(Plus Vata Diet Tips to Correct Your Vata Dosha Imbalance)
You should know that any Vata dosha imbalance is not only causing you to be always in a rush, stressed out (and even depressed), but to easily gain weight as well.
That’s why here you’ll find out practical tips on how to balance your dosha, recommendations of Vata Ayurvedic weight loss diet, including specific supplements helpful for your Vata body type.
Before anything else, here’s something to keep in mind.
While it’s true that as a Vata type you may be naturally slender, but this doesn’t mean that weight gain can’t become a problem for you…
You can be thin all your life, and then suddenly put on weight because your metabolism has changed and your digestion has been disturbed.
Incomplete digestion caused by eating the wrong foods for your dosha creates toxicity in your body. Body toxicity clogs your whole system and causes weight gain.
Not to worry though, here are some useful…
Vata Dosha Ayurvedic Weight Loss Diet Guidelines
The most important diet adjustment you could make to correct your Vata imbalance is to eat three cooked, warm meals per day – at the same time every day, if possible.
This greatly improves your digestion and assimilation of vital nutrients.
Foods to Favor for Vata Dosha
According to Ayurvedic weight loss guidelines, Vatas should favor moist cooking (sautéing, steaming, & boiling), and avoid frying, baking and roasting – as these contribute to your vata imbalance.
Use coconut oil and butter (or ghee, which is clarified butter) as the most healthy cooking oils.
Always favor warm drinks over cold ones.
Choose whole, fresh, unctuous foods that are sweet, sour, salty, slightly oily, and mildly spicy.
Try to use as much as you can vata-pacifying spices like…
- ginger
- basil
- oregano
- tarragon
- thyme
- cumin
- fennel
Here’s an example of daily menus that will pacify your Vata body type helping you release the extra weight:
Breakfast: try either a sweet & creamy hot cereal meal, or one that is based on sweet fruits: warm stewed berries, apples & pears with cinnamon & nutmeg; or fresh bananas, apricots, grapes, figs, and dates.
Lunch should be the heaviest meal of the day and include:
- 30% well-cooked vegetables (choose vata-balancing, “warming” vegetables like beets, carrots, zucchini, leeks, asparagus, green beans, onions, sweet potatoes)
- 20% light proteins (chicken, turkey, seafood), and
- 50% grains like brown rice, couscous, whole wheat pasta.
Late afternoon snack: try some halva with a hot herbal tea, or some raw, slightly salted nuts with yogurt or kefir (preferably of goat or sheep).
Dinner: whole-grain bread and butter with a hearty vegetable soup, or a cup of warm milk and fresh cheese (cottage, ricotta, labneh, goat or cream cheese).
Just before bed, you can have a cup of buttermilk, or warm milk with honey and a pinch of ginger for a sound, restful sleep.
Foods to Avoid for Vata Dosha
According to the Ayurvedic weight loss recommendations for your dosha, you should avoid any cold foods (frozen, canned, or packaged foods and iced drinks), raw salads and vegetables, astringent fruits and dry snacks (crackers, cold cereal, rice cakes, popcorn).
Also, avoid all cereals (except wheat), fermented and aged cheese, red meat, cold cuts, as they are extremely unfavorable for your dosha.
Among the veggies to avoid are: cayenne/chili/sweet peppers, alfalfa sprouts, cabbage, eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes and beans. That’s because they are irritants to your system, just like another group to stay away from: coffee, black tea, ice cream, sugar and chocolate.
Avoid flaxseed oil as well – although generally a useful aid in weight loss, it activates too much your Vata dosha.
Supplements for Vata Imbalance…
…are helping you lose weight too. The most useful ones are:
- Ashwagandha: reduces physical & mental stress,
- Arjuna: reduces emotional stress,
- Bee pollen & royal jelly,
- Spirulina & blue-green algae,
- Vitamins: A, B, B12, C, D, & E, and
- Minerals: calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, and zinc.
In summary, remember this.
To Pacify Your Vata Dosha, Lose the Extra Weight and…
…feel better, energized, focused and balanced, it’s best to:
- Eat 3 warm, cooked meals daily
- Favor warm, moist, unctuous foods & drinks over cold ones
- Adopt regular eating & lifestyle routines
If you’re like most people…
…You are a combination of two doshas…
…a predominant Vata dosha, and a secondary one – either Pitta or less likely, Kapha. Whichever your secondary dosha is, it is also influencing you more or less – depending on its percentage in the mix.
Both your predominant and secondary doshas can be out of balance.
If that’s the case, both need to be “pacified” for your optimum physical and emotional equilibrium, so you may want to check as well the Pitta Diet or, Kapha Diet.