Monks’ Cookbook

`The Āyurvedic Qualities of Foods`

`A Quick Reference Drawn from Renowned Sources`

The previous section gave a basic list of the essential food remedies that every home should have. It is especially designed for householders just getting started in the art of Indian cookery. Below is a more comprehensive directory of dozens of herbs and foods. You may wonder, “What about protein?” The answer is simple, though not obvious. The wonderful herbs, spices, fruits, vegetables and dairy products that āyurveda recommends contain more than enough protein for good health. Indeed, protein is not a concern in āyurveda. It is hardly mentioned. The body’s need for protein has been highly overrated in modern times, and in fact excess protein creates toxins in the body leading to bone disease. Everything the human body needs is fully contained in a wholesome, fully-balanced, vegetarian diet. Below we have listed and described the āyurvedic qualities of the herbs, spices, fruits, vegetables and other foods found in wholesome Hindu homes. Loving Gaṇeśa wants all of His nearly one billion devotees to follow this example.§

`Spices and Herbs`

`Anna Gaṇeśa Raṅgoli`

`An Image of Gaṇapati Made with Herbs And Spices, a Special Sādhana for Gaṇeśa Chaturthī`

Below is an image of Gaṇeśa we created in our publications facility. The chart on the following page shows the ingredients used, all from the inspiration of the Lord of Categories. Nearly all the spices āyurveda recommends (from the listings above) went into our raṅgoli (kolam in Tamil) of loving Gaṇeśa. We enlarged the drawing (below) on a photocopier, then placed each spice with a spoon into its assigned area. Two suggestions: work from top to bottom to avoid disturbing already placed spices; and put the turmeric on last, no matter where it is located! Other spices with similar color and texture can be substituted for those not yet in your pantry. §

Each month on His special day or at least yearly during the Gaṇeśa Chaturthī festival, gather with the entire family and create this raṅgoli (kolam in Tamil) of our loving Lord in all the healing foods that He wants us to use daily for the dear children and their parents. Performing this sādhana ensures that the proper spices are in the pantry and reminds everyone of the value of their use. It will be fun for the whole family. After Chaturthī day take the health-giving ingredients to a garden or park and offer them to the birds, mice and insects, for they live with us too on planet Earth and are as loved by Gaṇeśa as are we. There are, of course, other ways to make a Chaturthī raṅgoli for our Loving Gaṇeśa to enjoy, using essential spices and other pantry items that are standard in every Hindu Amma’s home, seen in big jars in every kitchen. For example, below is a simpler Gaṇeśa, made with six healing ingredients: the five home remedial foods described by Dr. Sodhi, along with jaggery for Gaṇeśa’s happy, ever-giving face. To the right are two swastikas, one made with six ingredients and the other with thirty-one. §

`The Herb of the Day`

There are 31 important herbs and spices listed to the right, one for each day of the month. Each day in your home, make it a point to feature the item of the day in your menu in some way. Be creative and enjoy these wonderful foods throughout the year for good health and longevity.§

peppercorns
trifala
tamarind
turbinado sugar
cumin
cloves
salt
curry leaves
turmeric
red pepper
mustard seeds
saffron
cayenne
nutmeg
fenugreek
coriander
jaggery
ginger
nutmeg
star anise
neem leaf
fennel
sesame
bay leaves
mint
cinnamon (chips)
ajawan
basil
cardamom
asofoetida
garlic

`Fruits`

`APPLES,` `Malus domestica`

Slightly astringent and cooling, sweet apples are good for pitta and kapha. Raw apples can help constipation, bleeding gums and cold sores. The juice is useful in gastritis, colitis and bladder infection. Cooked apples can alleviate diarrhea and dysentery.§

`APRICOTS, Prunus armeniaca`

Sweet, astringent and heating, apricots increase pitta. Apricots are taken in large quantity to relieve chronic constipation and to help in anemia.§

`BANANAS, Musa paradisiaca sapientum`

Sweet and cooling in quality, ripe bananas decrease vāta and increase pitta and kapha. They energize muscle, fat, nerve and reproductive tissues and are used to alleviate constipation, muscle cramps and burning urination. Bananas should not be taken with milk or yogurt.§

`CHERRIES, Prunus avium`

Sweet, sour, astringent and heating, cherries pacify vāta and kapha, but may increase pitta if taken in large amounts. They are good for mental fatigue, stress, insomnia and effective in premenstrual syndrome and motion sickness.§

`COCONUTS, Cocos nucifera`

Sweet and cooling, coconut pacifies vāta and pitta but may aggravate kapha when taken in excess. Coconut oil is useful for skin problems such as sunburn. Coconut water can help in stomach disorders and burning urination as well as rashes, such as measles and chicken pox.§

`DATES, Phoenix dactylifera`

Fresh dates are sweet and cooling. Energizing and nourishing in quality, dates increase each dosha and generally promote health. Concoctions of dates and ghee can improve digestion, help anemia and relieve fatigue. A poultice of date sugar can soothe a painful muscle. Dates and certain herbs relieve coughs and other ailments of the chest region.§

`FIGS, Ficus carica`

Fresh figs are sweet and cooling. They calm vāta and pitta and promote kapha. They are a good source of iron and to build up the blood, especially recommended for women in their childbearing years. Figs strengthen the gums, relieve indigestion, heartburn, diarrhea, burning urination and give some relief in asthma. Figs should not be taken with milk or by people suffering from diarrhea or dysentery.§

