All month, I’ve been having deep conversations with the members of the Ayurveda for Athletes cohort, and many of them have been focused around flavors. Because they’re fun, but also because flavors FUEL us in deep and very important ways!
Traditional sports nutrition, and wellness culture have us fixated on macronutrients and questions like “am I getting enough protein? how many calories are in that? will fat make me fat?” and not at all focused on some more important questions that actually impact metabolic and digestive health. Specifically, “what does my food TASTE like?!”
So here’s the thing. Yes, macronutrients are important. But our bodies don’t KNOW what a macronutrient is! Our bodies know what our foods taste like, and those tastes are coded messages that tell our bodies what to expect from our foods, how they benefit us, and this drives our cravings…because the body will ask for what it NEEDS! (Not just what it wants!)
Both Western medicine and Ayurvedic medicine recognize that digestion starts the moment that food hits our tongues. There are Six Flavors we can perceive – sweet, salty, sour, bitter, astringent and pungent. Once we taste one of them, the taste receptors in the tongue send signals to the brain, triggering digestive enzyme secretion (e.g., saliva, stomach acid, pancreatic enzymes) so that our bodies have the right tools to break down the specific substances we’re bringing in.
We often associate sweet cravings and sweet flavors with naughty, frankly-pretty-gross processed foods, but there are LOTS of important foods that we need to eat that have sweet tastes, and align with our bodies needs when we have a sweet craving. Among them: meat, eggs, dairy products (except for yogurt) nuts, most seeds, fruits, root vegetables, sweeteners etc. It’s true that eating too many sweet flavors that are made sweet by artificial or refined sweeteners (like refined sugar, maltodextrin, glucose etc) strongly contributes to gut health, microbiome disbiosis, metabolic disfunction and more. But, we also NEED these sweet flavored, nutritionally dense foods to survive and thrive.
The way to metabolic health isn’t by throwing out “sweets.” It’s balancing our digestive systems with the OTHER foods that help to keep a symbiotic, balanced environment in the gut. Ayurveda reminds us that eating each of the Six Flavors at every meal is a key way to optimal
How important is this? It’s….the most important.
Consuming all Six Flavors ensures that all of your body’s natural detoxification, digestive and metabolic functions are dialed and firing on all cylinders. Eating all Six Flavors prevents doshic imbalances, and bolsters digestive fire…which means that you won’t have a buildup of ama (toxin) in the digestive tract. And consuming all Six Flavors ensures metabolic health. It’s truly that simple.
And it’s not that hard of a sell. Some of the foods we all crave most easily include the Six Flavors. Take for example, a burger: you’ve got the burger itself + the bun (sweet,) the pickle is sour, the salt and pepper seasoning the burger are salty + pungent respectively. Add a little lettuce and you’ve got the bitter + astringent flavors cared for and BAM – Six Flavors.
The same is true of a bowl of ramen, or a bowl of bolognese with a nice salad to follow. Our most craveable meals are all Six Flavored. So how do we make all of our meals that delicious, and that definitively beneficial?
Sprinkle it on EVERYTHING! Some favorites this week have been egg and rice bowls, savory avocado toast, and over my chicken noodle soup to give it a little bump. But, a few other excellent places would be:
I could go on.
…is a go-anywhere Six Flavored boost for everything you eat. Sprinkle some on toast or eggs, salads, grainbowls, plain rice with ghee. Anywhere you want a little zhoosh and are stumped on how to get your Six Flavors into your bodies, mouth and lives. It’s the zhoosh I’ll pack with me whenever I go on a cooking trip (next week!) and the special “spice” that I recommend traveling into your bag, backpack or carry on to keep the Six Flavors with you everywhere you go.
The process here is S I M P L E. You need almost no time, but you do need an oven and a few less conventional (but inexpensive) pantry ingredients. To make this furikake, you’re going to dehydrate citrus peels; a process that takes a bit of forethought, but zero effort.
And it’s WORTH IT. This furikake is SO GOOD, I’ve cast off buying any and every other kind out there. A store-bought jar of furikake just can’t shine a candle to this homemade, fragrant and flavor-forward one.
Pop a little jar of this furikake with you when you’re traveling, stumped while meal planning, and keep it in your kitchen well within reach so you can add a little magic to everything you’re eating, making it not only better tasting and more enjoyable, but better for you, too.
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