Essential Ayurveda

nuts. Pitta should take nuts in moderation, while kapha should avoid them as much as possible. Make sure the nuts you buy are fresh and in season (nuts are freshest in fall and winter) because rancid or old nuts can actually be toxic.

Your appetite and capacity will depend on both your prakriti, or original constitution, and your vikriti, or current dosha state.

The Ayurvedic advice is to feed your skin the way you would feed your body: never apply anything to your skin that you would not eat. In practical terms, this means making sure that you use only skin-care products that are perfectly pH-balanced, free of toxic chemicals, and therefore safe to apply.

If you’re a pitta, you would benefit most from ingredients that soothe the skin — for example, milk, rose water, or cucumber. Kapha skin stays healthy when regularly cleansed to remove toxins. This dosha-based skin care is a unique, practical way of solving skin-related problems that are specific to you.

The simple-yet-graceful woman symbolizes roopam, for her beauty is free of the crutches of makeup and affectation; it is natural and honest. She has taken the time-tested route to beauty: being kind to her body, true to her heart, and in tune with the world around her.

In other words, pay attention to everything you put inside your body and mind, for what you absorb is what you reflect.

But, of course, this was before I read what Ayurvedic practitioners really had to say about beauty. Yes, they recommend herbal creams and lotions. But more than that, they urge us to cultivate beauty the way you would grow a breathtaking rose: give it a healthy root system.

“Perfection of the body is beauty of form, grace, strength, compactness, and the hardness and brilliance of a diamond.”

If you feel you have a vata imbalance, eat plenty of wheat products such as bulgur, farina, couscous, semolina, pasta, and bread. People with a kapha imbalance should reduce but not totally avoid wheat, which can cause weight gain and increase mucus production.

Rice is believed to promote mucus production, so if your kapha dosha is dominant, lightly roast the rice before adding water for cooking to make it lighter.