`GRAPES, Vitis vinifera`

Grapes are sour, sweet and heating. They stimulate kapha and pitta and should be used for vāta in moderation. Red, purple or black grapes are tridoshic, meaning they are balanced in their effect. They are sweet, sour and astringent, with a cooling energy and a gentle laxative effect. Grapes and grape concoctions are taken for problems of urination, chest pain, cough, fever and sexual debility. §

`GRAPEFRUIT, Citrus paradisi`

Sweet, bitter and cooling, grapefruit subdues vāta and increases pitta and kapha. It encourages healthy intestines and prevents diarrhea, dysentery and other infectious diseases of the digestive tract.§

`LEMONS, Citrus limonum`

Sour and heating, lemons calm vāta, detoxify and balance pitta but may stimulate aggravated pitta and kapha doshas. In āyurveda, lemons have great healing value. They are used for high blood pressure, nausea, vomiting, indigestion, gas, morning sickness and kidney stones.§

`LIMES, Citrus aurantifolia`

Sour and slightly bitter, limes calm vāta, but can aggravate pitta in excess and stimulate kapha. They cool the pitta-provoking nature of hot, spicy foods. Lime improves appetite and digestion, relieves heartburn, nausea and hyperacidity. §

`MANGOS, Mangifera indica`

Ripe mangos are sweet and heating and balance the three doshas. Mangos are an energizer and useful to help lactation in women. Green, unripe mangos disturb all three doshas unless pickled, in which case they help digestion and improve the flavor of food.§

`MELONS, Cucumis melo`

Sweet and cooling, melons calm vāta and pitta but may provoke kapha. Melons have a diuretic action. The rind can help with rashes and acne, and chewing melons can relieve bleeding gums. Melons should be eaten alone.§

`ORANGES, Citrus sinensis`

Sour, sweet and heating, oranges pacify vāta and stimulate kapha when taken in excess. Sweet oranges are all right for pitta, but sour ones provoke this dosha. Oranges are useful for bleeding gums, hemorrhoids, bloodshot eyes, hangover, high blood pressure and indigestion.§

`PAPAYAS, Carica papaya`

Sweet and heating, papayas calm all three doshas but should not be taken more than once a week by pitta constitutions. They are helpful for cough, asthma, liver and spleen disorders. The enzymes in papayas enhance digestion. §

`PEACHES, Prunus persica`

Sour, sweet and heating, peaches pacify vāta and promote pitta. They are used in control of worms and the treatment of kidney stones, high fever and constipation.§

`PEARS, Pyrus communis`

Sweet, sour and cooling, pears stimulate vāta, calm pitta and reduce kapha. A pear eaten alone can help stop diarrhea. Pears can stimulate the appetite and help inflamed gums.§

`PINEAPPLES, Ananas comosus`

Sweet, sour and heating, ripe pineapples are soothing to vāta and kapha and all right for pitta. Pineapple is helpful in cases of indigestion and constipation. Its pulp relieves some skin irritations.§

`PLUMS, Prunus domestica`

Sweet, astringent and cooling, plums increase kapha. In small quantities they help the system produce more blood, open the lower digestive tract and clean the stomach. Plums are very useful in subduing excess vāta and pitta.§

`POMEGRANATES, Punica granatum`

Sweet, sour and astringent, pomegranates increase vāta and decrease pitta and kapha. They promote the production of red blood cells and are good for anemia, fever and heart conditions. Pomegranates are used to treat nausea, vomiting, rashes and morning sickness. Fresh juice in each nostril can stop a nosebleed, and a drop in the eye can relieve burning.§

`RASPBERRIES, Rubus strigosus`

Sweet, slightly sour and astringent, raspberries stimulate vāta and calm kapha. Eating more than two handfuls at a time may cause vomiting. Medicinally, they relieve urinary problems, bleeding gums and hemorrhoids, and are able to slow bleeding and control profuse menstruation. §

`STRAWBERRIES, Fragaria virginiana`

Sour, sweet, astringent and heating, strawberries in moderation are suitable for all doshas. Daily consumption may help in pulmonary tuberculosis or anemia.§

`WATERMELONS, Citrullus vulgaris`

Sweet and cooling, watermelon provokes kapha and vāta and relieves pitta. It binds the stools and flushes the kidneys. The dried pulp is used in cosmetics to improve the skin.§

`Vegetables`

`BEETS,` `Beta vulgaris`

Sweet and heating, beets increase pitta. Their alkaline nature and iron content make them a blood-producing food. Beets and beet tops are excellent for iron or calcium deficiency.§

`BITTER MELON, Momordica charantia`

Bitter and cooling, bitter melon can provoke vāta and soothe pitta and kapha. It is used to treat fever, anemia, diabetes and worms. Cooked bitter melon is good for cleansing the liver. It is good for pregnant women and diabetics. Drops of juice in the nostrils can relieve migraine.§

`CARROTS, Daucus carota`

Sweet, pungent and heating, carrots are calming for vāta and kapha but stimulate pitta when taken in excess. Carrots are digestive, laxative and can detoxify the body. They are used to treat anemia, chronic indigestion and cancer.§

`CUCUMBERS, Cucumus sativus`

Sweet, astringent and cooling, cucumbers increase kapha. They work magically on restlessness caused by heat, and the juice gives instantaneous relief to any burning sensation in the stomach. Cucumbers cure constipation and counteract hyperacidity and gastric or duodenal ulcers.§

