An Ayurvedic Perspective on Food as Medicine
Welcome to the Satiated Podcast, where we explore physical and emotional hunger, satiation and healing your relationship with your food and body. I'm your host, Stephanie Mara Fox, your Somatic Nutritional Counselor.
When I started to learn about the mind-body connection through yoga, I dove deep into all things yoga. I became a bit of a yoga fanatic and that led me to learning about Ayurveda, which is yoga's sister science. Ayurveda is a whole body system of medicine. Rather than seeing symptoms as problems to be fixed, Ayurveda approaches symptoms as imbalances that can be brought into balance with foods, movements, and self care routines. Ayurveda gave me a new lens to see my body through. I got to experience the exquisite wisdom in my body. I learned that food can be an ally helping to bring me into balance rather than what diet culture taught me was that food was something to be controlled and to eat as little of it as possible. While what was suggested to me by my first Ayurvedic practitioner didn't entirely work for my sensitive digestive tract (ie my body has a hard time digesting beans), I took so many pieces forward with me about how the body is meant to be listened to and that every food we feel drawn to is doing something for us. I chat about this with Dr. Shivani Gupta today.
Dr. Shivani is an Ayurvedic practitioner and expert in fusing Eastern and Western practices that help our bodies achieve equilibrium. She completed her Master’s in Ayurvedic Sciences and her PhD on Turmeric. She believes we have the power to overcome the root causes of many health issues and inflammation. Her passion is teaching at-home remedies to reduce inflammation naturally, enjoy more energy, less brain fog, less pain, and ultimately achieve vibrant health. She is also the founder of Fusionary Formulas, an Ayurvedic company that helps people with inflammation and pain. We chat about what Ayurveda is, the 3 doshas and how to determine which one you might be, what foods and actions support your unique dosha, the importance of eating seasonally, and what we can learn from an Ayurvedic approach to food and our bodies.
If you have been loving the Satiated Podcast and want to give back I've now created a page on the many ways to do that. Just click on the link in the show notes and thank you in advance for all your support! Now welcome Dr. Shivani! I am really excited you're here today. I feel like we haven't gotten into the conversation of Ayurvedic principles and Ayurveda in general on the podcast for a really long time. So I'm so excited to get into this dialogue with you. And as always, all of my listeners know that I always like to start with you, just sharing a little bit of your background and how you got into this work.
Dr. Shivani Gupta 02:59
Sure. So I got into Ayurveda because I grew up in an Indian household in the United States, where we were always living in two worlds. So inside my house, my grandma would be visiting from India, and she'd be using turmeric and all these spices to heal me whenever I had an ailment and when she was away, or if I wasn't in India, going to see her if I got sick, the pediatrician would just say, hey, you need antibiotics for that. And so I just lived in this world where I was taking antibiotics 50 times in my childhood in one country. And when I'd go to India, she'd be like, let me just make you the right kind of soup. Let me just give you some turmeric and some spices. This tea concoction will help. And I always thought like, who's right? This is two opposite ways of treating someone. Who's the right person here? Fast forward, by the time I reached college, I had major health issues, major gut issues. It felt like I had no immune system and I couldn't figure out what to do, and so I really needed to just figure out for myself a plan of action. And I asked my parents, I said, listen, we're in the land of Yoga and Ayurveda. Do you think we can go figure this out? For me, I think this is what's going to work. And so as we traveled through India, and I, like, sat at different gurus feet, I realized, you know what? This stuff really works. Millions of people are in these centers healing themselves. This is an incredible science. Why is Ayurveda not globally known as one of the profound systems of medicine and health and healing? And I realized it's because Ayurveda sucks at marketing. And so I decided, and made it my mission, that I would find a way to break Ayurveda into small pieces and these golden nuggets and bring it back so people could heal and get better, just like I did.
Stephanie Mara 03:32
Oh my gosh. I love that. I completely agree with you on that I learned about Ayurveda just as I started to get into yoga. But if I had never been introduced to the practice of yoga, I don't know if it's kind of like sister science would ever have been introduced to me in my world. So I'm curious about, for those who maybe don't know what Ayurveda is, if you could share a little bit about that.
Dr. Shivani Gupta 04:59
Sure. So like you said, it's a sister science to yoga. It is similar to yoga in the sense that our goal, in the end, is peace. It's a Zen. It's this enlightenment, this understanding that we are all one, and so in yoga, we do that through an asana practice, through meditation, through pranayama. And over in Ayurveda, it's really taking that practice off the mat and into the kitchen and into the rest of your life. And so from Ayurveda, it's really a preventive lifestyle. Our goal is to bring body, mind and spirit into alignment. And so I teach it from these different vantage points of Ayurveda taught a circadian rhythm, and living in circadian alignment is key for our health. I teach about the doshas, or the individual mind body constitutions driven by the elements, and how that understanding can help you really customize how you live. Ayurveda teaches about the sattvic diet, this diet that's all about the yogic diet, living healthy, fresh food that's nourishing to self. And I teach a lot about super spices, because I think the spices are pretty profound out of Ayurveda, those phyto botanicals are powerful and what impact they can have on our bodies. And I also teach the self care rituals, because we teach how you can have a daily self care rhythm for yourself that's detoxing, daily, weekly, monthly and seasonally throughout your year. And then finally, I teach a lot about gut health and how gut is the center of everything. We teach about the gut digestive fire. So those are kind of the six modules and six pillars I dive into the most. And then, based on what people need, I kind of guide them accordingly. I do one on one consultations, or I do my group program where we get to detox together.
