Cooking with Herbs and Spices is a wonderful way to cook and spice up your life.
Ayurveda recognised the importance of the healing properties of herbs and plants to treat and prevent a variety of medical conditions. They are nature’s medicine chest. Spices have been important to human history since the beginning of time. The traditional use of herbs and spices as medicine varies from culture to culture.
Ayurveda has a great affinity for herbs and spices. Herbs and spices have affinity for the Doshas.
Here are some examples
- Bringaraj has calming properties for Pitta in the head. It soothes stress related headaches.
- Ginger has warming properties for Vata to correct for wind. Fennel is a herb with affinity for air. Like wind it is delicate, willowy and subtle.
- Coriander, a cool herb, has affinity for Pitta
- Chillies has an affinity for Kapha
- Black pepper has an affinity for all the three Doshas
A natural and enjoyable way to maintain your health is to cook with spices. Herbs and spices are used for many reasons to maintain general good health. Traditionally Ayurvedic herbs were grouped plant compounds into categories according to their effects, for example, such as healing, promoting vitality or pain relieving.
Some herbs used in Ayurvedic teas have also been shown to promote healthy brain function and improve memory, such as Ginkgo Biloba.
Use of herbs and plants as a source of nutritional supplements has been an ancient practice and is an important Ayurvedic health care system. They restore wellness to the whole system by treating the underlying causes of imbalance.
With advent of technologies emerging traditional methods of harvesting and manufacturing herbal rememdies are disappearing. As a result other than fresh herbs and cooking spices it is important to understand processes used for making supplements to ensure they are of the highest quality and standard.
Though spices are exotic and, spice up your life, they also look after your life. These flavoursome spices were much sought after for the primary reason they were used as medicines. As recently as the 1500s when the spice wars were taking place between the Portuguese and the Dutch one of the most sought after spices was nutmeg because, at the time, it developed a reputation as a miracle cure for the plague – which killed more than 35,000 people in London in 1603.
Spices are also considered to be strong aphrodisiacs. The famous English herbalist Culpepper prescribed ginger for his patients ‘weak in the sports of Venus’. Another way to use spices, to spice up your life.
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