In Ayurveda it is believed that ‘food is medicine’. Depending on your unique constitution certain foods are recommended, these are referred to as the 6 tastes or Rasa’s and are Sweet, Sour, Salty, Pungent, Bitter and Astringent.
In general terms regardless of your Prakriti (constitution at birth) certain foods are recommended for their light, soothing and easy to digest properties, these are called Sattvic foods. Sattvic foods tend to grow above ground (although there are a few exceptions) and therefore take energy from the sun, therefore increasing Prana (energy and life force) and strengthening Ojas (the very essence of life).
The pure qualities of Sattva are love, compassion, truthfulness, kindness and patience to name just a few, they are the positive beautiful traits in a human being.
On a day to day basis do try and ensure that the majority of your diet includes these wonderful foods, a few examples being fresh seasonal fruit, fresh vegetables, ghee, honey, oats, dates, milk, rice, various nuts and seeds and herbs and spices.
I tend to start my day with oats, in the winter I make porridge and in the sunnier months overnight oats, you may wish to try the recipe below, it incorporates a number of the sattvic foods.
3 tablespoons of oats
1 teaspoon of sesame seeds
A few strands of saffron
Stir these together in a jar and add your milk of choice (I love oat milk) so that the milk covers the oats and there’s a little extra.
Put the lid on the jar and leave in the fridge.
In the morning give the oats a stir, you may need to add some extra milk to loosen them and stir through a teaspoon of honey (alternatively you can add a chopped date the night before). I like to top mine with toasted seeds and flax.
I like to refer to them as my sunshine breakfast and with all that wonderful Sattvic energy you can see why, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