Stephanie Mara 06:10
Yeah, something that I really hear in that, and that I've always appreciated about Ayurveda, is that it takes the lens of just imbalance in your body that can become balanced again, rather than, you know, kind of how we maybe view things in our United States culture is of you have a problem, like you are broken. Here's medication. Let's fix you. Rather than a okay, just something has gotten out of balance for a reason, and let's explore that. And I also appreciated of what I just heard, not just with food, because it can also be, how do I support myself seasonally? How do I support myself in the rhythms and routines I create for myself? So I appreciate the many different lenses that you just brought in.
Dr. Shivani Gupta 07:57
Yeah, there are so many layers to it. And Ayurveda like you said, is all about understanding who you are, understanding your template, your blueprint, which is your dosha, showing you how to live according to your circadian rhythm. We're at different stages of life. We live in different environments. We have different careers. And then finally, when imbalances come along, because they're gonna come along, that's life. We have a toxic burden. Living in modern day times and even in ancient times, things come along, viruses, pathogens, it's just about understanding, okay, you came along. How do we keep the body so healthy it can kick that stuff out of the way, and if it takes hold, what are we going to do to best push it out without negatively impacting the body? So it's just a very holistic vantage point. It's very integrative in its thought process of healing.
Stephanie Mara 08:42
Yeah, so how does someone find out about what dosha may be? I've seen practitioners before, so I know I'm predominantly Pitta with I usually get an imbalance into Vata so I'm curious, like some people might even be listening, be like, what did you just say?
Dr. Shivani Gupta 09:01
Yeah, so on my website at drshivani.com, I have a dosha quiz, and you click on it, you take the quiz, and it's going to ask you really weird questions. And then when I sit down for a consultation, I have a much bigger questionnaire that goes way deeper. But basically the doshas, I'm now calling them your elemental design. It's the elemental understanding of yourself so you can design your life. Ayurveda teaches that there's five primary elements on earth: fire, water, earth, air and ether. And so these doshas that we talk about, these constitutions, are really the combinations of those represented in each of us, physically, mentally and emotionally and so let's talk about Vata for a minute. We pronounce it Vata herein the West. A Vata person, for example, is physically thin and wiry. This is someone who has smaller bone structure, maybe oval face, maybe smaller eyes. This is someone who's taller or shorter than most people in their demographic. So you've got those little, tiny, petite people, and you've got the tall and lanky people as well. They don't have to be that, but a lot of times a Vata physically is going to be a tinier stature or smaller, thinner stature. Then personality wise, this is someone who has those different elements of air and ether. So if you can imagine, the wind is always moving, a ceiling fan is always moving. Air is dry, and so a Vata person will have a tendency to be working at 100 miles a minute, thinking at 100 miles a minute, they're a busy body. They can't just sit still. This is someone who, when the pandemic started, they just started running 15 miles a day because they couldn't go to the gym and they couldn't sit still. I thought that was so interesting. I was like, wow. You guys all became marathon runners. So a Vata person also has a tendency with their dryness, to have constipation and things like that. Dry skin, dry brittle hair. This is somebody who can go all day without eating. They're like, yeah, I had some coffee, I had a green juice and I had some crackers. I was fine, and I'm like, wow, lacking an appetite is a Vata issue, because by the end of the day, sometimes they aren't settled and grounded. They didn't have their two or three square meals in their day and then a Vata person also can tend to be really artistic. They are creative ones. They're kind of higher in the planes. They have access to all that creative energy, but to the outside world, they might look like a flake, because sometimes they jump from project to project like a bird, and they don't finish what they start. And so a lot of times when I sit with a Vata client, it's about that grounding. So it's the counter pose to Vata energy would be Kapha type activities, and gut is something we'll get into. So that's the first dosha. The second is Pitta. Pitta people are medium bodied. This is someone who has a reddish skin tone, reddish hair sometimes. This is someone who is medium body. So they're not like heavy and strong like Kapha. They're not thin and wiry like Vata. They're just right in between. And they can have a tendency towards early graying of their hair. Personality wise, they are sharp, focused, ambitious, driven. They're very motivated people. The negative effect of that is because Pitta is fire with some water, they can have the tendency as of a volcano, is how I think of it. I'm a Pitta. We can explode, we erupt, we get hangry, we get angry, like we melt down, like a nuclear reactor, and the people closest to us take the brunt of that. So if you get angry a lot, and it's your kids who are around you, or your partner or your spouse, like the very inner circle, sees the effects of an imbalanced Pitta the most. And so Pitta people can tend to run inflamed. We can tend to have heartburn, everything's all about the fire. And so a Pitta person their homework is stay cool, calm and collected. And that comes through really living in the right rhythm, eating the right foods, not eating hot, oily, spicy, fried food all the time, which is something Pitta does tend to love. And so really doing the good things for the body and make sure you're never hangry is a key piece of Pitta. And then finally, you have Kapha. Kapha is bigger, stronger, bigger bone. This is someone who might have rounder features, might have oily curly hair, oily skin, round face, round eyes. Their energy is very grandma, Mother Earth energy. This is your friend who loves to take care of everyone and thinks of everyone else first before herself or himself. This is that very mountain strength, grounded energy. A lot of our men have where they're like, I've got this, and they just feel like a mountain of strength. And so when it comes to Kapha, they are very loyal people. It's very one thing at a time, because they're Earth with water. So it's very much that earth energy. This is someone who is very one thing at a time, loyal, loves their friends, loves to take care of others, feed others, and the only drawback to Kapha is a slightly slower metabolism. So like, once a Kapha person sits down at the end of the day, they cannot get up off the couch. It's like they're glued. It's like Mother Earth sat down for the day and she's not getting up. And I've been through a Kapha period of my life, so I know exactly what that feeling is, and so my job as a practitioner is to help the Kpaha get moving, get their energy moving, align their sleep, to let them have that big, heavy slumber that they get to have, they're the best sleepers, and really build their life around them being supported. So those are the three constitutions. Everyone has a primary and a secondary constitution, or a select few, or three dosha, they're balanced in all three. That's kind of the basics of the doshas.
