Ayurvedic Nutrition & Cooking

Diet is essential part of our life. From the food what we consume, we receive strength, life force and immunity to fight against the diseases.

Diet not only nourishes our body but our mind also. The Upanishad says that food we consume gets separated in three parts. The solid part nourishes our tissues and the waste products like feces, the liquid part nourishes mostly that liquid wastes like urine and the subtle part nourishes the mind.

Ayurveda and Yoga, both healing sciences have therefore very minutely described the qualities and effects of different foods. To understand this they have explained in detail twenty attributes, energetic principles taste, potency, post-digestive effect and their relation to tridosha. Although Ayurveda has not prohibited the use of meat and other non-vegetarian food substances, both Ayurveda and Yoga emphasize the need to achieve highest sattvic qualities in our body and mind by taking sattvic vegetarian diet. In this book, I have therefore explained only some important vegetarian Indian reciepes.

The book has been divided in three parts. In the first part, basic principles of Ayurveda have been explained. The second part deals with basic principles of Ayurvedic nutrition and the third part consists of various cooking preparations with their effect on tridosha. Ayurveda has not explained any special cooking procedures for food substances so that they can have particular effects on doshas. To understand this one must study the energetic principles of food along with twenty attributes and their effects on doshas.

Diet is most important part of our daily life. If we prepare and consume proper diet, we can maintain our health very well. On the other hand improper diet leads to formation of various diseases. I hope that after going through the book, people will understand all the concepts of diet as explained in Ayurveda and will remain healthy by eating healthy food.

For the Second Edition The First edition was prepared in September 1887, when I was invited by Mamata Laderman, in Redwood forest, California, USA for lectures on Ayurvedic nutrition.

At that time I had never thought that the second edition will come out quickly in January 1998. This was largely due to the overwhelming response I received for the book from my students from USA, Germany, Italy and Poland.

Students and people were so fascinated by this book that they wanted more receipes and their effects on doshas and constitution. Hence, I decided to add few more receipes with classical description.

For the Third Revised Edition I am extremely happy to introduce to revised third edition. In this edition. I have included the information regarding various bakery products and their effects on doshas. I have mentioned the properties of refined wheat flour or maida which is used for preparations of various bakery products, making Chapati or Nan and Pizza in various restaurant and hotels.

In part one, I have also explained the general rules of eating and the circadian rythum of doshas, which were overlooked in previous edition.

In the meanwhile the book has now been translated in Spanish Language and this work was done by School of Ayurvedic Culture in Barcelona in Spain where I was invited many times for teaching nutrition classes. I am thankful to Dr. Angela Sanz for her efforts of bringing out in Spanish language in excellent manner.

For the Fourth Revised Edition I was teaching intensive nutrition classes of 4 days duration at Bergler Massage School in Graz-Austria. During this teaching, I discussed with students in detail about the individual breakfast, lunch and dinner according to constitution. Therefore, I have added this concept in this edition. I have also added few recipes.

The book has been translated and published in Italian Language. Very soon due to the efforts of Nelly Seby this will be also published in French language.

The Fourth revised edition in coming out from Chaukhamba Sanskrit Pratishthan, Delhi . And I am thankful to Mr. Praveen Gupt for this.

Ayurvedic Nutrition & Cooking is a unique book dealing with basic principles of food, rules of eating, methods of preparation, various food recipes with Ayurvedic understanding. It has been divided in 3 parts. The first part deals with basic principles of Ayurveda like concept of tridosha, attributes, constitution & energetic principles of food. The second part deals with nutrition, rules & regulations of eating as well as various other concepts like contradictor diet. The third part deals with various recipes. These have been divided in 14 chapters like beverages, snacks, leafy vegetables, rice, chapatti etc. Each recipe has been explained with its ingredients, method of preparation and its effects on doshas. More than 100 recipes have been described in this book.

Dr. Sunanda Ranade is expert Ayurvedic gynecologist and nutritionist. She is Director of International Academy of Ayurveda, Pune, India (www.Ayurveda-int.com) and its working in the field of Ayurveda and Yoga since last 40 years.

Dr. Sunanda Ranade has written hundreds of articles on Ayurveda, which have been published not only in Indian magazines and newspapers but also in Italy and Germany and USA. She is also the author of several books on Ayurveda, which have published in Marathi, English, Italian and Spanish Languages.

DR. Sunanda Ranade is working as visiting Professor to various Institutes in United State like Ayu-Seattle; American Institute of Ayurveda, San Francisco; Seva Academy, Munich, Germany; SKA Ayurveda, Milan, Italy; Salamanca University in Spain; Ayurveda center in Israel (Broshim campus Tel Aviv university); Bergler massage school in Graz, Austria, federation in Portugal. Since last 20 years she has visited Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and Brazil for giving lectures at various Institutes in these countries. She has also substantially contributed for CD ROM-Dhanvantari that is the first CD on Ayurveda.