Rakesh Sethi, BS, CAHP
Wellness Speaker/ Author/
Ayurvedic Practitioner
What is Ayurvedic Consultation?
Archive for the ‘Natural Health Remedies’ Category
Food Combination Chart Provides Healthy & Clean Eating Suggestions
To get most out of our meals, we need to follow certain rules of combining food. There are no secrets but a scientific basis for combining foods that are compatible. It is on this scientific basis and including tips from ayurveda natural medical science, we have created a compatible Food Combination chart. Follow the recommendations on this chart for clean eating and optimum digestion. As a result, absorb the most nutrients from the foods you eat.
Select foods from the combination chart that are good for eating together. When we mix different food, we are bringing several chemicals together and the digestion itself injects various digestive juices and enzymes (more chemicals) to breakdown the food for proper absorption. Our goal is not only to eat clean but also have a clean digestion. For example, protein and carbohydrates is not a good combination. The digestive process for protein takes on very different route than digesting carbohydrates. The protein requires a lot of acid and longer time in the stomach to breakdown for digestion and during this time acid literally “burns” the nutrients in the carbohydrates. Thus the benefits of the carbohydrates are lost due improper digestion plus the “burned” carbohydrates in the GI tract will create gas.
The most common food combination that creates indigestion and gas is combination of high rich protein and carbohydrates. For the reasons described earlier, combining meat with potatoes, bread, sweets, and fruits should be avoided particularly. So what do we eat protein foods with? Animal protein foods are best digested when combined with fresh or cooked vegetables and highly acidic fruits. However, the plant protein foods like nuts, beans, and legumes may not be combined with high acidic fruits such as oranges, lemons, and pineapples. Look at the food combination chart below for more details.
Over 80% of the digestive disorders are caused by NOT choosing the right food combination. You will know when you have eaten a wrong combination. Your body will express the signs of discomfort, gurgling sounds, and gas. So a sign of clean eating is when you eat compatible foods that enable a clean efficient digestion without producing discomfort & flatulence after the meal.
Food Categories
- Animal Protein: Meat, Cheese, Eggs, Poultry, Fish
- Plant Protein: Nuts, Seeds, Soya beans, Legumes
- Vegetables: All vegetables like leafy greens, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.
- Fats: All Oils, Butter, Margarine
- Starches: Potatoes, Breads, All Grains
- Sweet Fruits: All sweet fruits like Bananas, Cantaloupes, Watermelon, etc.
- High Acid Fruits: All fruits like Oranges, Lemons, Pineapples, etc.
- Sweet Fruits: All sweet fruits like Bananas, Cantaloupes, Watermelon, etc.
- Low Acid Fruits: All remaining fruits like apples, apricots, pears, peaches, etc.
Note: The food combination chart has been put together to promote optimum and easier digestion. Also you should never combine any fruits with milk and if you must combine only sweet fruits with yogurt.
Make the most out of your money and efforts you put on preparing meals while promoting health and wellness.
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Herbs and Foods for Lower Cholesterol
Previous article “how do you lower cholesterol naturally” covered what is cholesterol, types of cholesterol, and natural way to maintain the level. Diet is one of the ways, and in order for you to lower your cholesterol level, you must make changes to your diet and to your lifestyle. This article will expand on what are the right foods for lower cholesterol. Risks are too great for developing serious health problems like heart disease so as soon as you find out you have a problem with your cholesterol, take the following steps to lower and manage it immediately. And for more expansive researched information, please sign up to our newsletter and receive free Lower Your Cholesterol Naturally e-book.
The First Step:
Cut down but do not totally eliminate the amount of cholesterol in your diet. You should also lower the total fat intake, especially on saturated and trans fats, in your diet. Saturated fats are the bigger culprit in raising your cholesterol and these are found in foods like butter, ice cream, eggs, fatty meats, other full-fat dairy products and some oils.
The Second Step:
Eliminate foods with trans fats completely from your diet. The trans fats are especially bad for your cholesterol levels. Trans fats will raise your low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the “bad” cholesterol, and lower high-density lipoprotein (HDL), the “good” cholesterol. Trans fats are mostly found in margarines, cookies, crackers and cakes.
The Third Step:
Incorporate foods for lower cholesterol into your diet. Not all foods raise your cholesterol. Believe it or not there are actually some fatty & oily foods for lowering your cholesterol level. 