`FIDDLENECK FERN TIPS`

Fern tips are a delicacy when they are picked fresh. This is an astringent food that is light and easy to digest, very good food for kapha people. However it aggravates vāta and needs to be eaten with onions and garlic for balancing out the wind element in the body. Fern tips cook in less than five minutes when steamed or boiled. If they are overcooked they become unbearably astringent and unctuous. They should be eaten no more than once or twice a week according to Hawaiian cultural tradition.§

`MUSHROOMS, Mussirionis`

There are many types of mushrooms. In general they are light and dry, which makes it a good food for kapha people. Their astringent and sweet taste also make them pacifying to pitta. kapha and pitta constituted people may take them raw. However for vāta, the mushroom’s light and astringent quality makes it aggravating. This quality is somewhat counteracted when mushrooms are cooked. Mushrooms should be eaten in moderation(once or twice a week) as they can be dulling owing to its tamasic nature. §

`RADISHES, Raphanus sativus`

Pungent and heating, radishes are fine for vāta and kapha. They can improve digestion, help relieve gas, flush the liver and get rid of intestinal worms. The long white daikon is especially effective.§

`SPINACH, Spinacea oleracea`

Pungent, bitter, sweet and cooling, spinach provokes vāta and pitta but can be calming to kapha. Spinach is used to treat asthma and coughs. The juice applied externally can relieve swelling.§

`TARO ROOT AND LEAF, Colocasia esculenta`

Sweet, pungent and neither hot nor cold, taro root increases vāta. The root is unctuous and heavy to digest, but if digested well it gives much strength. It should be cooked with black cumin, red cardamom, ajawayan, garlic or ginger. Taro root cooks in about 40-60 minutes. In cases of dry cough, taro root liquifies the cough and expels mucous. Taro leaf is bitter, sweet and slightly unctuous. Like the root, taro leaves contain oxalic acid in crystal form. If eaten uncooked, these crystals prick the digestive canals, causing painful swelling that can even be deadly. Fortunately, cooking completely breaks down the acid, alleviating the potential hazards. Taro leaf must be steamed (or boiled) for 40-60 minutes. The cooked leaf is easy to digest, subdues pitta and strengthens kapha dosha. It is best cooked with garlic and cumin seeds, which makes it balancing for vāta dosha. Both the root and the leaf should be eaten no more than twice a week.§

`SWEET POTATOES, Ipomoea batatas`

Heavy, warming, sweet potatoes increase kapha. Despite the label “potato,” these are not members of the nightshade family. Their leaves may be used as a vegetable. Natives of tropical America, these relatives of the morning glory can be eaten by those who cannot eat white potatoes and are more nutritious. The orange-fleshed varieties are high in beta carotene (vitamin A)—the brighter the orange color, the more nutrition. They are mildly laxative and may create gas. §

`TURNIPS, Brassica rapa`

Sweet, pungent and cooling, turnips balance all three doshas. They purify the system and help it produce more blood. Turnips are prescribed for healing in cases of jaundice, edema, bronchitis, scabies, psoriasis and eczema.§

`YAMS, Dioscorea`

The true yams (tuberous roots of the lily family and cousins of onions and asparagus) of India, Africa and the Caribbean lack vitamin A. But they are antihelminthic (expel worms) and antihemorrhoidal. They are similar to sweet potatoes in increasing kapha. There are hundreds of varieties ranging from sweet to bitter to tasteless. Some are used to make poultices to reduce swelling. The quasi-yams of North America are a moist-fleshed variety of sweet potato.§

`Nightshade Plants (Solanaceae)`

Nightshade is in the solanaceae family of flowering plants. It includes the white potato, eggplant, tomato, red pepper, capsicum, tobacco and many garden ornamentals. Belladonna (Atropa belladonna or deadly nightshade) is from the same family. Some species, tomatoes among them, accumulate poisonous alkaloids primarily in their leaves, which should not be used. Nightshades are related to the air element. Cases are reported in which individuals have been cured of osteoarthritis simply by abstaining from all nightshade plants. These foods should be taken moderately, once or twice a week, and not mixed with yogurt, milk, melon or cucumber. Individuals with kidney stones, gallstones or gout are advised to refrain from most nightshades because of the high oxalate content. (Kidney stones are calcium oxalate crystals). Other high oxalate foods are: spinach, beet leaves, rhubbarb, parsley, cranberry, nuts, black tea and cocoa. §

`EGGPLANT, Solanum melongena`

Eggplant is very popular in India, though it is not as highly nutritional as other vegetables. It is somewhat toxic to the system and should not be eaten more than once a week. It is pungent, astringent and heating. It encourages agni and detoxifies the colon but should not be eaten by those with kidney or gallstone problems. Eggplant is high in oxalic acid, which causes the formation of calcium oxalate crystals.§

`POTATOES, WHITE, Solanum tuberosum`

Cool, light and dry, white potatoes aggravate vāta, benefit kapha and have a neutral effect on pitta. Pittas and kaphas do best with boiled or stewed potatoes. They should be eaten no more often than three to five days a week. Pitta people can eat baked potatoes. Vāta people need their potatoes well spiced and moistened. Potatoes, being rich in vitamin C, are an old āyurvedic cure for scurvy. An important part of the nutrition is in the skins. Easy to digest, they are recommended for people with nervous indigestion or liver weakness. However, eaten alone, or with fatty condiments or in poor food combinations, the potato may be constipating and vāta aggravating. Potatoes are one of the few nightshade plants that can accumulate enough toxins in their edible portion to be overtly toxic. Fortunately, this is easily seen. Wherever the skin has a green shade, the alkaloids solanine and chaconine have accumulated close to the surface. Peeling ⅛ inch or less off these areas will remove the toxins. Potatoes need dark, cool storage.§

