If you’re not already confused about which diet is the best one for health and weight management, Dr. Oz is promoting yet another one. This one comes from ancient India. It categorizes your body type into one of 3 types and then recommends the healthiest way for you to eat based on your classification.
Be ready to eat stuff you may not like depending on your body type, or, giving up foods you do like.
I’m not talking about giving up things that many diets recommend we stop eating. For the record, I do not endorse any diet that forbids certain foods or food groups. Cutting back on some foods, such as foods full of saturated fat, or processed foods with added fats, sugar, and sodium should be limited in a healthy diet, but not forbidden.
The Ayurvedic diet tells the “Kasha” body type people that they’re prone to sinus infections and should eat more garlic. I happen to like garlic, but I don’t like to be in the company of somebody who habitually eats a lot of garlic. Kasha body type folks could stand to lose some friends.
If your body characteristics place you squarely in the “Pitta” body description you’re out of luck. It’s supposed that your favorite things to eat/drink are hot spices, alcohol, coffee, vinegar, and acidic foods like citrus and tomatoes and those are the precise things you must avoid.
The third body type, “Vata,” must also give up eating certain foods, and too bad if they happen to love them. According to the Ayurvedic diet giving up those foods will end those annoying chronic conditions that plague them. They are often bloated, constipated, and suffer from dry nasal passages, so no more dry/crunchy foods, carbonated beverages, and cold/raw vegetables for them!
In my estimation the Ayurvedic Diet has some merit.
It promotes what is generally accepted by nutrition scientists as a healthful way to eat. It is also unnecessarily restrictive and not compatible with most people’s lifestyles and preferences. That’s its major defect.
Any diet that isn’t compatible with your lifestyle and preferences is rarely a diet with which you can actually live.
No diet is any good if it’s something you follow temporarily just long enough to lose weight.
When I use the word diet, I am referring to the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.
I’m sure there are people who are enthusiastic Ayurvedic acolytes.
They probably have loads of anecdotal evidence to support their claims of better health relating specifically to their body type. If they are living it and loving it, that’s great and it doesn’t mean that you should convert too.
For many more, it could be another attempt at weight loss and improved health that ends in failure leaving the would-be Ayurvedic feeling more self-disgusted than ever. Instead of letting the ancient Indians tell you who you are based on your body type and how to feed yourself, why not learn to eat to satisfy yourself?
Don’t give up foods you love; discover how to eat them within the context of a balanced diet! You are much more likely to achieve and sustain success when you find a way to eat that is fully compatible with your food preferences and lifestyle!