Stephanie Mara 14:28
Yeah, I was just giggling while you were just talking about each dosha. I hear so much compassion in that of it's just like you were saying earlier, the blueprint you were born with, and how much, especially for women, I don't want to exclude men, but especially for women, there's so much pressure around how the body is supposed to look. But sometimes you're fighting against this is your bones like, this is just what you were born with. And how can we work with it is what I hear you describing, and ways of eating and moving and rhythms, and you know how you can support just your body and how it naturally wants to be.
Dr. Shivani Gupta 15:10
It's true. And I remember years ago, I went to the personal trainer who owned the gym I went to, and I was like, look, I have worked so hard. I have done the ketogenic diet. I've done a workout class after workout class, and I'm going to be on stage soon in front of hundreds of people, and I really want to look like this. And I showed him a picture of like Jessica Alba, or Carrie Washington or some actress. I was like, I want to look like this. And he's like, that's a different body type, that's not possible for you. And I was like, anything's possible. I can do anything. And he's like, no, you'd have to take chainsaws to your hips. You don't have that structure. And it was the first time where I was like, oh, like, you can't fight your body enough to make it do something to look like a certain body type you see on the internet. Oh, it's so true, because in Ayurveda, if you explain to a Kapha their nature, all of a sudden they're like, oh, it's okay to be me. This is a body type, and here I was thinking, I could look like a Vata. That's impossible. Okay, so let me embrace this and be the healthiest this body, which is also stunning and beautiful.
Stephanie Mara 16:17
Yeah, I'm wondering what you have found with yourself and those you've worked with of what kind of does bolster and support each dosha?
Dr. Shivani Gupta 16:28
Yeah, so a Vata person is typically going to come in anxious, nervous energy. To me, when they come in my office, I feel like they're a tornado of energy. And I'm always like, how do I ground this person, they're just not centered. And so really it's about starting with food. If a Vata person can learn to eat three times a day, everything changes. And so it's really about guiding them on healthy fat, three times a day, eat half an avocado. And it's actually hard. It sounds easy because most of us love to eat, and we want to eat three times a day, and we have to eat, Vatas really don't have to. So my Vatas, I transform their lives with the certain vegetables I give them that are more satiating, that like nourish and hold them as whole and all of a sudden they're like, wow, I have really productive morning hours. I know when my circadian rhythm wants me to take a rest. I take my downtime to center. I've now have all the activity and everything on board for better sleep because Vatas don't sleep well, they have really odd insomniac and disrupted sleep because of that mind that never stops. So it's really about grounding that, Vata energy. Pittas just want to eat everything bad for us and do everything that drives us nuts. So a Pittaperson, like, we want to go so far, so fast. And our lesson is like, eat your three meals a day, sleep really well, so you're energized for the next day. Build in breaks. Don't be so crazy. So I teach something called Tea Time is Me Time, because I need reminders. I have alarms on my phone for like, pause, have some tea. Pause, have some tea. And really what that's saying is you need to build a decompression break in. It's a mindful moment, but really that fire has to decompress, come down to a normal level for a minute, and then you can ramp back up. And it's a lesson about really ramping down into your evening for that better sleep. Because a Pitta like for me, when I'm on social media, I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm sending that to my team, and that to my team, and that to my team, and that's amazing. That's exciting. And then I'm like, It's 10 o'clock now it's 10:30 and you're still not sleeping. So it's about the practice of, like, reading, quietening down, settling down. And then for Kapha, the homework is, allow for that big slumber, but sleep early enough. Get your big, deep sleep, but you can't wake up at 10 to noon every day, so we have to set a timer on that, get you up, and then first thing in the morning, a Kapha has to move. I've had so many Kapha clients where metabolism gets sluggish, tendency towards asthma, congestion, colds and like a dampness in the system, mucus. And so the job is move that body first thing in the morning. Morning walks, getting out there. Kaphas will just go through the day so slowly if we don't get them moving first, and then build those walking breaks in into the workday, maybe at lunch, you take a break afternoon, but really keep moving that energy, and then know for a fact you're going to accomplish your whole day, whatever it is, by the time you sit down. And once you sit down, forgive yourself for the fact that you're not a crazy, motivated, overly ambitious person who can work another shift, because that's part of our culture right now. Grind, hustle, work the extra shift, build something new. Be motivated. 5 am club and the poor Kapha is like, oh my god, I'm so lazy. No, you're not lazy. This is your template called you're loving mother earth. To those people who matter to you, you're not meant to go build and scale 18 things. That's okay. You're meant to do you and if you support yourself, you will have the energy to do whatever it is you're meant to do.