`TOMATOES, Lycopersicon esculentum`

Tomatoes, though among the world’s most popular foods, are generally toxic to the human body and should be eaten no more than once or twice a week. They are only recommended in āyurveda when cooked with certain spices for healing purposes. Sour and slightly pungent, ripe tomatoes upset all doshas when eaten raw, as do green and yellow tomatoes. Therefore, tomatoes must be eaten cooked to maintain good health. §

`Grains`

Grains are classified as sweet by āyurveda. They have a grounding, calming effect, smoothing out metabolic functions. Whole grains are more nutritious and balancing than refined grains. Vātas and pittas benefit from a good helping of grains, while kaphas should eat somewhat less. Grains provide the energy for work. In Asia a grain may be 60 percent of a complete meal. Each type of whole grain, such as rice, wheat and millet, has its unique qualities. Sugars mixed with grains may cause gas. Whole grains keep their prāṇa for a year. Flour should be eaten within two weeks after grinding, lest it become tamasic. Breads become tamasic eight hours after they are baked. Refined, highly processed flour should not be eaten, for it coats the intestinal tract with a paste that is constipating and debilitates proper assimilation.§

`RICE, Oryza sativa`

There are over 40,000 varieties of rice. It is the queen of grains, the staple food for most of humanity, grown in countries throughout the world. Basmati is the famous, aromatic long-grained rice from India and Pakistan that balances all three doshas. It is very light and cooling. Texmati is an excellent substitute grown in North America. Āyurveda recommends unpolished white basmati mixed with mung dal, a dish called khicheri, as a mono-diet to balance, cleanse and rejuvenate the system. Milled varieties, some of which are parboiled before milling, have reduced nutritional value and increase kapha but are more easily assimilated by delicate stomachs. Rice is a miracle food which can be eaten without limitation, even at every meal. §

BROWN RICE refers to any whole rice with only the rough husk removed but the bran and germ intact. Thus, the life force and ability to grow is retained. It is warming, heavy, moist and rough, sweet and astringent. It is balancing for vāta, but slightly unbalancing for pitta and kapha. Its high fiber prevents constipation. Its germ and bran contains proteins, vitamin B and minerals not found in white rice. It should be well cooked and well chewed. Mixing it half and half with barley will cool it for pittas. Rice and barley combined, āyurveda explains, dispels fatigue.§

`WHEAT, Triticum`

Wheat is the heaviest, moistest of all grains, excellent for gaining weight and very grounding when served with foods that are cool and moist, like cheese. Wheat is good for vāta and pitta, but unbalancing for kapha. It is well suited for hard physical labor and cold climates. Wheat is the second most widely used grain in the world. Rice is number one. Unfortunately, many people have a severe intolerance for wheat—one in 500 persons in some areas. Studies have traced this to exposure in early infancy, perhaps as young as three weeks. Infants cannot digest grains that early. The wheat is treated as a toxin, and the body develops antibodies which may be triggered as a reaction to the intake of wheat throughout life. Wheat reactions can be complicated by an intolerance for cow’s milk, which produces similar symptoms, ranging from mild sluggishness to indigestion, headache, joint pain and moodiness, puffiness in the face and sinus problems. You can test this in your own system by simply abstaining from wheat and dairy for a few months. If such symptoms disappear, you will know your own body’s tolerance. A more severe intolerance for the gluten protein in wheat results in malabsorption, bloating, irritability, diarrhea. Severe cases of gluten intolerance is called celiac’s disease. Babies do best on mother’s milk for even up to two years with the slow introduction of pureed fresh fruits and vegetables. The habitual use of wheat crackers and biscuits as snacks for children also contributes to wheat intolerance. §

`MILLET, Panicum miliaceum`

This tiny grain is hot, light and dry. It is balancing for kapha. Vāta types should not eat it alone as it is too light and dry. Its sweet after-effect balances out its heat for pitta, especially if it is cooked with extra water. Millet is high in calcium. The dark millet of India, called ragi, is renowned for bestowing endurance. Besides millet, many other small grass seeds, such as quinoa and amaranthus, are highly nutritious, light and easily digestible alternatives to rice and wheat.§

`Dals`

`LENTIL,` `Lens culinaris`

Red lentils properly prepared are tridoshic. They are a source of iron and so a good blood builder and liver cleanser. Lentils are a beneficial food to take during flu and diarrhea.§

`MUNG, Vigna radiata`

Sweet and astringent with a cooling energy, green mung beans properly cooked are light, easy to digest and balance the three doshas. They are good for indigestion, diarrhea, fever and eye problems. Skinless or yellow mung is sweet and cooling. It calms kapha and vāta. §

`TUR, Cajanus cajan`

Astringent, sweet and heating, tur dal made into a soup is calming for vāta and kapha. It is good for strengthening muscles and as a blood builder, also great for skin, eyes, bones and joints.§

`TOFU`

Tofu is a bland, protein-rich cheeselike food, coagulated from an extract of soybeans. It is astringent and sweet, cooling and heavy. Its astringence is good for kapha but requires extra spicing with garlic, ginger or black pepper to aid digestion. Vāta may find tofu constipating and should eat it in moderation. It is a good food for those with a strong pitta dosha. Lambodara, the one with the big belly, wants His dear ones to know this about the highly popular tofu. He wishes them all to maintain a balance in life and live many long years of healthful giving. §

