Nature never stays constant. In fact the only thing constant about nature is its changing feature! The seasons follow one another and keep changing. We never have one season throughout the year. While this is mostly good for us, it does require adjusting on our part to prevent seasonal illnesses. 

The best prevention is modifying our food and routines as per the demand of the present season.

So lets learn about what the monsoon demands from us.

I will talk in terms of qualities that we all can relate to, rather than traditional textual terms that may seem alien!

The monsoon is –

WET and COLD

It was preceded by – 

an EXHAUSTING summer.

Good health always means a good, efficient digestion. 

Disease always means an impaired digestive function.

So our aim right now, should be to balance these qualities along with keeping the digestion optimum.

When I say ‘digestion’ think of food cooking over your stove.

Now, wet and cold are not exactly qualities that help with cooking up. So we must balance these with WARM, FIRE STIMULANTS and avoid exposing it to too much WIND.

We also need to have food that is LIGHT or not too heavy. Just as we avoid washing thick heavy clothes during the rains in fear of them not drying up, we must avoid food that is too heavy to digest. A nice tempering (tadka) with ghee or oil and spices like mustard, cumin, asofeotida is an easy Fire Stimulant. Dried ginger powder, pepper powder are also advised.

Regular use of a small amount of honey is beneficial.

To summarize,

We need-

Light (easy) to digest food

Warm food in terms of temperature and qualities 

Fire stimulants like oil, ghee and spices

Actual things to eat

1. Old rice
2. Wheat flour mixed with barley flour for chapatis or
3. Wheat flour mixed with jowar/ bajra (sorghum/ pearl millet)
4. Green gram, well cooked
5. Oil/ghee, spices 
6. Honey
7. Sour and salty taste
8. Good quality traditionally made pickles

We must stay away from-

1. Heavy to digest food – fried food, sweets, bakery food
2. Cold food in temperature and properties – milkshakes, ice cream, fermented food
3. Dampness creating food and places
4. Exertion of all kinds should be avoided. Exercise, physical labour, too much traveling and sexual excess all are harmful as the body is already weak even though you may not feel so.
5. Sleeping during the day is to be cancelled. On those wet, dark cloudy days of heavy rainfall, engage in reading, or catching up on t.v, meeting up friends,  indoor family games etc. But do not spend them sleeping.

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