Stephanie Mara 19:59
I love all of those suggestions. I was also laughing at what you were just talking about Pitta, only because that was something I also really had to learn, was I can't just go from one thing to the next. That I had to start working into my check ins is what you actually need rest right now? Do you actually need to, just like, get away from your computer and not do anything for the next 30 to 60 minutes? Cool. Let's do that. Then maybe we can move on to the next thing. So I appreciate all those suggestions of, like, meeting yourself where you're at now, because what I have found is, once you know your constitution, there's going to be this tendency that you have towards certain foods, certain behaviors, certain ways of being, and it is having to keep yourself in check, so to speak, of like, oh yeah, I know I can just burn hot and keep going, but if I do that, I'm going to burn myself out.
Dr. Shivani Gupta 20:57
True, very true, yeah. And it's interesting, because if we don't acknowledge our dosha and if we don't understand it, it's almost like taking a personality quiz. It's almost like astrology. It's like human design. That's why, one day I was dreaming about, how am I gonna explain doshas to the world? And the word elemental design came to me because I was like, just like in human design, I'm a projector. It gives me a lot of awareness around self care and taking breaks and these ideas, my elemental design actually teaches me how to navigate my daily life in a way that's more balanced. Because when I don't do that, when I don't build in the breaks, when I don't build in tea times, me time, and ask myself some basic intuitive questions like, have you eaten today? Have you structured today in a way that's good for you? What do you need to change this week for it to be a good week? My intuition is now trained to say you need to give yourself, you need to give a break there. You need to carry your dinner with you if you're going to take that meeting tonight, or you should not go to that thing this weekend. Like just don't, because your intuition knows the truth, and oftentimes we're just completely bypassing it. And that's one of the biggest gifts Ayurveda gives us is actually this deep, intuitive ability to navigate using our own intelligence, inner intelligence, that gut brain intelligence, it knows what to do. Our intuition knows what to do. I love that.
Stephanie Mara 22:15
Yeah. I'm wondering if you could speak more to how Ayurveda kind of views food as something as a resource and a support to build balance. Because I find, especially for a lot of those here, that maybe struggle in their relationship with food, food starts to be seen as like the enemy or the thing they can't trust themselves with.
Dr. Shivani Gupta 22:37
Yeah, no, for sure, I had a really bad eating disorder in high school, and I went through at least two years there where I barely ate anything. And so now it's so interesting to teach the Ayurveda diet. Of course, those like tendrils of that certainly stay with you. I went to therapy and did a lot of work to not have a not good relationship with food. But what's beautiful is Ayurveda has this framework around food called the sattvic diet. And to be sattvic is to be this perfectly balanced, peaceful person. And so because I seek that feeling of ease and flow, I know always just the right amount of food to feel it. And when I don't feel that way, I'm like, oh, you didn't eat enough. You're not satisfied. You aren't satiated at all. That's why you're reaching for something after your meal. Or you over ate because you thought you had to get all that protein and all that stuff in to win the goal, the fiber, the probiotic, prebiotic food. Sometimes I stuff too much in and like, see how you're lethargic and feel dull and tired. That was a little overboard. Like, let's be balanced. So the sattvic diet is basically saying, eat foods that are local, fresh, organic, healthy. It's about how you eat as opposed to what you eat. So a lot of the Ayurvedic rules are like, yes, of course, eat fresh, local food. Don't eat dead, sad food that's dull and lacks prana or energy. Don't nuke your food in the microwave. Certainly don't do that in plastic. None of these things even existed then. But when we extrapolate what Ayurveda said to cook fresh food with love daily, eat that food that is nourishing. Eat seasonally. The circadian clock shows us that we're meant to be in rhythm with nature. Nature's meant to be in rhythm with us. And so the way you accomplish that is by eating for the season that you live in. So you're not meant to eat peaches and nectarines in the winter. Yeah, those are summer foods. So in the summer, eat what's for the summer, because god, or nature, in the universe has given you what will balance you there. So us Pitta people, we need to eat some more fruit in the summer, because it's the hottest time. And nowadays we have done a lot around what is the word. We've made food the enemy, where we think, oh, watermelon has too much sugar. Banana has too much sugar, tropical fruit has too much sugar. Don't eat fruit. And it's like, no, actually you're fine if you eat the fruit, don't juice it and make it a big sugar bomb in your body. If you eat that fruit with awareness, it's actually got a lot of benefit for you, and it has fiber and different varieties of nutrition. And so Ayurveda taught us don't eat standing up, eat sitting down. That's simple one. I always look at people I'm like, sit down. Please don't stand there and eat that. Or when you're eating, take a deep conscious breath beforehand, take a breath or two and really just tune in. And when you do that, you're dropping into your parasympathetic nervous system. So when you go to eat food, you're actually going to absorb the benefits. What do most of us do right now? We use our food time slot as a I'm gonna go decompress with social media. I'm gonna go learn something. I'm gonna go listen to a podcast or watch one on video. I'm gonna return phone calls. So what are you doing? You're not actually receiving that food. You're not acknowledging it with your eyes. You're not acknowledging it with your nose. You're barely tasting it. You're shoveling it in without really chewing it. And I'm saying this because I do this too. I am not saying I am perfect.