Tofu may be eaten daily, prepared in soups and other cooked dishes. It should be prepared by warming it with heat or with spices. It should not be served cold and may not digest properly. This is the most difficult way to consume an already chilling food. It is generally steamed, stewed or lightly sauted. It should not be deep-fried or otherwise exposed to excessive heat. Tofu is very sensitive to heat and when excessively heated changes in chemistry to a form that is said to be detrimental to health. Some people are unable, due to allergy to soybeans, to digest tofu in any form. The term is Sino-Japanese: from to, meaning “bean,” and fu, “ferment.” Eaten in excess, tofu will increase kapha. The thrust here is that no matter how good anything is, nothing should be eaten too much, nor too little, but just in the right amount. §

`URAD, Vigna mungo`

Sweet and cooling, unctuous and heavy, urad dal is a calming food for vāta. It detoxifies the system, nourishes muscle, bone and reproductive fluids. It helps lactation and energizes the whole body, but is not good for kapha or pitta disorders.§

`Milk Products`

`CHEESE`

Among the many kinds of cheeses, aged hard cheeses are the most commonly sold in markets. These cheeses are sour, unctuous, heavy and oily. They are constipating and tamasic and should be enjoyed only two or three times a week. Most hard cheeses are made with an enzyme (called rennet) extracted from the intestines of a calf, unless mentioned otherwise. Strictly speaking, such cheeses are nonvegetarian. There are cheeses made using vegetable rennet which can be found in health food stores. Soft cheeses, including cottage cheese, being lighter, sour and sweet, are more suitable for frequent consumption and are truly vegetarian foods. These pacify pitta. It is always advisable for vāta and kapha people to eat cheese with some cayenne, black pepper or dry ginger powder. §

`GHEE`

Sweet and cooling, ghee, clarified butter, is highly praised in scripture for its purifying, disinfecting and healing properties. It is the number-one choice for cooking, and much preferred to other oils for frying. Ghee enhances memory, lubricates the connective tissue and makes the body flexible. A drop applied to the eyes relieves itching and improves eyesight. Taken in excess, it increases kapha. §

`MILK`

Milk is sweet, cooling and increases kapha. Milk in its many forms can be nectar for the human constitution. However, in āyurveda, “milk” means milk fresh from a contented cow, and not the medicated, homogenized, ultrapasteurized product sold in stores today. A milk fast can relieve many disorders including fever, coughs and hysteria. Milk should be boiled, as it becomes easier to digest. Āyurveda recommends milk be taken alone on an empty stomach as a meal in itself. Small babies and those with lactose intolerance should avoid cow’s milk. §

`YOGURT`

Sour, astringent and cooling, yogurt increases pitta and kapha. It has a generally invigorating effect to the system. Yogurt made from raw milk (and a good strain of the lactobacillus bacteria) is most nutritious and provides the necessary ingredients for good assimilation and elimination. Yogurt should always be taken with a little salt, cumin or black pepper.§

`Oils`

Since oil breaks down rapidly when exposed to heat, light or oxygen, it is best to use ghee (clarified butter) for all saute needs. The advertised good-for-you polyunsaturated oils (margarine, safflower, corn, sunflower) are actually more prone to degeneration (oxidation) than butter through heating or simple exposure to ultraviolet light (sunlight), causing free radicals. Free radicals are substances with impaired electrons that swim around inside of us, looking for something they can grab onto. When they latch onto something, it’s known as oxidation. Free radicals speed the aging process by destroying healthy cells as well as attacking collagen, the cement that holds cells together. Oxidation can “rust” the body as it does metal. This means cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and most of the heart problems of today’s society. (The best sources for the body’s much needed unsaturated fatty acids [UFA] are: flax seeds, sesame, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, eaten whole or freshly ground.) Oil assessment by Dr. Devananda Tandavan.§

`Sweeteners`

`HONEY`

Sweet, astringent and heating, honey increases pitta and reduces vāta and kapha. Honey has extensive use in āyurveda, both as a treatment in itself for heart, throat, chest, lungs, liver and blood, and as a base in which many medicines are prepared and administered to the patient. Honey with warm water is a laxative. With black pepper it is a popular remedy for coughs and colds. Upon heating, honey loses its medicinal quality and actually becomes toxic to the system. From honey is produced the alcoholic beverage spoken of in the Vedas as madhu (Sanskṛit for honey as well), the health-giving, natural, fermented beverage known in Europe as mead.§

`JAGGERY, Borassus flabellifer`

Jaggery is a dark, hard brownish sugar made from the flower sap of the palmyra palm tree (the same tree that produces toddy, an alcoholic beverage, by a different process). As a sugar it is far superior to processed cane or beet products in both health and taste. It is available in Indian stores around the world. It is sweet in taste and heating in effect, strengthening and heavy, subduing excess vāta, but increasing pitta and kapha. A product from boiling sugarcane juice is often sold as jaggery, but true jaggery is from a different source. §

`CANE SUGAR, Saccharum officinarum`

Raw cane sugar is sweet and cooling, oily and heavy. It is most calming to vāta, moderately calming to pitta and aggravates kapha. A useable form of raw cane sugar is sucanat, evaporated organic sugar cane juice, which is similar in taste and texture to brown sugar. Freshly pressed sugar cane juice can also be used for beverages or to cook with. Refined white sugar, which is also derived from the sugar beet, is not recommended. Most “brown sugar” is simply refined white sugar with molasses added for color, so it is also not recommended. However, there is another form of processed sugar which is also brown, called Turbinado, which is better than processed sugar for cooking or baking. §

