Ayurveda teaches us that like increases like and that imbalance and poor health can often start when the seasons and climate change, such as becoming hotter and drier in summer versus cooler and damper in winter. These times are considered vulnerable times, as we adjust to the next season. Charaka (Ayurvedic sage) states that changing your diet and lifestyle with the seasons will give you physical strength (bala) and digestive power (agni), as well as balance your dosha. This study of the seasons is called ritucharya and is a major focus in Ayurveda.[1] Modern research supports this view in finding that seasonal changes in day length can suppress or enhance our immune function.[2] It is clear that as the seasons change, our bodies also require a different diet and lifestyle to stay balanced (or dinacharya). Mind-body awareness techniques, such as yoga, help us to naturally want to make such changes.
So, Ayurvedic advice isn’t static but changes according to the time of year. As the days become gradually brighter and warmer we can finally say that spring might just be on its way.
Spring is a time of new growth and potential. The weather is both warmer and wetter and evenings lighter as winter ends. During the cold, damp winter, it is normal for kapha dosha to accumulate (due to the cold, damp weather and a heavier diet aggravtaing kapha's cold, damp, oily qualities). Just as there are spring floods with rivers overflowing, so there are internal floods. The increased heat of spring melts the congested damp that has accumulated, causing feelings of sluggishness, weight gain, swelling, lethargy as well as the onset of spring colds and hay-fever characterised by high levels of mucus.
To stay well this spring:
Set your alarm for 7am at the latest, and preferably earlier as sleeping later will further aggravate kapha dosha.
Take a cup of hot water first thing to stimulate digestion and clear any mucus that has accumulated overnight. Alternatively, you can make a spicy brew with equal quantities of cumin, coriander and fennel seeds steeped in hot water.
Massage your body briskly once or twice a week with warm sesame oil, followed by a warm shower. Dry skin brushing is excellent for stimulating lymph and reducing cellulite. Use firm sweeping strokes towards the heart to aid the elimination of fluid. Saunas can be a useful for drying up excess secretions.
Practise vigorous exercise to get the lymph moving in the body, preventing congestive problems. It is also one of the best ways to stimulate a sluggish digestion and aid detoxification. Make your yoga practice dynamic and stimulating. Sun salutations are ideal as they build up heat, working all the major muscles. Kappalabhati pranayama is also good for generating internal heat and burning toxins.
A spring Ayurvedic diet recommends more bitter tastes (eg: herbs such as dandelion), as well as spicy (eg: fresh ginger herbal tea) and astringent (eg: all pulses). These tastes open the channels of elimination, clearing excess mucus and moisture from the body. Reduce kapha aggravating sweet, sour and salty foods which could cause water retention at this time. In common with the winter diet, minimise raw and cold foods, favouring warm, lightly cooked meals. Lighter grains such as quinoa, millet and barley are all kapha reducing, but minimise wheat dominant foods.
Spring is a great time to gently cleanse and support your body’s natural detoxification processes (such as with eating just mung bean soup or kichari for a few days). I can support you through an Ayurvedic home spring cleanse to 'lighten the load'.
Use a neti pot to give the nose a daily rinse with warm, salt water over a sink. This not only helps ward off colds and hay fever, but will also improve your pranayama. Read David Frawley’s ‘Neti: Healing Secrets of Yoga and Ayurveda’ which includes information on adding herbs to your neti to aid detoxification.
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For a spring cold help clear mucous by eating light, warm, simple foods as you rest. Soup is ideal. Avoid dairy products, sweets, fried foods and yeasted bread which increase congestion. Fresh ginger tea is excellent, especially with raw honey added once the tea has cooled down. Raw honey clears mucous and kapha due to its heating, drying and channel clearing effect. It is the best sweetener for kapha predominant types and is good for all in spring.
Herbal help from Ayurveda: Chywanprash is a delicious Ayurvedic herbal jam to boost immunity and strengthening the lungs (you can try it on toast for breakfast). For persistent colds, try Trikatu (ginger, black pepper and long pepper) which dries up mucous and clears channels. It should not be taken in pregnancy or with aggravated pitta (eg: heartburn or hyperacidity). Triphala (combination of three wonderful rejuvenative tonifying herbs which pacify all three doshas. And Sitopaladi is great if you are suffering from excess mucus. Try a simple home remedy of fresh or dried ginger with hot water.Use copious turmeric, ginger and black pepper in your cooking. Turmeric has antiviral and antibacterial properties and can be used in medicinal doses for all respiratory tract infections. Pepper enhances its effect.
And get foraging! The spring superstars are nettle, cleavers,sorrel, dandelion and wild garlic....
