Diabetes and Food Style: Turn Your Food into Your Medicine

Fast paced life of modern world has necessitated us to give only lower priority to

nutrition. This is at a time when nutrition awareness of everyone is high. Instead of taking

well cooked food items, fruits and juices, people go after carbonated drinks, fast 'junk'

food, frozen and preserved food, microwave food. People also don’t take the time to enjoy

and appreciate the food they eat. Today most of us just need any food that fills the belly

for sometime.

This food habits have given rise to a variety of health problems. Significantly important

one among them is diabetes.

Ayurvedic principles tell us food is one important element that keeps a person in a balanced

state of body, mind and soul. Taking healthy food translates into healthy body.

Ayurvedic view on diabetes is no different. There are times when diabetes can attack without

any warning sign. Ayurvedic food style combined with certain herbal applications helps one

effectively manage his or her condition of diabetes.

High sugar level is the most dreaded thing about diabetes. Ayurveda recommends food items

that don't release excess sugar into the blood. Food items that are too sweet, ice cream,

chocolate, friend food items, white flour, preserved food, fast food, junk food etc are to

be avoided. Bad habits like smoking and drinking should be given up.

Ayurveda recommends Ayurvedic herbal tea for diabetic patients. Replace sugar with honey or

jaggery (thickened molasses - sarkkara) or better still palm jaggery (thickened palm

molasses - karippatti).

The advantages or drinking more than eight glass of water everyday is not easily told in an

essay. Drink a minimum of 8-15 glass of water in the day time. After sunset take only

minimal quantities of water. Another thing is to drink plenty of water an hour before a meal

and an hour after the meals. Drinking water close to meals dilute the digestive fire (in

Ayurveda it is called pitta) and makes the process of digestion difficult.

Take fruits like grapes, fig, pomegranate, citrus fruits etc. Bitter melon (bitter gourd,

karela) is used as medicine for diabetes.

The point about Ayurvedic management of diabetes is never a hard task. All you will have to

do is to incorporate Ayurvedic principles as your daily routine. Having healthy food and

exercise regime itself can help one control his or her diabetes to a great extent.

Include turmeric and garlic as spices, bitter gourd as vegetable, triphala as a laxative and

drinking lot of water as daily habit. These are not very difficult to follow. You can't eat

or drink all the food items you have. But living a sweeter life sometimes means giving up

some sweet for tongue food items.

by: Dev Sri