Excessive consumption of all types of sugar depletes the immune system. Children given too much sugar or sugar-rich products, such as candy and soft drinks, become hyperactive and lose their abilities of concentration. A little known fact important to strict vegetarians is that white cane sugar is filtered through animal bones during processing. §

`Āyurveda Sources`

Aziz, Khalid, Step by Step Guide to Indian Cooking. London, Hamlyn, 1974. Recipes from the five geographical regions of India, including many desserts.§

Frawley, Dr. David, Ayurvedic Healing. Salt Lake City, Utah, Passage Press, 1989. Detailed methods of constitution balancing and treatment of common diseases.§

Jain, S.K., Dictionary of Indian Folk Medicine and Ethnobotany. New Delhi, Deep Publications, 1991. A concise glossary of folk uses for over 2,500 Indian plants.§

Johari, Harish, The Healing Cuisine, India’s Art of Ayurvedic Cooking. Rochester, Vermont, Healing Arts Press, 1994. Explains the healing qualities of foods and spices, with vegetarian recipes based on āyurveda.§

Lad, Usha and Dr. Vasant, Ayurvedic Cooking for Self Healing, Albuquerque, New Mexico, The Ayurvedic Press, 1994. Explores health and healing through diet with recipes and their medicinal and āyurvedic effect.§

Lad, Dr. Vasant, Āyurveda, The Science of Self-Healing. Santa Fe, New Mexico, Lotus Press, 1985. Clearly explains the principles and practical applications of āyurveda.§

Morningstar, Amadea and Desai, Urmila, The Ayurvedic Cookbook, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Lotus Press 1990. Over 250 recipes designed to balance each constitution.§

`All About Rice!`

`Articles from Hinduism Today magazine, May, 1994.`

Although it is still unknown exactly when and how people started growing rice, archaeologists have uncovered evidence that rice was present in Indian civilizations at 8,000 BCE, according to Tuk-Tuk Kumar, author of The History of Rice in India. She argues that rice husks used to temper clay pottery at Koldihawa and Mahagara sites indicate that a domesticated rice was grown at that time. Other researchers document a slender, wild strain called Indica growing on Himalayan slopes about 4,000 years ago. Extraordinary in yield, nutrition, resistance to disease, adaptability and savor, rice migrated around the globe with little promotion. Today, India’s prized aromatic rice, Basmati, is found as far from its birthplace as Kenya and California.§

Hinduism’s ancient scriptures have many references to rice. Kumar notes that the Yajur Veda describes the preparation of rice cakes as a ritual offering. In the Atharva Veda, rice, along with barley, are described as “healing balms, the sons of heaven who never die.” Smṛitis tell how Goddess Devī Lalithāmbikā is known to be especially fond of payasa annam, sweet rice. Indeed, husked rice is always present in even the simplest Hindu pūjā as one of the offerings. So revered is rice that, if mixed with turmeric powder, it can substitute if necessary for costly items for the mūrtis such as dress, ornaments, even flowers.§

Rice is also a potent symbol of auspiciousness and fertility. South Indians call rice Anna Lakshmī. Anna means “food” and Lakshmī is the Goddess of prosperity. From ancient times, the ever-giving Goddess Dhānya Lakshmī has been depicted holding a few sheaves of rice in Her hand. The most special offering to Lord Gaṇeśa is the modaka, a ball of sweet coconut-jaggery fill covered with a thick rice paste. The first food fed a child is rice. In Rajasthan, when a woman first enters her husband’s house, a measure of rice is kept on the threshold. This she scatters through her new home inviting prosperity and happiness. In South India, raw rice, mixed with kuṅkuma to redden it, is known as maṅgala akshadai and showered over newlyweds. At a harvest festival, Tai Pongal, rice is ceremoniously cooked, Sūrya, God of the sun, is worshiped and the nature spirits are thanked.§

But this reverence for rice is not restricted to India. The Angkabau of Sumatra use special rice plants to denote the Rice Mother, Indoea Padi. The people of Indochina treat ripened rice in bloom like a pregnant woman, capturing its spirit in a basket. Rice growers of the Malay Peninsula often treat the wife of the cultivator as a pregnant woman for the first three days after storing the rice. Even the Sundanese of West Java, who consider themselves Muslims, believe rice is the personification of the rice Goddess Dewi Sri. In Thailand, when you call the family to a meal you say, “Eat rice.” In Japan, to goad children to eat all their rice, grains are called “little Buddhas,” and girls are told every grain they leave on the plate will become a pock mark on the face of their future husband. In China, the word for rice is the same as food. The Toradja tribals of Indonesia consider rice to be of heavenly origin. So hallowed was the grain, that it was taboo to plant any other crop in the rice fields. The Ahnishinabe Native American Indian tribe of North America say their ancestors saw tracts of wild rice in visions. So they migrated to the central part of USA-Canada, found the rice, and to this day, gather and trade it for their livelihood.§

Winona Laduke is of the Ahnishinabe tribe of Native American Indians. She shared in a Seeds of Change magazine interview: “I live on the White Earth reservation. I work mostly on the land. In our language, most nouns are animate, whether it is the word for corn, for wild rice, min-o-min, or stone. Having spirit and standing on its own, I’m very careful when I harvest it because I must reckon with that spirit. In our culture, the respect you have when you harvest is what ensures that you are able to continue harvesting. It is not because you’re smart or clever, it’s because you’re respectful and you are worthy of receiving. Before rice, I offer ah-say-mah, tobacco, to that plant—that rice. Min-o-min was given to us by our Creator.”§

