Kapha

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In Ayurveda, kapha is the the term used to describe an excess of the

water and earth elements. As such, it is a problem rather than a consti-
tutional type, but people who are low in fire would have a tendency
towards this condition, one that is characterized by slow digestion and
excess ama, a word that can be broadly interpreted to mean phlegm or
mucus.

Going back thousands of years, the great sages of India taught that
disease begins in the stomach with bad digestion. While modern
medicine probably wouldn't concur, similar thoughts were held by the
Iroquois and many other traditional cultures.

According to the theory, each individual is born with a particular consti-

tutional type and all the idiosyncrasies and management challenges of
that type. So, if one is born without enough firewhat is called agni in
Indiathere will not be enough gastric secretions to metabolize food.
Fire governs the caustic chemicals that are needed to transform food
from culinary delight into nutritional substances that the body can use.
These juices include hydrochloric acid, bile, enzymes, and probably also
insulin.

As a starter, let's say that the pH of the stomach acids ranges from 1.0 to
2.0 though I'm sure some people are outside this range at times. Ob-
viously, those with more acid are able to break food down more easily.
Those who are deficient usually do not digest food normally. Instead of
separating the food into assimilable nutrients and bulk, food sits in the
stomach and is broken down by fermentation. The evidence for this is
bloating, distention, abdominal rumblings, and gas. Headaches and
muscle spasms as well as heartburn. Food that is not metabolized be-
comes a residual and is usually stored in the body as some form of
congestion: fat and sugar in the liver, deposits in the joints, and phlegm
in the lungs and sinuses and usually also in the intestines and even the
brain.

A medical doctor told me once that mucus has the same molecular
structure as sugar. I have never seen this in print, but it conforms to the
Ayurvedic teaching that food is 93% "sweet," not "sugar" but comprised
of the sweet taste. The main characteristics of this taste are: coldness,
dampness, and heaviness. Eaten in excess, these properties tend to
congest and thereby impair circulation and the supply of nutrients to the
body.

As anyone who has read the Kamasutra knows, Indians value the water
type above all others. They do so because it is the most fertile and, all
other things equal, has the best longevity. The fine line is somewhere
between water and excess water. Having a stuffy head is no fun and
while such a condition is not really a clue to intelligence, duh and huh
tend to give the impression of less acuity.

My Ayurvedic teacher taught us that mucus has the consistency of wax

and that when it is heated, it melts and comes out of the body. According
to this system of medicine, it is normal to accumulate phlegm in the
winter and to discharge it in spring. When this happens, we say we have
a cold, but unless the color of the discharge suggests infection, Ayurveda
says this is a completely normal occurence when the weather becomes
warm enough to melt the accumulations of winter. They even promote
the discharge by drinking hot, spicy concoctions. My teacher gave us a
recipe:

1 t. black peppercorns
3-5 whole cloves
1 inch ginger root

Shyam, my teacher, said one could boil these spices in water and just
drink the liquid. Most people I know can't stand the taste unless they add
a bouillon cube or soup stock. In any event, when you drink this, your
sinuses really run, this whether it is flu season or not, winter or summer,
proof positive that one does not need a cold in order to decongest. In
fact, there is a term for this therapy: errhine.

Digestion

To compensate for lack of digestive secretions, one has a few options:

1. eat food that is easier to digest

2. eat less frequently
3. reduce the quantity of what is consumed
4. make the food more digestible by cooking with spices
 5. stimulate the appetite and output of juices with exercise and
aroma
6. take supplements, hydrochloric acid and/or enzymes
7. use carminative bitters post-digestively

Of all of these, understanding that appetite is a clue to the availability of

digestive power is the most important. This is the best protection against
injudicious consumption. The next is knowing what can be safely con-
sumed and what will constitute excess for any given meal.

Ayurveda is adamant that when the digestive power is weak,

one should never eat food that has been reheated. Not only
is this food harder to digest, but the oils have been rendered
unsafe. In this age of fast foods, very few people recognize that most of
our foods presented at the table are not really wholesome. Foods cooked
in microwave ovens are very hard to digest and probably aggravate most
of the problems associated with kapha. Speaking for myselfand I'm a
fire typeI always have a gallbladder attack after eating something
prepared in a microwave oven. I have been trying to think of ways to
dispose of these creatures without creating bad karma. Oh, one can
remove them from the home, but giving them to a friend or adding them
to a landfill is not good karma!

Agni

One of the interesting features of fire is that it destroys many unwelcome

pathogens and parasites. Ergo, when digestive fire is low, not only is
digestion impacted but immunity can be compromised as well.
Generally, water has good immunity in the form of abundant white blood
cells and thicker cell membranes (to rebuff intruders); so while these
assets are not compromised by low fire, fire destroys microorganisms
and thereby reduces the work of water.

Water types can use foods that are spicy to increase fire. The sweet taste
and pungent taste are opposites:

Sweet Spicy
Cold Hot
Wet Dry
Heavy Light
Since, of the six tastes, the spicy is the only hot one, it is needed in our
diets. Some cultures use spices liberally, but some do not. India uses an
enormous variety of spices in savory combinations that I personally love.
However, in Japan, wasabi and ginger are the only two major spices used
in cooking. In the Southwest, chili is the only traditional spice; and in
ordinary European cuisine, spices are considered to be exotic almost all
were imported, this going back to the early days when Islamic influences
in medicine and cuisine were seen throughout the Mediterranean. The
way I try to explain this to students is that a sausage is a nearly imposs-
ible challenge to the gastrointestinal system. It is heavy, fatty, and usual-
ly made in such a way as to revolt. However, if the sausage is consumed
with heaps of sauerkraut and bitter beer, there is a chance of digesting it.
If it is also made with spices, the chances are better. What has happened
in America is that sauerkraut is not usually served with sausages and the
beer is not bitter. Very few people have enough gastric secretions to
knock off a sausage, even if they add a picante sauce. The best way to
address low fire is to cook with spices, not just any spices: use non-
irradiated, organic spices that have lovely aroma. If you grind fresh cin-
namon bark in a coffee mill, there will be a coating of oil on the inside of
the grinder. If you rub this off with your fingers, the oil will burn your
skin. You only need the smallest amount of this quality cinnamon to
perk up digestion and knock off bacteria; but if you use that dreadful
stuff in cans from the supermarket, the once proud cinnamon has become
an irritant, thanks to massive amounts of irradiation and improper hand-
ling and storage. It's the same with black pepper. Making a nice curry
with peppercorns bubbly around in the sauce is different from shaking
some pepper onto some lettuce leaves. When food is cooked with spices,
the spices are absorbed by the foods and the foods themselves are easier
to digest. Ayurveda offers lots of remedies for low fire. The most basic
of these is Trikatu, a formula whose name means three peppers. We have
it in our online store. It can be taken before meals to excite gastric secre-
tion. Hinga Shtak is more for complaints that arise from meals that have
not been digested. Sweet Ease aids sugar metabolism and then there are
a host of products such a Triphala to help peristalsis (which is usually
slow when there is not enough digestive power); Guggul for fat metabol-
ism; Blood Cleanse to detoxify; and on it goes.I will try to keep adding
to this so people can get a feel for how to manage their agni.

Copyright by Ingrid Naiman 2002