No Onions, No Garlic, No Shame.
Whether you are making, an Italian-style dish, frying up some eggs with breakfast, or making a soup/stew, onions and garlic seem to have become a staple ingredient in most dishes to add “flavour” to the dish.
Onion and garlic, both are considered superfoods due to their numerous proven health benefits. They add distinct flavours to the food and are inseparable part in many cultural cuisines around the world. As I began studying the sacredness of eating and medical usage of food with my teacher Myra Lewin, I’ve learned that these two commonly used ingredients are causing more harm to us than good. Nevertheless, Ayurveda does not support the usage of these two ingredients in your diet. But what is the reason behind this?
Just a little share before I move on that was told to me by Myra. Garlic was pushed onto us by the commercial and farm food industry in the late 6os. Some garlic farmers wanted to increase profit, so they began telling people that garlic is good for you, and so everyone starting eating garlic like nobody’s business. Sounds familiar doesn’t it. Become a conscious consumer, modern food trends rarely have our best interest at heart…most often it’s a profit-driven initiative.
The real reason
It is not that Ayurveda does not acknowledge the health benefits of onion and garlic. Ayurveda recognizes onions and garlic as blood purifiers. Moreover, garlic is used to prepare various Ayurvedic medicines. And that is just it. Garlic is used in herbal concoctions, it is not meant to be consumed in the high doses and manners we cook with it today. Ayurveda does not support their excessive usage. Why? well for one thing onions are considered as tamasic in nature (makes people irritable) and garlic to be rajasic (disturbed sleep and drained energy) in nature. As per Ayurveda, both these ingredients produce excessive heat in the body. This is why we are seeing a lot of aggravated pitta in people or Westerns terms inflammation.
Our body indeed needs some heat, but excessive heat may increase the risk of other health problems. Ayurveda recommends having onion and garlic in low quantities. Ayurveda principles are mostly confused with spirituality and yoga which recommends avoiding both the ingredient as both are believed to distract a person’s focus and attention.
These two ingredients are often avoided by people practicing meditation or following a spiritual path, as the consumption of onion and garlic is known to increase anger, aggression, ignorance, anxiety, increase in sexual desire, and disturb the mind.
When I work with my clients I encourage them to try seeing how they feel not having garlic and onions in their diet for a couple of weeks. When they do this, I’ve received feedback that they feel less busy in their minds, they can start to taste the subtle aspects of their food again (garlic especially dulls our sense of taste) which is imperative to healing when it comes to food because we need to be able to taste our food to make wise decisions about what we put in our mouths. Regardless of your intentions in life, saying goodbye to garlic and onions will bring you closer to sattva and you’ll never have to worry again about having garlic breath. Sounds like a win-win!