Dietetically, rice is cherished as a cholesterol-free, protein-calorie cornucopia. Most people in Asia obtain 60 to 80 percent of their calories from rice. Rice becomes a “complete protein,” equivalent to beef protein, when eaten with beans or lentils because the enzymes in rice help to process the proteins in the lentil. As a result, rice is rarely served in India without some kind of lentil or dal.§

Rice is prepared in many different ways. In the Far East, it is often squeezed into noodles. In South India, it is soaked overnight and made into fluffy idlis or thin, crēpe-like dosas. In Northern India, it is often cooked with sweetened milk to form kheer. People in Gujarat celebrate Sharad Pūrṇimā by soaking flattened rice in sweet milk which they drink at night. Drinking this “dood-powa” on this night is said to protect health. In Northern India, people celebrate the festival of Dīpāvalī with sugar candy, batasha, and khil, puffed rice.§

In addition to its value as a food, rice serves other purposes in Asia. In Japan, every home is floored with elegant rice mats, called tatami. Villagers wear rice straw sandals, and the whole nation unwinds daily on a delicate rice wine, sake. In rural India, cooked rice is used as a glue. A verse in ancient Tamil literature says women would dress up in elegant sārīs starched with rice kanji, the excess water drained after the rice is cooked. Rice flour is used by housewives to make the beautiful religious kolam designs each dawn in front of their homes—and at temples for festivals—to ward off negative energies. Ants are allowed to eat the kolam (raṅgoli in Sanskṛit) as a natural cycle is fulfilled in a display of human kindness for the most defenseless of creatures. §

When I was in India in the 1980s I participated in a Guru Mahāsannidhānam parade around the Meenakshi Temple. The parade was preceded by a grand pūjā to Lord Gaṇeśa. Walking beside me was the publisher of HINDUISM TODAY, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, and the Holiness of the oldest aadheenam in India, Madurai Aadheenam, Śrī-la-Śrī Arunagirinātha Śrī Gnanasambanda Desikar Paramacharya Swamigal. There were three or four elephants in front of us, two or three camels, numerous drummers, nāgasvara players and other musicians. After the parade, the elephants and other animals enjoyed an abundant dinner of delicious rice. §

`Editorial: Rice with Spice Is Twice as Nice`

`Prolog: Behold life’s passing into paradise. How like a languid Vedic sacrifice, with days and years poured into flames of soul in rites precise. How randomless, this intertwined device, where lice have cats and cats have mice. How bountifully it folds eternity into each tiny trice, and hugely unconcise, with fire and ice and fifty thousand kinds of rice.`

`How nice is rice, especially served with spice. How it can, at meager price, twice or thrice each day suffice. How gentle and how very free from vice are those whose fodder, in the main, is rice.`

Deep within the granite mountains of Colorado, where you might expect to find a secret Defense Department stockpile of missiles awaiting the end of the Cold War thaw, lies another kind of reserve. It is a dark, clinically sterile cold room, kept meticulously at 42°f. and a relative humidity between 25 and 30. This is not the vault for a lethal chemical gas antidote or a vaccine for some exotic virus. These chambers, maintained by the United States Department of Agriculture, hold one of the strategic guarantors of human survival—16,474 varieties of rice. If that sounds like a lot, it’s a mere fraction of the planet’s diversity. India alone (where rice is said to have originated) had 50,000 varieties under cultivation over the centuries. Today most of India’s rice comes from fewer than ten varieties. §

Bill Clinton is not spending all that money to save Uncle Ben’s pre-cooked, short-grain, sticky-white, highly-polished, nutrition-free, artificially-enriched rice for future generations. Uncle Ben’s is a kind of paradigm of the West’s naivete and historical neglect of rice. It opted for quick-cooking, high-yielding grains, while the East bred its strains for taste and texture. To export, the West selected for long shelf life; in the East 90% of all rice is consumed within eight miles of the fields where it is grown. Did you know that rice yields 6,000 pounds per acre and that 25% of the meager 20 pounds of rice each American consumes in a year is imbibed as beer? §

“As rice goes, so will go the world’s encounter with starvation,” Dr. Charles Balach, the Texas-based guru of America’s rice breeding program, now retired, told me last week. This is a man who knows his rice. He bred the variety that feeds most American appetites, a task that took him 8 years (15 years can be devoted to manipulating just the right combination of genes). He observes, “Rice has been cultivated for at least 7,000 years in China. Farmers spent generations selectively getting the’bad’ genes out of a strain, and it’s very easy for us to introduce those back inadvertently as we try to improve a strain.”§

That’s exactly what happened, says Dr. Robert Dilday of University of Arkansas’ Rice Research Center. “Breeders here were going for the high yields. In the process we didn’t recognize, and thus we left out, important strengths.” Fortunately, there is a germ plasm program and collection, the one mentioned above. “There are thousands of very ordinary varieties there, seemingly useless. But they may hold some special quality we will want in the future, and it will be there. That’s the beauty, and the justification, for this massive collection effort.”§

`Fingers, Forks or Chopsticks?`

The world can be divided into three kinds of people: finger-feeders, fork-feeders and chopstick-feeders. Fork-feeders predominate in Europe and North America only. Chopstick-feeders rule most of Eastern Asia. Finger-feeders are the most widespread, prevailing in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and much of Africa. Globally, fork-feeders are a minority, outnumbered more than two to one. Chopsticks have a venerable history, dating back to 1200 bce, while forks first appeared in the 10th century ce in the Byzantine empire. Although forks first entered society on the tables of the rich and well-born, many royalty, including Queen Elizabeth I and Louis XIV, used fingers.§

