Ayurveda: where is the evidence?

Let us talk about Ayurveda today. No, I didn’t recently get a degree in Ayurveda, but wish to talk about an interesting argument put forward.

Should you combine certain food or avoid certain foods?

Let us, as always, take the scalpel of science to evidence our opinion.

I hear from the people we work with that their Ayurvedic practitioner asked them not to consume bitter foods or cruciferous vegetables.

So what is the logic?

Let us use cruciferous vegetables. To analyse this class of vegetables, we need to take a detour to understand enzymes.

Your body produces enzymes. Lipase, protease amylase to name a few. These enzymes are used to digest food. If you do not eat sufficient foods that contain these enzymes, you can be short.

At the same time, there are foods that inhibit the production of enzymes in your body.

Which is where cruciferous vegetables play a role.

They have enzyme inhibitors that come with names like indole-3, indole-3 carbinol. Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts to name a few. Other inhibitors include seeds, fruits, and root vegetables.

So clearly ayurvedic practitioners know what they are saying.

There are many religions that practice such eating habits. Shunning root vegetables or onions or garlic or even a specific color such as green.

Most of these beliefs are rooted in experience or circumstance. Dismissing them without rigirous evidence is unscientific in the same way as accepting something without evidence is.

But for some strange reason we apply different yardsticks. We accept research even if it was done on a group of seven people for a week.

We dismiss thousands of years of experience and practice as lacking evidence.

So what should you do?

Remember one man’s poison is anothers medicine. So the best answer is to understand your own body. Learn what works and what adversely affects you.

Make choices not by what you hear from others, but what your body tells you.

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