Foods for Summer: Balancing the pitta!
Ayurveda is the science of knowledge, which has been practiced for more than 5000 years. Ayurveda further states that, every person is made up of five basic elements or the Pancha Mahabhuta- which includes; earth, air, water, fire and space (ether), which reside in every person in such a way that they determine his physical and mental traits and shape their overall personality.
These elements combine with each other in the human body to form three life forces or energies, called doshas. These doshas are responsible for our physical, mental, and emotional tendencies. Everyone inherits a unique mix of the three doshas, with any one being more dominant in each person. The three doshas (tridoshas), or bio-energies found in
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our body are: • Vata dosha that is associated with air and space. • Kapha dosha is linked to earth and water. • Pitta dosha is linked to fire and controls the digestive and endocrine systems of the body.
It has properties like hot, spicy and oily and can be more prevalent in summer. High pitta levels cause a burning sensation, increased acidity and inflammation, along with a highly critical and nervous disposition, which is aggravated in the summer time. To pacify pitta, it is best to have cooling foods that lower the pitta dosha and calm the body. Our ability to digest foods decreases as the sun shines brighter, so it is best to eat food during cooler parts of the day, i.e., lunch before noon and dinner at dusk.
Foods that can aggravate Pitta dosha:
1. Foods such as pungent and oily foods like curries, fried and oily stuff should be avoided by these people. These foods increase the acidity and heartburn in people with pitta dosha who are already afflicted by these problems. Even smoking, spices like garlic and ginger, intake of alcohol, having junk and fried foods, coffee, pickles, vinegar, fermented foods, curd and yoghurt should be avoided by these people.
Grains like corn, millet and rye increase the pitta dosha.
2. Vegetables like carrots, beets, garlic, eggplant, peppers, onions, tomatoes etc should be
avoided. 3. Avoid sour and unripe fruits. Also fruits like papayas, peaches, bananas should be avoided. Pitta balancing foods include: 1. Foods that are cool, dry with a mild sweet, bitter and astringent taste should be preferred for a pitta imbalance. Foods like milk, honey, barley, rice, beans, and steamed vegetables are beneficial. Mild spices like cumin, coriander, cilantro, cardamom are very helpful during this dosha. 2. All vegetables, like green leafy vegetables and fruits like apples, pomegranates, grapes, mangoes etc need to be consumed. 3. Consuming lots of room temperature water or warm fluids will help reduce the effects of pitta dosha. Also avoid eating very hot food, as this aggravates pitta. Summer is a time when tempers run high, especially in people with a predominant pitta dosha. Eating a proper diet according to the body’s prakruti helps a person attain calm and peace of mind, along with highly active mental faculties.
In this article, you are informed about a disease that is occurring more often in our society. It is commonly referred to as “heartburn” but is more appropriately named acid reflux disease or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Most people suffer from this disease, but think nothing of it. Perhaps they have felt it after a big meal, lying down after eating, during pregnancy, or even when bending over. Most people feel that GERD occurs after eating spicy foods, when in fact the major cause of GERD is fatty foods and the quantity of foods eaten.
Islam is the second biggest faith in the world. It is a monotheistic, peaceful religion which believes that there is only one god in the whole universe and his name is Allah. In his book, “Islam the Straight Path”, L.Esposito (1998) writes that the main ambition of Islam is to spread into the entire world and every act is based on the words of Qur’an and Muhammad says and deeds. But throughout the years of spreading 12 new orders were created in Islam. They were deviations from the classical Islam. One of these orders was The Bektashi Order of Dervishes. Their religion was also known as the popular Islam or (non-canonical) (L.Esposito, 1998). The aim was to reach Allah in a different way. Dervishes could be driven in the history of Islam in the same role that monks stay in Christianity. Their main difference is that dervishes to don’t stay closed in cloisters but they are close to the people in the everyday life. Now the most significant order that took place in the Balkans and it is still present now days the Bektashi order of Dervishes is very famous in Albania. In order to understand clearly the role of this Sufi order (Tariqat) we need to explain some questions raised. Who created it? When and where was the Bektashi order born? What were the circumstances that leaded to his creation? What are its main features? Why did it spread in the Balkans? What is its role now? What is the place of it in the Islamic world? The world center momentarily speaking is in Tirana, Albania. Bektashism has its own place in the Islamic world but the influence of it and the crucial role it played on Balkans especially in Albania is considerable.
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Ayurveda, is the oldest ancient medical system of India, also known as the "science of life.” Epilepsy is defined as Apasmara and the prefix means negation or loss of and Smara, means consciousness or memory. Aura was recognized and was called Apasmara Poorva Roopa. Charaka lists some symptoms such as seeing nonexistent
Religious discrimination is the biggest social issue in the USA. Since the 9/11 attacks Sikh’s have been tortured and treated really badly only because of their appearance. Arabs and Muslims are also tortured because of the religion they belong to. People should not insult other people without even knowing about their background. People should try to get to know about other person’s background before coming into any conclusion, he might be the best person they have ever met. The U.S. should abolish the practice of practice of profiling based on appearance at government office, schools, private offices etc.
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Joseph Mileck asserts in Hermann Hesse: Life and Art that Siddhartha is a perfect exemplification of what he calls, "conscious craftsmanship". For Mileck, Hesse consciously synchronized form and substance in Siddhartha to best illustrate a feeling of unity and the journey through the mind, body, and soul. In Siddhartha, Hesse consciously crafted a piece that is unified in form, style, and content, and created an atmosphere in which each one of these elements is perfectly complementary with the others.
Ratnaprabha. “Review: Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed. ” Review of Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, by Donald S Lopez. Western Buddhist Review, 2008. http://www. westernbuddhistreview. com/vol5/buddhism-and-science. html
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The most widespread symptom is heartburn which may extend to the base of the neck. Heartburn may last some hours and generally begins one to two hours after a meal. Other symptoms are indigestion, burping, pain at the base of the chest, and feeling a burden in the abdomen.
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