For example, foods like fatty fish, walnuts, oatmeal and oat bran can help to control your cholesterol level. Some studies have shown that a diet which contains these types of foods works as well as some cholesterol-lowering medications to reduce LDL cholesterol levels.
The Fourth Step:
Change your lifestyle to include exercise routine, if do not have one already. Regular exercise or at least being physically active for 30 minutes on most days is a simple way you can change your lifestyle to facilitate to lower your LDL cholesterol and raise your HDL cholesterol. In addition, getting enough physical activity can help you to loose weight. Excess weight has the tendency to increase your LDL (“bad”) cholesterol level. So, if you are overweight and have a high LDL-cholesterol level, losing weight can help you to lower cholesterol. Weight loss also helps to lower triglycerides and raise HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels. And not to mention, being overweight increases your chances for other health problems like diabetes. Poorly controlled diabetes can increases your cholesterol levels as well.
The fifth Step:
Stress is a “brain trash”. Empty it often! Cleanse your mind. Surprisingly, controlling your stress is a way to take control of your cholesterol level. Stress over the long time period has been shown in several studies to raise blood cholesterol levels. Perhaps under stress people make wrong fatty food choices. Use yoga and meditation techniques to release stress and manage your cholesterol level.
Changing lifestyle and choosing foods for lower cholesterol can help you avoid taking cholesterol-lowering medications which has several benefits. One benefit is that it is financially cheaper to eat healthier foods then it is to pay for the medications. Another you do not have to deal with any side effects from these types of medications (See FDA Warnings on Statins). As always natural health tips offer preventive care and promote health and wellness naturally. For more information, sign up and get your free copy of Lower Your Cholesterol Naturally e-book with amazing collection of researched information- all in place. It will save you oodles of time.
Herbal Support:
Cholesterol Protection is an excellent herbal formula to support your efforts in managing cholesterol levels naturally. It is a well balanced formula with Guggulu herb known for its lowering cholesterol properties.
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How do you Lower Cholesterol Naturally?
With new FDA Statin warnings, I would strongly urge to change to natural ways to manage cholesterol. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved important safety label changes for the class of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as Statins (Full FDA Release). Though the cholesterol is well known term but there is still much mystery surrounding it because you hear there is good cholesterol and there is bad. Before getting into how do you lower cholesterol naturally and without using drugs, let us find out what is cholesterol exactly? Cholesterol consists of mostly fat and some protein. It is produced in the liver and other cells in the body and cholesterol is also present in certain foods like meat, eggs, and dairy products.
The question is why does a cholesterol level increase and what are the risks of high cholesterol? 
There are two main cholesterol types, LDL and HDL. LDL is known as the bad cholesterol that causes plaque buildup in the arteries and HDL is known as good cholesterol that helps keep the blood free of bad cholesterol.
Typically, the objective is to lower the LDL and raise the HDL levels of cholesterol. If the LDL level becomes high or the HDL level becomes low, your risk of heart disease increases. One has to maintain this fine balance and try to lower cholesterol without drugs. So now we know what we need to do, let us look at how do you lower cholesterol naturally?
First and foremost to lower cholesterol naturally, remove the main cause- the foods in the diet that increase the cholesterol. Make changes in your diet to eat a low-cholesterol diet. The American Heart Association recommends that you eat less than three hundred milligrams of cholesterol daily. 
If you already have heart disease, you should limit your daily intake to less than two hundred milligrams a day. You can significantly lower the amount of cholesterol intake by avoiding foods high in saturated fat like meat, dairy, and other animal products. If you smoke, quit smoking. Smoking lowers your good cholesterol levels which can easily be reversed if you quit smoking.
Second, how do you lower cholesterol naturally is by using herbs to slowly “cleanse” the blood of unwanted cholesterol. There are herbal formulas available for lowering cholesterol naturally. One of the most well known herbs for this purpose is Guggulu. Guggulu has a proven track record of lowering LDL by 20% and increasing HDL by 36%. In this matter, one must consult with the Ayurvedic practitioner and their physician before starting a herbal regimen. If you are not familiar with basics of Ayurveda, please check out the FREE mini-course.
Third, how do you lower cholesterol naturally is simply by adding exercising. Exercise increases the good HDL cholesterol in some people. Even a moderate-intensity exercise done routinely can help you to control your weight, diabetes, and high blood pressure which are all risk factors for heart disease. As always Ayurveda natural health tips offer preventive care and promote health and wellness naturally.