Stephanie Mara 26:05
Oh yeah, I'm totally guilty of this too.
Dr. Shivani Gupta 26:08
I'll put Facebook on on my phone, Facebook videos, which is my favorite relaxing tool, and I'll be like, time to eat, and then all of a sudden, I won't be full, and I'll be like, hold up. You just ate the perfect meal that was broccoli and carrots and like, kidney beans and rice and you put sour like you did everything. What happened? Why are you craving nachos? Why are you craving a dark chocolate almond tree? Like, what happened? Oh, you didn't know you ate that. You need to now go wait 10 minutes, because your gut will know you ate it, and it will tell your brain you ate it, but you didn't even experience it. And how sad is that? So Ayurveda is really trying to bring that awareness back to like, cook the food with love. Source that food with love, eat that food with love, so that your body and every cell in your body receives it with love. And I do think that a huge disconnection we have in modern day society right now is food rules and food structures and the pressure we put on food. And it's interesting, because every time I do that, I get a bad result. And I just did it to myself again last year, I was like, okay, perimenopause, high protein, I can do it. And I started eating like, nine eggs a day, three, three eggs, high protein, just like shoving the protein in. And I see so many women in their 40s complaint, 40s complaining, like we're trying protein shake, all of it. I ordered a stool test on myself, and my functional medicine doctor looked at me and goes, What did you do? And I was like, the only thing I can think of that I've done different is this diet. She goes, you know, trends are only trends, right? And I was like, Dr Kim, come on. Like everyone says it's high protein now, and she goes, Shivani, you're an Ayurvedic practitioner. I know you know diversity comes first, right? And I was like, I know, I know. So we can all be susceptible, but it's really about that awareness of like, are you satiated with your meal? Are you happy? Are you satisfied? Do you actually feel nourished? And if not, can you go on this exploratory journey? I've been telling my kids all week we need to go to Sprouts. It's almost like, if I go to the store, I know my body will tune into like, buy that apple, buy that other colored thing, buy that, otherwise I Instacart my whole life. It just gets delivered. And you lack that connection to what is your body's intelligence actually asking for.
Stephanie Mara 28:21
Thank you so much for naming all of the nuance in this that it's not just about finding like the perfect food for your you know, dosha to like get you back into balance. It's also, how are you interacting with food? How are you connecting with the experience of making a meal? Is it infused with joy and love and excitement? And again, a lot of people who are listening that might feel really scary. You're maybe not there yet. That's okay. Even just to connect with even if you're eating a bar, something like that, just to start to like you said, slow down with it. Sit down with it. I know it might sound weird, but even if you're like, gonna open up something that's pre packaged, put it on a plate, eat it in a totally different way, with a fork and a knife, like actually helps you to slow down and be like, what does this actually feel like in my body? How does my body interact with this food?
Dr. Shivani Gupta 29:14
Absolutely and I think we shame ourselves so much around food. I know I do. I really wish I had an organic farm, and then I garden in my backyard, and the food came picked the same day for the nutrient density and that I was eating perfectly according to my dosha and my season. And the conversation I have with myself is what matters the most, like what is the most important thing, and that to me, is the macronutrients plus diversity. And so I bring that in every week. I'll try to bring in a new food, new fruit, whatever I can. And I also pay attention to, okay, like for example, today is called my podcast day, where I'll be on podcasts all day. At the end, I always want carbs, and my mind has always put carbs and fat in the enemy level. Enemy camp. And so the work I've had to do for myself is, why don't you make yourself a delicious gluten free pasta, put that amazing Costco pesto on it, and put some really nice parmesan on top, and just sit with it and enjoy it so much. You're so satiated, so satisfied, so happy with it, and you don't even need that much, but you're going to have that, it's going to feel good, and then it gets rid of that craving. And so I think part of it is also about like, can you put love into what you're going to eat? Because previously to me, I used to eat things all the time, but I would be mad at myself as I ate it, and I think of that as poisoning your food as it goes in. And so another big conversation I have with all my women is, look, we're going to eat what we're going to eat. Yes, I would love for us all to eat the most fresh, nutrient dense diet, 24/7, but let's say you even are there half the time, when you're going to eat your foods that are more fun or rich for whatever reason, those other foods that you think you're not going to eat but you're going to eat them. Enjoy it. Just enjoy it. Don't put any negative emotion or attention or impact on that food. And I think that's also a very important piece.
Stephanie Mara 31:08
Yeah, you know, something that I hear in what you were just describing around just how much judgment we have with food, something that I sensed was also that how much it disconnects us from listening to our bodies, of like, I hear a lot of trust in yourself and what your body needs after like, a full day of speaking and teaching, and you know, being on camera is like, yeah, it needs some grounding carbs. There's like, nothing wrong with that. And so if we can kind of say, okay, I get all of the cultural, societal pressure, messages, even fear response around how these foods are maybe going to affect my body. And if I just kind of, like, asked that to step aside for a second, sometimes I'll even say that with sessions with those I work with, okay, can we, like, just ask that judgment to step aside for a second and say, okay, if I just could listen to my body and what it says it needs, is there something that would come forth in that and sometimes we might be surprised around foods that come forth. I remember the first time that I was like, you know what? I'm so tired of, you were talking about eating in a very sad way of I really want to hear what my body says it wants. And it took most of the day to like, hear something very specific, because I so was not used to listening in that way. And it was so clear. And I have no idea why this was, maybe you could explain it from an Ayurvedic perspective, but it was like, it wanted asparagus, and it wanted it baked, and it wanted it with oil and salt. And I was like, I have no idea why that is, like the vegetable, why that's the thing, and baked in that way, like, but I did it, and it was like, my whole body just was like, this, like, thank you. This was exactly what I wanted right now. And so it may be things that you might be surprised about, but if we kind of like, get out of our own way, so to speak, to be like, let me just meet my body with curiosity, like you said, even at the grocery store, like you don't have to understand why you feel drawn to buying that certain thing. Sometimes, just to trust that and be like, let me just play with this food and see what happens.
