By Monica B Groover
Today we will talk about organic, local foods.
Ayurveda propogates fresh, local and Organic, plus, it should be compatible with the dosha, the season, the country and terrain we live in and our age and strength. Whew!
Its a long list. How can we hope to remember this.
Lets just focus on Prana in the Food.
Prana is the vitality of the food that is present because it is alive. You can see it in the color, the smell, the taste of the produce.
One of my students asked me recently, "My question pertains to fruit that is organic, from a local farm, picked at the height of ripeness, but then frozen (but without any additives or preservatives).
In the West, I have often heard that frozen fruits and vegetables can be more nutritious than fresh, because they are picked when they are ripe, and then flash frozen which retains most of the nutrients."
Image: Wikipedia. Creative Commons by Erdbeere_Senga_Sengana
My student asked this question after our class, in which we talk about frozen food being depleted of prana.
So, I answered leading with the Ayurvedic concept of Rasa. There are shad rasa or six tastes mentioned in Ayurvedic Texts. (Naturally sweet, sour, naturally salty, bitter, astringent and pungent--a topic for later study!)
How does a fresh fresh picked organic strawberry from a field--taste? It has the following rasas--sweet, astringent, a little sour--and it is juicy and full of PRANA and vitality.
Try to taste the same organic strawberry after freezing it for one month. You will notice that all the beautiful rasas or tastes have disappeared and there is practically no prana. (You can taste it!!)
How can a frozen strawberry have the same energetics as a frozen one? (Even if organic). Answer is no--it cant. If it is not how nature intended, and, it tastes different--how can prana be intact.
Take an example of a squirrel that died in winter--and it snowed.
The squirrel's body was perfectly preserved along with nutrients, proteins in the very cold snow for the entire winter. When the snow melted--squirrel was PRESERVED--but it was a DEAD BODY!!!!
Frozen, canned, tinned---is food that has died. It is dead. It has no prana from an Ayurvedic perpsective...yes, it has nutrients-some of it.
If something organic is frozen--yes the nutrients are preserved--but PRANA is not! However, when it is sun dried
Some of the prana is preserved--because seeds retain prana when dried. (Strawberry has seeds on the outside that will be preserve prana when sundried--but when frozen may not)
There are some seeds that will retain prana when frozen--but they are few and far in between.
It is always better to eat something local--even if not organic--then organic, frozen that has travelled from a long time.
However, we are bound by time, convenience, cost and availability depending on where we live.
1. Best foods that retain prana and therepeutic and healing to body and mind are
LOCAL, ORGANIC, NON GMO
2. Second best--foods that can be stored--in winter in very cold places.
Sundried organic foods, organic seeds, organic nuts, legumes. Whole grains (not ground into a flour) can stay for a longer time and will retain maximum prana.
3. Third best.
Better to eat fresh food, plants, veggies and fruits that are not organic, but LOCAL--compared to fresh food that is frozen and organic. Or, local dried fruits and vegetables--can be used in soups--if fresh vegetables not available.
4. Best choice
Mix and match--depending on your budget and availability.
More to come on...GMO FOODS and Ayurveda.
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