Guest guest Posted January 11, 2005 Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 Food ingredients will remain a topic of debate between east and west for quite a long time. These days if one goes to any doctor, the first advice is to stop fats, oils and chillies. This precaution is suggested mainly by doctors and naturopaths. Not by grand parents. Or Maharshis. Ayurveda does not prohibit using oils in diet. Rajvaidya Rasiklal Parikh and Prabhashankar (Porbandar) of Gujarat had written about oils and fats in their publications. According to several well known ayurveda experts, Seasame oil (gingelly oil in south India) gives health benifits and best medicine for several vatic disorders. Hence whenever someone prescribes reducing oils and fats in diet, patients should remember following points. Stop abusing vegetable oils. In none of ancient ayurvedic texts oil has been prohibited. Maharshi Charaka, Sushrut or Vagbhata has never indicated any red signal against oils. On the other hand they have widely praised the property of oils in pacifying Vata. A reason for Health practitioners opposing oils in diet could be that the available ground nut oil, sun-flower oil, palmolene oil and cotton seed oil is dangerous to health. Ayurveda regards seasame oil and mustard oil (Sarasau tel in Hindi) as true oils. The benifits of oils given in ayurvedic texts apply only to seasame oil and sarasau oil. They are not applicable to groundnut oil ot palmolene oil. Seasame oil is the health treasure: Maharshi Charaka puts seasame oil first in the list of items worth adopting. This sweet and slightly salty taste oil has one special property which attracted all ayurvedic community. Its power to rapidly reach micro channels (Strotas) is remarkable. First it reaches micro channels and then it gets digested. This way it gives energy and alertness to all cells. It is appetiser causing extra hunger, leading to proper digestion, therefore regarded as tonic also. Best medicine for Vata disorders Disorders such as Arthritis, stress incontinence, obessity owe their existence to unbalance of Vata. Hypertension and CAD also belong to Vatic category of diseases, though pitta and kapha can also coexist in such cases. One can use seasame oil as supportive diet in such cases. Seasame oil is 'grahi' means causes Baddha action on stools and urine. Hence bed wetting children can be given one handful of black seasame seeds to chew and swallow every morning evening. Within a month significant benifits can be seen. Due to cell-penetrating power of seasame oil, it takes every medicine dissolved in it also to all cells. Hence most of Vatic massage oils are made using seasame oil. Good for teeth problems too If your gums have become loose, tooth are paining, moving when pressed, pus/blood coming out from gums and dentist may have recommended removing all. Gargle with seasame oil. Astonishing benifit has been obtained by those who believed in the power of seasame oil and carried out this gargle thrice a day. Makes skin smooth and shining A serious problem in winter. When vata increases, skin dries out. It becomes rough also. Vata really means inadequate flow of nutrients to parts of body. Thus circulation of blood, hormones, cerebro-spinal- fluid and signals in nerves, everything is governed by proper Vata balance. Blocking of channels, arteries is what sets up disorders. While massage can help in all vata disorders, generally seasame oil is used for massage in most cases. Essential oils are also mixed in to explot sharpness property of seasame oil. Useful to women under Menopause The women in menopause suffer due to many uterine diseases. Modern practitioners advise hysterectomy under most circumstances. Ayurveda regards these problems falling under Vata vitiation and advise use of seasame oil as the first choice. Those advised hysterectomy can try this. Chew finely black seasame seeds, one handful evry morning and evening for six months. No hysterectomy will be needed thereafter for lifetime. Further, simultaneously, they can take enima of seasame oil and dashmul quath, Nirgundi etc, but under expert supervision. March and Septemeber are ideal months in India for such enima. Dr Vasant Lad has given a home panch karma procedure, already published on this list. Save yourself from Hypertension and CAD Seasame oil is extensively used for patients of hypertension and CAD. Ayurvedic experts use medicated seasame oil in shirodhara. This treatment causes deep sleep. This in turn reduces blood pressure. Massage by seasame oil improves blood circulation, which reduces heart work load. Those who are in Maharashtra, India can call National Association for Blind, Worli, Mumbai, where massage experts are blind men and women. While they charge very reasonably and give home service, proper training received by them and the dedication they have to the profession, causes wonderful results. Their mind power gets concentrated in their fingures. Seasame oil actually reduces cholesterol, just like pure ghee of Indian cow. ghee is already discussed on this list. Thse two, when used in diet, will reduce the chances of heart stroke. Ayurvedic medicines for heart are made from cow ghee. Take Arjuna Ghrutam, Brahmi Ghrutam as examples. If one wishes to make a fast penetrating medicine which reaches the strotas within say an hour, make it in cow ghee. Various practitioners, without understanding the great praise for seasame oil by ancient sage, advise eating boiled beans and cereals. The sales promotion campaigns by Multinational companies may have caused this state. However, the Baghar (sauting) made by using this oil, causes penetration of the molecules of mustard, cummin seeds, fenugreek seeds into oil and therefore cereals. When these spices get mixed this way, Vata pacifying property is imparted to curry. This is also brought out in one old messasge on ayurveda by Maharshi Ayurveda experts. When seasame oil is used for frying, it will become poison in the same manner as all other oils. All oils, when start foaming under heat, become poisons due to free radicals generated. To preserve all vitamins, oil should not foam during heating. South indian diet uses much less ghee, but use of seasame oil and coconut oil is maximum. Dosa is not contra-indicated if seasame oil is used as a non-stick medicum. Also cold pressed oil should be used rather than hot pressed. Those residing in Mumbai, Maharashtra can obtain cold pressed oil from Yusuf Meherali Centre, Panvel, Mumbai. If you get it from some other source, taste it before buying. It must give a little salty taste. Use of seasame oil as cooking medium instead of other oils is the first line in the diet recommendation of every patient this author treats. Dr Bhate ayurveda, Todd Caldecott <todd@t...> wrote: > like McDonald's and Kentucy Fried Chicken and their east Indian > equivalents such as deep-fried carbohydrate-rich snacks (e.g. dosa, > vadai, pakora, samosa etc.) and sweets, with healthy fats that include > unheated cold-pressed seed oils or cholesterol-rich fats such as ghee > and other animal fats > > i have already mentioned before that the trend in India of using > processed vegetable-based oils in cookery such as gingelly oil and > vegetable ("cooking") ghee is particularly worrisome > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 12, 2005 Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 > Dear Dr. Bhate, > On your last post about Sesame oil, I have a question > on your statement about not using cottonseed, palm and > sunflower oils. I can understand why you mentioned > cottonseed and palm because I understand they have > high levels of saturated fats. i just want to jump in here and mention that there is very little "hard" evidence that saturated fats are bad - there are so many factors in a person's diet that researchers tend to over-generalize, based on conceptual errors - case in point, i heard this AM on the radio that "red meat" increases the risk of colon cancer - thankfully the reporter also defined what "red meat" is considered to be: a fast food hamburger - as you can see, such extrapolations are almost meaningless saturated fats are much more heat and light stable compared to any other kind of fat - when we consider the danger of fats, in particular, how they oxidize and promote free-radicals, saturated fats are the safest oils to eat, and polyunsaturated fats are the most dangerous humans have been eating mostly saturated fats since the dawn of time - and we seem to have survived OK now of course we have an epidemic of obesity - ever since the dogma that "saturated fat and cholesterol is bad" began to dominate the social dialogue Caldecott todd www.toddcaldecott.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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