Our recent class focused on Ayurvedic nutrition and overall guidelines about food processing, preparation and cooking. We have grown up with "you are what you eat." Ayurveda is about "you are what you digest." It never really occured to me to worry about what's digesting...it's always been about what looks healthy and yummy on my plate.
One theme that came out loud and clear was you need to eat three freshly cooked meals a day - avoid frozen food, leftovers, processed foods, etc. That's great... if you have a mother-in-law or someone of a similar role in your home. If you work 40-50+ hours a week and get home at 7:00pm to cook, it's not realistic.
So, what are we to do?
I think about meals that I can spread out over three days, so while I'm not ready to give up leftovers, that means no freezing is necessary. I re-heat meals on the stove at a slower and consistent rate rather than using the microwave. It may not be as quick, but I think it's a good middle-ground solution that's worth it.
The most important thing you can do is limit the degree to which you change the structure and the many physical (and other?) qualities of your food. For example, microwaving breaks the bonds between the food molecules and the natural structure, qualities and what we call "prana" or life energy of the food is totally lost. Frozen food/leftovers have a similar affect - the water molecules in the food become ice molecules. And, since ice has more volume than water, when the ice melts, it breaks the bonds between the food molecules making it lifeless. So, a little Ayurveda and a little heat transfer info for you today - enjoy and I look forward to hearing what you think.
Microwaving is more energy-efficient.
ReplyDeleteWhenever she comes home with a new Ayurvedic prohibition against some appliance or food or process, I immediately think about the physics. (just like the mystics of yon?). So the freezing thing...When she says "The most important thing you can do is limit the degree to which you change the structure and the many physical (and other?)qualities of your food". That's interesting to me because we usually talk about damage to food with freezing in terms of extracellular and intracellular mechanical damage resulting from expansion of frozen water. But there is also the potential for chemical damage resulting from development of osmotic gradients (basically gradients of salinity) in food structures as cell membranes form barriers to ice front formation. For low cooling rates, ice can form independently in intracellular and extracellular spaces with the space outside the cells freezing first. As this ice forms, salts are driven into the remaining extracellular liquid solution making it hypertonic (salty). This high level of salt in the remaining solution outside the cell pulls water from inside the cell to the extracellular space due to what’s called an osmotic gradient and the nature of the cell wall to pass water but not salts (i.e. a semi-permeable membrane). The subsequent dehydration of the cell causes damage which is both mechanical and chemical. The Aruvedic view that freezing of food creates “lifelessness” may resonate with cryogenics researchers (Mazur, et al. 1970) attempting to revitalize frozen tissue but stymied by fundamental changes in both the mechanical and just as importantly, the chemical character of the cells.
ReplyDeleteI love this post and am happy to see you join the blogosphere!
ReplyDeleteDamn it, am I suppose to understand what the last commentator said? He's way to technical for me. However, I do understand that microwaving *anything* will change the structure of my food, even the water I need for my tea. To that end, I want to keep my preparation to the simplest form, therefore, I will choose to warm my food and boil my water over the stove. Thank you for reminding me of this holistic form of eating.
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