All About Food:

It seems like everyone’s on a diet or about to go on one. There’s a new fad diet popping up every week endorsed by some celebrity or other, and for every new miracle reducing plan, there is an old one being discredited.

Think grapefruit, Atkins or cabbage soup. On the other hand, we have recently discovered a diet that has been going strong for more than 2,000 years. Actually, it’s more than a diet but rather a whole system for wellness, comprising diet, daily routines, yoga and meditation, breathing exercises and spirituality.

It is called Ayurveda, which means “the science of life” in Sanskrit. First described in the Vedas, the oldest written literature in the world, it is an ancient system of healing that focuses on the complete person, which includes the body, mind and spirit. Rather than focusing on specific symptoms or diseases, in Ayurveda, for wellness to occur, the mind, body and spirit must be in harmony in order to resist disease.

Our primary source of information on this complex topic is from Rob Talbert, M.S. and clinical Ayurvedic specialist practicing in Laguna Beach. This pleasant and centered man took the time to explain this very complicated system with a brief overview, fully understanding that our primary interest was in the food.

“People come to see me because they don’t trust regular doctors or they have been to see one and didn’t like what the doctor had to offer,” he said.

However, Talbert emphasizes that Ayurveda is complimentary to traditional medical practice and does not replace medical diagnosis and treatment.”

Talbert himself found his way to Ayurveda because he had an arrhythmia and severe allergies that Western medicine could not resolve. After three months of Ayurvedic treatment, all his symptoms disappeared. The dramatic results caused him to reexamine his life path and he left his job to become a student of the system that had changed his life.

He presented us with a diagram called “the pyramid of health” and the base, its largest segment, consists of food, food habits and herbs.

“How you eat is even more important that what you eat,” Talbert said. “If we eat our food properly with awareness and respect, the food joins well with our bodies. If we do not, the food … causes gas and other digestive disturbances. Eating is one of the most sacred experiences we have.”