In my last post I wrote about one of the main ‘rules’ of food combining talked about in Ayurvedic nutrition. This time I thought I’d follow it up with the second main ‘rule’ and answer all the questions that tend to come up whenever we mention it to patients and students. Here it is....
Milk should be consumed separately from most other foods. It should especially not be eaten with fresh fruit or with fish.
And here is the food preparation recommendation that relates to milk...
Milk should be consumed warm, cooked with spices that make it easier to digest (like cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, black pepper and cloves).
If you are regularly drinking milk and fruit smoothies, eating tuna mornays with milk as a base or having a cold glass of milk with your meals, Ayurveda teaches that you are stressing out your digestive system. Big time.
Why should milk be consumed separately?
The reasoning behind this rule is again very simple and very sound. When you combine milk and fruit together in a smoothie for example, the milk and fruit arrive in your stomach and remain there until the heaviest part of the meal (i.e. the milk) has been digested. By the time the milk is digested, the fruit has been overdigested and ferments. Milk is heavier and more difficult to digest than most foods so a similar thing happens with many other combinations. The fish-thing is more difficult to explain but is related to milk and fish having strongly opposing qualities - milk is very cooling while fish is very heating which makes the combination confusing to the digestion. This is true of many other combinations but fish and milk are singled out in Ayurveda as a particular thing to avoid.... so to some extent I just trust this one (plus I know how it makes my tummy feel - not good).
What can milk be combined with?
Milk can happily be combined with most grains like oats, semolina, rice, buckwheat, millet and besan flour. It is also fine to prepare milk with a variety of dried fruits and nuts. For example, a porridge prepared with oats, milk, sultanas, a little ghee and cinnamon is great for digestion, if prepared in the right way.
So how do I drink milk?
Rather than chugging down a glass of cold milk with meals or from the carton between meals, there is a better way to enjoy milk. Ayurveda recommends milk inbetween meals prepared as a chai and also as a warm drink before bed, providing you haven’t eaten dinner too late. So get yourself some organic spices and try making your own chai in the afternoons (see “Warmth: The Cookbook” for chai recipes) and experiment with a warm, sweet milk (with a pinch of cinnamon and turmeric) before bed.
What milk should I buy?
As you might have guessed, Ayurveda has something to say about the quality of milk you buy too. It recommends as much as possible choosing full-fat organic or biodynamic milk that is unhomogenised. The choice to drink unpasteurised milk has unfortunately been taken away from most of us by the powers that be. But, if you can source raw milk that is unhomogenised and unpasteurised, you may want to look into that (providing you always bring the milk just to the boil before using it). I don’t have the space here to explain why that may be but I'll make another blog topic out of it. If you can’t get raw milk, just unhomogenised milk is the next best thing! If you are used to drinking skim milk, full fat milk might freak you out a little at first so to ease into it, try mixing it half and half with water. Make your own skim milk for half the price!
What about goats milk?
Goat milk is lighter and easier to digest that cows milk but has similar qualities. So it is best to follow the same rules. Goat milk can be great for kids whose digestive systems are still developing... if you can get it fresh enough so it doesn’t smell all ‘goaty’, if you know what I mean.
What about milk-replacement products?
Milk replacement products like soy milk, oat milk, rice milk, almond milk and quinoa milk (to name a few) are VERY different foods to cow and goat milk and should not be thought of in the same way at all. They all have very different qualities so need to be addressed separately and again I’ve run out of space! All of these ‘milks’ tend to be highly processed so if drinking them, try and choose brands that have the least number of weird ingredients or, if you’re really keen, look into making them yourself. And don’t mix them with fresh fruit.
If you follow this second simple rule of food combining, you will be doing your digestive system a huge favour! Small changes can have profound effects so just try it for yourself.
If you want to receive my Agni Blogs and Videos direct to your inbox once a month, Sign Up to the Mudita Institute's monthly online LIFEFOOD magazine and you'll also receive a free e-book copy of our Ayurvedic cookbook, WARMTH.
Milk should be consumed separately from most other foods. It should especially not be eaten with fresh fruit or with fish.
And here is the food preparation recommendation that relates to milk...
Milk should be consumed warm, cooked with spices that make it easier to digest (like cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, black pepper and cloves).
If you are regularly drinking milk and fruit smoothies, eating tuna mornays with milk as a base or having a cold glass of milk with your meals, Ayurveda teaches that you are stressing out your digestive system. Big time.
Why should milk be consumed separately?
The reasoning behind this rule is again very simple and very sound. When you combine milk and fruit together in a smoothie for example, the milk and fruit arrive in your stomach and remain there until the heaviest part of the meal (i.e. the milk) has been digested. By the time the milk is digested, the fruit has been overdigested and ferments. Milk is heavier and more difficult to digest than most foods so a similar thing happens with many other combinations. The fish-thing is more difficult to explain but is related to milk and fish having strongly opposing qualities - milk is very cooling while fish is very heating which makes the combination confusing to the digestion. This is true of many other combinations but fish and milk are singled out in Ayurveda as a particular thing to avoid.... so to some extent I just trust this one (plus I know how it makes my tummy feel - not good).
What can milk be combined with?
Milk can happily be combined with most grains like oats, semolina, rice, buckwheat, millet and besan flour. It is also fine to prepare milk with a variety of dried fruits and nuts. For example, a porridge prepared with oats, milk, sultanas, a little ghee and cinnamon is great for digestion, if prepared in the right way.
So how do I drink milk?
Rather than chugging down a glass of cold milk with meals or from the carton between meals, there is a better way to enjoy milk. Ayurveda recommends milk inbetween meals prepared as a chai and also as a warm drink before bed, providing you haven’t eaten dinner too late. So get yourself some organic spices and try making your own chai in the afternoons (see “Warmth: The Cookbook” for chai recipes) and experiment with a warm, sweet milk (with a pinch of cinnamon and turmeric) before bed.
What milk should I buy?
As you might have guessed, Ayurveda has something to say about the quality of milk you buy too. It recommends as much as possible choosing full-fat organic or biodynamic milk that is unhomogenised. The choice to drink unpasteurised milk has unfortunately been taken away from most of us by the powers that be. But, if you can source raw milk that is unhomogenised and unpasteurised, you may want to look into that (providing you always bring the milk just to the boil before using it). I don’t have the space here to explain why that may be but I'll make another blog topic out of it. If you can’t get raw milk, just unhomogenised milk is the next best thing! If you are used to drinking skim milk, full fat milk might freak you out a little at first so to ease into it, try mixing it half and half with water. Make your own skim milk for half the price!
What about goats milk?
Goat milk is lighter and easier to digest that cows milk but has similar qualities. So it is best to follow the same rules. Goat milk can be great for kids whose digestive systems are still developing... if you can get it fresh enough so it doesn’t smell all ‘goaty’, if you know what I mean.
What about milk-replacement products?
Milk replacement products like soy milk, oat milk, rice milk, almond milk and quinoa milk (to name a few) are VERY different foods to cow and goat milk and should not be thought of in the same way at all. They all have very different qualities so need to be addressed separately and again I’ve run out of space! All of these ‘milks’ tend to be highly processed so if drinking them, try and choose brands that have the least number of weird ingredients or, if you’re really keen, look into making them yourself. And don’t mix them with fresh fruit.
If you follow this second simple rule of food combining, you will be doing your digestive system a huge favour! Small changes can have profound effects so just try it for yourself.
If you want to receive my Agni Blogs and Videos direct to your inbox once a month, Sign Up to the Mudita Institute's monthly online LIFEFOOD magazine and you'll also receive a free e-book copy of our Ayurvedic cookbook, WARMTH.
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