Dr. Shivani Gupta 33:21
Yeah, and oftentimes in modern day times, we've let that go. In pandemic, everyone started ordering their groceries online. It's just more convenient. And my thought process was, I don't have half a day a week to do this job. I don't have to go to Costco for all those organic veggies, then Sprouts, then Whole Foods in case, Sprouts doesn't have everything I need. Then the Indian grocery store, because all my lentils and half my life comes out at the Indian grocery store, we're just farther away and a whole job unto itself. Then it's like, okay, preparation. We make our own ghee, we grind our own spices in my home, because we do cook Indian food. And so it's interesting that we've disconnected so far, and so the easiest way I can think of to hook back in is just stop at the grocery store every week and ask yourself, what do I really crave? And your body might surprise you that it's a simple one. It takes half an hour. I could stop at Sprouts today, once I pick up my kids on the way home, I plan to after this conversation. And the other easy thing is, on a Saturday, go to a farmers market. We have so many farmers markets. There's websites dedicated to showing you where they are, and so if you can, maybe once a month, go on a Saturday and make that thing you do in the morning purely to experience what's actually local and locally grown again, because it'll satisfy the body in a whole different way.
Stephanie Mara 34:37
I'm curious, just as you were talking about seasonally. This is going to be coming out as we're like, on the cusp of spring right now. And I'm wondering if we were gonna, well, at least spring here in the United States. If you're somewhere else, maybe you might be in a different season. But I'm curious, just like, how we might align with this season that we're actually like in a transition into right now.
Dr. Shivani Gupta 35:01
So what Ayurveda teaches us is the intersection of seasons is the best time to detox the body, and that we should really pay attention at the intersection of seasons, because you have kind of like the tendrils and lingering of the past season, and you have the newness of the new season coming in, but you can kind of get caught in between them, like our winter season was just norovirus, flu, pneumonia. I mean, I've just heard everyone getting so sick, even my kid had norovirus. And I was like, okay, gosh, like, we just got through that. But what does the spring usually bring? It brings new shoots, new foods. Those foods oftentimes are actually built to help clear the hibernation and all the lingering heaviness of the winter time. We're actually meant to hibernate in the winter. Here in America, we just party Thanksgiving through Christmas, through New Years, like it's the biggest time of year. But truly, we're meant to just hibernate, stay in we're meant to store more fat, eat more warming foods that keep us warm and indoors, kind of like a bear or squirrel for the winter. And so if you're meant to clear that, then come spring, you're meant to eat dandelion roots. You're meant to meet all these greens that come through, that are astringent, that will pull all that lingering heaviness. And I almost think of it as a cholesterol and plaque, like the things in the system that accumulated, it'll clear through detox out of you for a fresh new spring and then summer season. But a lot of times we're eating the same diet. Year round, we're eating the same thing. We have 24/7, access to every food all the time, but paying attention sometimes to like, okay, what are the spring foods? And then go buy a few of those and incorporate them can be a real game changer to helping you align the body seasonally. I'll give you another example. I live in Florida, and in the fall, it doesn't get cold here till Halloween night, but September is the beginning of fall, so I deliberately put my pumpkins out and things like that. I start that process even though it's 100 degrees outside and a burning hot summer weather, purely to remind my mind and body, hey, Fall is here. We can start incorporating fall foods. The rest of the country is experiencing fall. We're just going to experience it later. But let's start aligning to that season. It is that season. And so you have different ways you can play with that.
Stephanie Mara 37:15
Yeah, and detox can be an interesting word. And so something that I hear in that because, again, that's become a real fad thing that we have to, like actively do something to make our body detox. But I feel like the way you just described, it felt so profound in my own body of that when we're actually listening and eating within the cycles of nature, within the seasons that our body is naturally going to do what it knows how to do when we also shift and change and eat in ways that align with the season that we're in. And it doesn't have to be this, like, oh, I need to go, like, find a way to detox. It's like, no, just notice the foods that you naturally feel drawn to eating like you were talking about earlier. We are naturally drawn to eating more fruit during the summer because it's so hot outside and fruit is cooling. So you know, if we can just start to slow down and trust that and listen to that, our body's gonna do it all on its own.
