginger and boiling it with water for about 20 minutes is a great preventative tea for those with the dampness of mucus. Also: Make a weekly broth (bone broth if possible for carnivores) and load it up with medicinal mushrooms (shiitake, maitake, etc.), seaweed like kombu, onions, garlic, and spices like cumin, coriander, rosemary, and asafoetida. Don't forget carrots, celery, squash, and other trimmings. Importantly, add a slice or two of astragalus to your broth—astragalus is an immune boosting herb that won't affect the taste of your broth much, but will make your broth that much more medicinal. Use that broth to make soups, rice, beans, etc. through the week. Homespun medicine, oh yes. 

That brings me to today's kitchen medicine action: hot sauce. I spent the weekend preserving symbols of summer's splendors:  I canned twenty-five pounds of dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes and started a few batches of lacto-fermented chiles for pickled jalapenos and carrots, as well as hot sauce.

By this time of year, we get kind of sick of seeing tomatoes and chiles, but a few months from now, these fruits will be exotic reminders of bygone summer days. A nice spicy condiment hot sauce made of lacto-fermented chiles, onions, garlic, and spices can cut the cold, warm the belly, and keep the digestive fire stoked to burn up any unwanted invaders. 

Lacto-fermented harissa hot sauce

This is less a recipe and more an invitation to play with these inexpensive ingredients. Play around, don't be intimidated, you will likely concoct something that is delicious and a health remedy. 

First, assemble your ingredients. I used several jalapenos for heat, Jimmie Nardello sweet peppers for a mild flavor, a handful of garlic cloves, a tablespoon of hot smoked powdered paprika, whole cumin, carraway, and fennel seeds, apple cider vinegar, salt water, and some sugar. 

Make a brine: 1 cup of hot water to 1 tablespoon of salt (please use only the best salt—celtic sea salt, Atlantic grey salt, unrefined sea salt, etc. Not Morton salt, or $.69/pound sea salt. Good salt should cost at least $5 or so per pound, and it is so worth it. More on this later.) I made a half-gallon of brine for my pickling projects but a quart would be more than enough for this recipe. Make sure the salt is dissolved and let it cool completely before pouring it on the hot sauce ingredients.

Sterilize a quart jar by pouring a few inches of boiling hot water into the bottom of the jar, and swirling it around, sterilizing the lip of the jar as you pour out the boiling water. 

Stuff the sterilized jar full of chopped hot chiles, sweet chiles, garlic, paprika, and a sprinkling of fennel seeds, cumin seeds, and caraway seeds. Now, chiles' heat can vary wildly so it's hard to say how hot it will be! Remove the pith and seeds of the chiles if you want predictably less heat. 

Once your jar is well-stuffed, add about a tablespoon of sugar, a dash of unpasteurized apple cider vinegar, a dash of whey or unpasteurized sauerkraut juice if you have it on hand (this will speed the process a bit and get the beneficial bacteria quickly established) and then finish off with the brine salt water. Cover the mixture completely and make sure it's submerged in its own juices. You can use a sterilized rock, or weights like these http://www.culturesforhealth.com/small-ceramic-fermentation-weight.html. 

Cover the jar with a cloth fixed with a rubber band and let it sit for several days. A week or more would be best, depending on the temperature of the area around the fermenting mixture. Now, keep an eye on it, and you may find that a fuzzy mold forms on the top of the mixture. This often happens (always!) and in the past, made me panic-stricken—is it ruined? No! Simply scrape off the mold, even if you don't perfectly remove all of it, and let it keep fermenting. The bits of mold won't hurt you, won't impact the flavor—in short, it's completely normal. If your ferment is completely ruined by spoilage, you will know it; it will smell simply repugnant. Normal slight surface mold shouldn't have an odor. 

Once you have determined that your ferment has gone far enough (it's up to you, I know it's ready when it has been about a week, it's a bit bubbly, and smells fantastic), pop the whole mixture into a blender and puree. Add a bit of whey, kraut juice, or brine to thin it if it's too chunky. 

Taste it: is it the perfect heat and consistency for eggs and greens, or is it so overpowering that just a dash with finish off a pot of beans? Either way, you'll find a way to use it, and you know what you'd do different next time.

Bottle your sauce and stick it in the fridge. It's winter medicine, fresh from the heart of summer. 

Keeping summer's fires simmering promotes a more healthful endurance of the chilly days to come. 

Keeping summer's fires simmering promotes a more healthful endurance of the chilly days to come. 

Bulgarian carrot peppers—this heat will get you through the sniffles. 

Bulgarian carrot peppers—this heat will get you through the sniffles. 

Jalapenos

Jalapenos