Obesity: Ayurveda Remedies and Healthy Lifestyle Directions

April 20th, 2007 | admin

Obesity, in normal cases is referred to as the unnatural accumulation of fat in one’s body. An obese person has body weight 5% more than normal body weight. Sometimes the excess weight can be prelude to other serious physical conditions.

Kapha type persons are more prone to overweight or obesity. However, pitta type persons too can get overweight. Vata type persons generally are lean built and they need to add in weight to achieve ideal body weight.

Ayurveda cure for obesity first starts with identifying the physical composition of the person and balancing his or her calorie intake and bodily activities to achieve normal body weight.

The normal diet pattern recommended to an overweight person includes has items that promotes digestion and assimilation of nutrients.

Ginger, papaya, mango, banana, pineapple, bitter gourd etc are the main items that a doctor recommends. While ginger promotes digestive fire (agni), fibrous fruits like mango add bulk to the food and facilitates easy digestion and freshens digestive system.

Other preventive measures include

Drink warm water many times in the daytime.

Use spices and/or vegetables that are spicy, bitter or sour. This promotes digestion.

Exercise daily according to your physical capacity.

Avoid binge eating and eating between meals.

Replace fried/baked/canned food items with fresh fruits.

Reduce food items that are very sweet.

Take non-vegetarian food in very limited quantities.

Don’t drink full milk or take curd. Skim milk and buttermilk are ok.

Indian gooseberry (amlaki) is beneficial in weight loss.

If obesity is linked to hormonal or genetic imbalances, food and lifestyle regulations may not be good enough. In that case you need to correctly identify the underlying reasons of obesity to find an effective cure for the condition.