Early spring is known as the 'hungry gap'; Winter stores from the previous year have run low and new spring vegetables haven't quite come through. BUT, nature provides us with the first fresh green herbs to be seen growing after winter – which support our natural cleansing and detoxifying systems. Spring is a great time for a cleanse, as the body is ready to let go of waste that may have built up over the winter months, due to richer diet, less exercise, colder temperatures etc. Nature gives us some great herbs at this time of year, to support with this. Ayurveda also recognises spring as the best time to support the body’s natural cleaning abilities (along with autumn too, to prep for winter).
Spring herbs are:
1. Cleansing: Many wild spring greens provide a diuretic, mildly laxative or lymphatic cleanse and stimulate the digestive system
2. Rich in vitamins and minerals, and phytochemicals: Wild foods are often superior in nutritional content than shop bought, cultivated or farmed foods
3. Rich in the bitter taste recognised by Ayurveda: cleansing and stimulating in many herbal traditions eg: coffee, hops, wormwood, chicory, gentian, angostura, quinine, andrographis. It stimulates bitter taste buds leading to reflex release of hormones from gut wall which increases appetite/digestive secretions; protects gut tissues; promotes bile flow; and stabilises blood sugar levels.
4. And rich in astringent taste: drying and helps absorb fats. These properties help remove excess kapha after winter and reduce excess pitta in preparation for the heat of spring.
Nettle leaves, flowers, seeds and stems are edible: Collect the upper most tender leaves and soft stems (wearing gloves!). The spring leaves taste best and plants growing in shade tend to taste sweeter. Cooking, even briefly, destroys the sting. Use it instead of spinach in any favourite recipes. In peak season a it can contain up to 25% protein so it's easy to see why it has been a popular food and tea in many cultures around the world, also rich in Vit A; Vit C; some B Vits; iron, potassium, calcium, chromium, copper and magnesium. For gardeners, it also makes a great spring pick-me-up, rich in nitrogen, calcium, and magnesium. Very effective on leafy greens including spinach, kale, chard and salad leaves. Rot down a large quantity of leaves in a tub of water. Once it smells revolting, it's ready to be diluted down and used on any vegetables and plants in need of nourishment.
Cleavers (or sticky willie, sticky weed, goosegrass) earned its name thanks to the sticky plant’s tendency to ‘cleave’ to human clothing or animal fur, to aid seed dispersal. The stems, leaves and seeds can be used, and the earlier in spring the tastier the plant! Cleavers belongs to the coffee family and its seeds are ground to make ‘cleavers coffee’. A useful plant in medieval kitchens because it could be picked in snow and made into soups and stews, or fried with a little butter, nutmeg and pepper. Has a fresh green taste, like young peas with the pod, with a 'grassy' mild herbal flavour. Rich in Vit C and silica, an essential nutrient for maintain hair, skin and nail health. An old saying goes “whoever should only drink cleavers water for 9 weeks shall be so beautiful, everyone will fall in love with them.”
Dandelion leaves and flowers may taste a little bitter, they add flavour as well as dense nutrients. In 'Eating on the Wild Side', Jo Robinson says that compared to spinach, dandelion leaves have “eight times more antioxidants, two times more calcium, three times more Vit A, and five times more Vit K and Vit E.” A study ranked dandelion greens as one of the top 41 most nutritious foods. Coming in at number 16, the wild growing “weed” topped popular healthy foods like kale and broccoli. Leaves can be steamed, sautéed or boiled and incorporated to dips, casseroles and soups. Boiling leaves in water for 5 minutes helps to remove some of the bitter taste.
Wild garlic has the shortest ‘season’ of the spring superstars. It is part of the same family as the garlic you find in your supermarket, but is nutritionally superior, packed with vit C and beta carotene. We’re blessed with abundant wild garlic each spring, not everywhere in the UK is so lucky! However, be sure what you are picking is the right plant as early leaf growth could be mistaken for Lords and Ladies or Lily of the Valley- both of which are toxic. The best way to be certain is to crush the leaves. Wild garlic smells of “onions”, lookalikes do not. It can be used the same as any herb or green. The stems are deliciously sweet, and its flowers are edible and look they beautiful scattered over a salad. Finely chop to use raw in salads or boil and mix with other vegetables to make into pesto, soups, stews and risottos.
References:
[1] Thakkar, J., Chaudhari, S. and Sarkar, P.K., 2011. Ritucharya: Answer to the lifestyle disorders. Ayu, 32(4), p.466. Ritucharya: Answer to the lifestyle disorders (nih.gov)
[2] Nelson, R.J. and Demas, G.E., 1996. Seasonal changes in immune function. The Quarterly review of biology, 71(4), pp.511-548. Seasonal changes in immune function - PubMed (nih.gov)
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