Dr. Shivani Gupta 38:20
True and I think what happens is we don't tune into it because we don't have to, like, I don't have to, I technically, just order what I order from the grocery store, and we're going to cook what we're going to cook. And so the best way to tune into that is just once a month, look up, what are the seasonal foods of March, and then make that conscious effort when you go to the store just to buy a few of those, and just incorporate them into your meals, maybe your salads, or whatever gonna do. And those seasonal foods will naturally do what they're meant to do within you. But you're right. A lot of times we take detox in many different directions. I have bought a lot of different detoxes and done them, and a lot of times it can be really harsh. It can be really astringent on the body. A lot of times, we're being really strict and controlling with ourselves. I find when I was younger, that was easier. I could just hold a juice fast. It wasn't a big deal. And now, in my 40s, it's a much bigger fight with myself, because my body is like, no, why are we doing this? What are you doing to yourself? I don't think you should do that. That's so ridiculous. Why don't you just eat well and walk more like this is not a thing. And so now, when I have clients and we do 21 day detoxes, I give them three choices. I say, in Ayurveda, we would have always worked with your dosha. And so the first level of detox I give is profound self care. I say, everything I taught you about daily self care that is already naturally detoxing and beneficial, but It's luxurious and fun. Do that. Just do that for 21 days and fill your bucket. Because we're never meant to strip out of ourselves unless we are already whole and doing really well. And in modern day times, a lot of times, we're gas tanks running on empty, not realizing that we haven't filled our cup first, then I do a mid level detox. And that's like, okay, do all that stuff, but I'm going to ask you to give up two inflammatory foods, and then do a lot of the Ayurvedic practices around sleep and gut and everything else that I talk about. And I'll usually ask for like gluten and sugar, because those are two big ones for people, or alcohol and sugar. And once we take those out of the system, even if imperfectly. All of a sudden we drop inflammation. Body can heal better. Body knows how to heal itself. We're just taking one or two of the things that it finds problematic out of the way, and then third levels, just pull out a few more inflammatory food categories. But it's harder. If you haven't really built up the reserves in the system, it's harder. And so, for example, I'm about to embark on a mold detox. And I've been talking to my body, and my body's like, no, you are not torturing me. So I said, don't worry. Don't worry. We're going to go first with refill all the vitamins. Take the things to build cellular health, hydrate the cells, walk in nature, bring vitamin D levels up, all the things. Then I will take things out, but I have to prepare the body first. We really pre detox before we detox. And really, I do think that self care and eating just the way we talked about according to your circadian alignment is one of the easiest ways to just support a natural, easy detox from the body.
Stephanie Mara 41:19
Yeah. I love that what you're starting with is, what can we add in. How can we bolster? How can we fill ourselves up? Because so much of diet culture and detox culture and wellness culture is all about, what do we have to take out? How do we have to restrict? What do we need to deprive ourselves of? I love that you're bringing that in because we talk a lot about the nervous system here as well. And I, you know, saw you referenced it earlier of like, yeah, if we're gonna support the body in thriving the best that it can, it has to feel safe and it has to feel grounded and it has to feel regulated. And so even if you notice, like, all the words that I just said, of like, deprivation and restriction, like even I noticed my body clenched a little bit like, healing isn't gonna happen there. And so yes, we need to start with fortifying. We need to start with what we can bring in. We need to start with that self care. So I love that you're bringing that in and starting with that first.
Dr. Shivani Gupta 42:17
Absolutely. I think it's key.
Stephanie Mara 42:19
Something that you've mentioned a few times today is just about herbs. But I would love to just touch in on this for a second, because I find that, especially if you've been following like a diet for a while, there's not really, like, a lot of diet foods that are like, flavorful. You know, it's not something that you're like, oh my gosh, that tasted so good, we're not using herbs and spices and making like the experience the best experience it can be. And I know that I've had food experiences before where I've eaten something and it was maybe just like a small bite of something like I'm even thinking, I went on a trip with my husband and his family almost a year ago now, to Ecuador and the Galapagos, and one of the nights on this trip was like going to a restaurant, and it was like a seven course meal, but everything was just a bite. You know? It wasn't like the way that we create plates here. It was just like, how do we make this one bite be the best bite that it possibly could be. And it was so flavorful and so amazing. I left that meal so utterly satisfied and not overly full. But every single bite was just like perfection of its balance of, you know, acid and sweet and salt and all the things. So I'm wondering if you could talk about, because you've talked quite a bit, a few times here around how you cook your own meals, and the spices you use and the herbs you maybe use, and how important that also is to even enhance our experience of food.
Dr. Shivani Gupta 43:53
Absolutely. I was sitting in an herbology class when I was studying Ayurveda and doing my master's in it, and I remember the professor saying, did you know that this is what these spices do? And my jaw dropped, because in an Indian household, we have a spice box ready with all these spices in proportion, because we cook with them daily. So coriander, which is cilantro, coriander seed, we grind it up fresh every few weeks, because we want that fresh ground spice. Coriander is a heavy metal detoxer, so when we talk about the toxic burden of life, okay, so if your spices are already helping you detox naturally and they're adding flavor, then that's awesome. You get the double whammy. Or black pepper. We know black pepper increases the absorption of a lot of our spices. We use fennel. Fennel, if you have indigestion or heartburn, is a great seed to just chew on after your meals. It's why, when you go to an Indian restaurant, there's a bowl on your way out full of fennel, because they know they probably cause heartburn with all those spices and your tummy might be upset, and that'll just cool you right down. There are other spices in that box, like turmeric, which is my favorite my whole PhD dissertation was on turmeric, and we know that turmeric is anti inflammatory, antioxidant, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, and based on a lot of the studies I've done in my more recent years, it helps build the gut lining. It's very anti aging in a lot of different ways. It's anti h pylori, anti bad microbes. It's like this ultimate janitor that goes in there and cleans up house and gets rid of what doesn't belong in our bodies, and a lot of people take it for joint pain. So to me, turmeric is my number one favorite phyto botanical out of Ayurveda and out of Mother Earth that can help us in so many ways. So I've created a whole product line around it to impact the world. And finally, out of the spices, I love ashwagandha. I think ashwagandha is a powerful adaptogen for our system to keep us relaxed and calm. There are just so many. There are so many, but there's like 100 different herbs you can reach into, but you're right when it comes to our food. Sometimes, when we're eating really healthy, we create things that are pretty plain. And it can be as simple as fresh basil. It can be rosemary, any of the Italian spices are fantastic for you. And then if you want to get more creative and adventurous in the Indian spice box, just add in cumin and turmeric and some black pepper. And that's a beautiful starting place to add color and richness, aroma and flavor, but also the health of benefits you get both sides of that as well.