Dr. Dilday is beguiled by the variants: from the Japanese Super Rice Kernel (twice the length of the longest long grain, akin to a 12-foot-tall person) to the messy Purple Bran that when it flowers “stains your fingers like you were picking blackberries.” Then there are killer rices. He doesn’t call them that, preferring “allelopathic,” the term scientists use to describe the ability of certain plants to produce natural chemicals that suppress or even kill weed growth within an 8–10” radius. A grain that controls its own competition, without chemicals? It’s a farmer’s dream, and breeders have found six of them.§

Americans are relative newcomers to rice cultivation, with a mere 300 years spent growing a handful of types. They are partial to wheat. Rice may sustain half the world, but in America it has been an export commodity known only in an insipid encounter with an anonymous soup ingredient or as a rare substitute for potatoes. Not anymore. There is a rice revolution going on in North America, and a smaller one in Europe. Basically, when immigration laws changed to allow more Asians in, millions answered the call. From Thailand, Cambodia, India, Korea and China they brought with them their culture, their clothing, their language and, of course, their penchant for rice.§

When a Thai housewife cooked the Texas long-grain (which traces its roots to Indonesia, then Madagascar and thence to South Carolina in the 17th century), she was totally underwhelmed. Where was the taste? What happened to the sweet aromas she was accustomed to? Nothing. Zip. Not only that, who could eat this Yankee carbohydrate with chopsticks? Not even a black belt epicure could handle this dry grain where every pellet was an individual. In India it is said “Rice should be like brothers: close but not stuck together.” But Thais were accustomed to rices that, like Thai people, stick together (stickiness is determined by the ratio of two different starches, amylose and amylopectin). Some varieties are so sticky that if you put a chopstick in a bowl, the entire mass comes out together. Thai gourmets and gourmands love that kind. They break it off with their hands, dip it deeply into a spicy gravy. My theory is that cultures that eat with chopsticks evolved sticky kinds, fork-eaters selected very dry specimens, and those of us who eat with our hands developed in-between varieties.§

Faced with their finicky family’s famished frowns, Asian women forsook all hope of getting decent rice in the US and began importing it. Tons of it. In fact, 39,690,000 pounds last year, nearly 10% of all the rice consumed in America. Farmers who didn’t know a Basmati—which means “Queen of Fragrance”—from a Jasmine suddenly woke up to the new reality. Asians had highly sophisticated tastes and would not settle for anything less than grandma had cooked over an open fire. They were even willing to pay a premium for quality, a big one. Aged Basmati sells for nearly $2 a pound! The wheels of free enterprise cranked up. Breeding programs began, expensive ones focused on one goal: produce and market an aromatic rice that equaled that most popular of all imports, Thai Jasmine.§

Thai Jasmine is the monarch of short-grained sticky rices. Its smell is alluring, its texture is described as not-too-wet-not-too-dry, and its taste is savory sweet. American breeders imported a Thai strain from the famed International Rice Research Institute in Manila. They crossed it with a high-yielding Philippine stock, added a little of this DNA, a sprinkle of that and after many years celebrated the christening of Jasmine 85. It was to be the import killer. Hundreds of acres went under the Texas plow in 1989. Thai cooks by the thousands eagerly hauled home the first heavy bags of Jasmine 85, steamed it in the old country way, served it up and—“Yuck”—never went back for more.§

“What happened?” marketers mourned. “What happened?” southern farmers fretted. “What happened?” rice breeders brooded. No one could explain. It tasted and smelled the same. It cooked the same. It looked the same. It was cheap. Yet it was a giant flop. Spurious stories spread that only US rats would touch it. Thai rodents preferred starvation. Well, that was the story.§

This real-life disaster was a turning point in US rice consciousness. Americans, who pride themselves as the world’s most efficient rice farmers, realized they couldn’t detect differences which Asians readily perceived. They had made the mistake of not putting a single Asian on their select quality committee. “Before this experience, we didn’t recognize the subtlety of it. Or maybe we didn’t believe it. Now we believe. It started with the Asians, but now the Anglos are picking up on it too,” Dr. Bill Webb confided to me.§

The search intensifies as imports continue to grow. US researchers now respect the preferences of the strong Asian market, and they have redoubled their efforts to match qualities found in Southeast Asia. In private they confess, “We’re no longer trying to replace the rices from India and Pakistan, but to develop a kind of poor-man’s Basmati.” Nor can they just bring rices in and plant them. It’s against the law. Besides, rice adapts itself to climates, to soils and weather patterns, not to mention birds, insects and diseases. All grains must be bred to US conditions. Those who touted the glories of Texas Long Grain now speak wistfully of approximating a Punjabi Basmati or an Italian Arboria. They are breeding Purple Bran, Spanish Bahia, Black Japonica and dozens of others, hoping to capture the burgeoning niche market for specialty, fragrant rices. For the record, our own absolutely favorite rice, one with no equal in all three worlds, is the ruddy, fluffy Red Country rice, known as urarisi in Tamil, grown near Jaffna, Sri Lanka. §

“The editor’s jest, full of zest, is the best as he exalts us to eat the elite. Rice is so nice served with sweetness or spice. Can we resist this taste treat? Basmati, Bahia, Arboria, Japonica—twice, thrice a day, cooked in a legion of ways; rice, we recite, the ambrosial delight, gracing our palate each day.”§

Kulamata Tara Katir, Kauai, USA.§

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An Image of Gaṇapati Made with Herbs And Spices, a Special Sādhana for Gaṇeśa Chaturthī

Articles from Hinduism Today magazine, May, 1994.