Stephanie Mara 46:22
Yeah, I also just love turmeric. And I'm very open here that, you know, I went through a long covid healing journey and was taking turmeric almost daily. And when I went to the dentist, they were like, do you eat a lot ofturmeric? Yes, I do, because turmeric can stain anything, and so I really appreciate you just like naming the ways that we can, kind of like, jazz up our foods, and also that all of these things are doing something for us. So it kind of comes right back around of what we've been talking about, of if there is a certain spice that you even feel drawn to, there might be a reason for that, and to trust that, like I usually I will, just like, I have a whole cabinet of spices, and before I put anything on my food, I'll smell everything, and I'll just notice my body's reaction. And if my body's like, that, do that, I'm like, okay, so we need this for some reason. And like, let's, let's do that spice today.
Dr. Shivani Gupta 47:22
Yeah, that's so great. I mean, to allow your body to intuitively tell you is profound, and we oftentimes don't let our body intuitively tell us, I love that.
Stephanie Mara 47:32
Yeah, well, oh my gosh, I loved everything that you shared today. And I'm curious as we wrap up, I always like to leave people with a baby step. And so I know you offered the baby step of like, go take the quiz on your website if you're curious about what dosha like, or combination of dosha you may be, I'm wondering how someone who's maybe interested in in trying this approach to their relationship with food, how might they get started or a baby step you might offer them?
Dr. Shivani Gupta 47:59
You know, I created something on my website called The Seven Day inflammation challenge, and it's actually like what we talked about, where it's like, let me fill your cup first. Let's talk about sleep. Let's talk about each aspect of Ayurveda. And then, yes, to reduce inflammation, we should look at a food category or two as two inflammatory food system for a short period of time. Let's get rid of them. But I like to baby step people into all the different aspects of self care for you, and then let's talk about reducing that inflammation so that we can support our overall health.
Stephanie Mara 48:29
Yeah, I again, I so appreciate that has to start with self care. And just to bring this full circle, is there, even if someone kind of maybe knows, I sense that even as you describe those doshas, I may be this or this, is there one like for each one that you might recommend that would be a super easy place for someone to start. And I know you even said earlier, like, Pitta needs to take more breaks. So like, I'm wondering if there's like, anything else you would add to those.
Dr. Shivani Gupta 48:59
For sure. So for Vata it's avocado or sweet potato. Fit those in at lunch or dinner and start to see how settled you feel afterwards. That's an easy one. For the Pittas, it's coconut water or reach for fruit when you get those crazy sugar cravings, because Pittas run at such a high pace, we can cause our own, like anxiety and stress, and then we're going to reach for sweet things. So it's about replacing the sweet thing with an alternative that really cools our jets. And then for Kaphas, it would be that morning movement, either it's biking, walking, spin class, any type of movement class that's going to get you moving, because we've got to move the energy for the day, and it's hard to always do that for ourselves. And so with Kaphas, it's like just get to the gym and get moving, and once you move your energy, you'll have even more energy and motivation to move some more before you start your day.
Stephanie Mara 49:53
Awesome. I love all of those. To everyone listening, how can everyone keep in touch with you and the important work you're doing in the world?
Dr. Shivani Gupta 50:00
For sure. So my website is drshivani.com that's S, H, I, V, A, N, I, and I'm at dr dot shivani gupta on Instagram. My supplement company is fusionary formulas, F, U, S, I, O, N, A, R, Y, and I made a special code for your listeners. Satiated podcast will give them 15% off if they want to try my turmeric. And I have a podcast. It's called the Fusionary Health Podcast. If you want to learn more about Ayurveda and all these topics.
Stephanie Mara 50:01
Awesome. I will put all of those links in the show notes and just thank you so much again for being here and just offering a very different lens to food, that food gets to be our ally and our friend and can actually help us feel really stable and balanced and grounded in our life.
Dr. Shivani Gupta 50:45
Absolutely. I love that. That's my whole dream, is that we understand how to use food for joy and really enjoy it and feel so good with it, as opposed to all these other ways we look at it. So thank you.
Stephanie Mara 50:57
Yeah, completely agree. Well, to everyone listening as always, if you have any questions, email me anytime at support@stephaniemara.com and I hope you all have a satiating and safety producing rest of your day. Bye!.
Keep in touch with Dr. Shivani:
Website: www.shivanigupta.com
Free 7-Day Inflammation Detox Challenge: https://www.7dayinflammationdetox.com/optin1641313075014
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheShivaniGupta
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.shivanigupta/