So what is the right cholesterol level? There is a cholesterol level guideline that doctors follow but most recent studies show some people with higher level than the guideline are equally healthy and show no heart disease. In reality, the body needs to produce and maintain certain amount of cholesterol for body to perform its functions properly. Cholesterol plays a critical role in the body in production of certain hormones, vitamin D, and the bile acids that help to digest fat. However, when the level increases or decreases beyond what the body requires problems like heart disease can develop.
Our goal is to naturally maintain the right levels of cholesterol without drugs. For more expansive researched information from several sources- now all in one place, please sign-up for our newsletter and receive free Lower Your Cholesterol Naturally e-book.
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Health Benefits of Ginger and How Much to Take Everyday
Most of us know of ginger but have you ever wondered about the health benefits of ginger? And I certainly hope many of you are already consuming daily in your diet. If you are not then after reading this article, you will be inspired to take it DAILY. For those who are already using it will find numerous health benefits of ginger in this article. Wellness coaches in USA are quickly learning about ginger and suggesting it to their clients. And why not, any person desiring right eating would take this to heart and develop recipes with it or order food with ginger. Ginger has been part of food & medicine in eastern cultures for thousands of years.
Almost anyone can take ginger and more than likely will have some benefit in some part of their body systems. Take a look at the following several health benefits of ginger:
- Increases circulation, supports heart health, generally benefits the cardiovascular system, and improves serum triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, & VLDL –cholesterol levels. It lowers blood fats, reduces LDL oxidation, (lower cholesterol without drugs) and prevents arterial plaque. Note the improvements were enhanced when the ginger was combined with garlic.
- Promotes digestion, cures upset stomach, reduces or eliminate motion sickness and nausea. Ginger facilitates in movement of food through the GI tract and helps in empting the stomach in less time. This is a great benefit for people feeling abdominal discomfort, flatulence, burping, and bloating.
- Reduces pain in arthritis, especially osteoarthritis, when used topically along with massaging cold & non lubricated joints with sesame oil
- Reduces phlegm in the lungs and comforts during colds
- Eliminates morning sickness in pregnant women just by taking 1000-1500mg of dry ginger
- Reduces or eliminates pain in joints and carpel tunnel simply by wrapping the area with strips of cooked fresh ginger and leaving it overnight
- Burns toxins in the GI tract and increases secretion of digestive juices. It is your daily detoxifier and digestive aid
As you can tell from the above listed health benefits of ginger, it is a very economical home remedy for common ailments plus keeps the body systems toxin free and prevents diseases from happening in the first place- excellent defense from a very tasty herb.
How much & how to take it?
Take up to 3000 mg of per day in ginger capsules. Fresh grated ginger is more effective but powder will work as well in your recipes. Or you can grate 1 teaspoon ginger and make 3 cups of tea and enjoy thru the day.
If you liked this article then biggest compliment you can give is by sharing it with others and spreading wellness. Always keep in mind Ayurveda health tips along with right eating offer preventive care and promote health and wellness naturally. Be Well!
PS: To know more if you are Eating Right Foods as per your unique Mind-Body constitution, please subscribe to the FREE “simple secrets to good health with right eating” mini course.
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How to Make a Simple Miracle Drink w/ Carrots Health Benefits?
Simple Recipe: One Apple, One Carrot, One Potato equal in weight to carrot, and ¼ teaspoon fresh ginger
Thoroughly wash, chop with the skin intact into pieces, and put them into the juicer or high speed blender (like Blendtec or Vitamix) and immediately drink the juice. For more refreshing taste, you can add some lime or lemon. Besides being tasteful & refreshing, carrots health benefits are numerous:
- Prevents cancer cells to develop & restrain their growth (also see Cancer Preventing herb article)
- Prevent liver, kidney, pancreas disease and it can cure ulcer as well
- Strengthen the lungs, prevent heart attack, and high blood pressure
- Strengthen the immune system
- Good for the eyesight, eliminate red and tired eyes or dry eyes
- Helps to eliminate muscle aches & pain from physical exhaustion
- Detoxify, assist bowel movement & eliminate constipation. Therefore it will make skin healthy & LOOK more radiant. It is God-sent for acne problem (also see Cleanse/Detoxify article)
- Lessen menstrual pain
- Assist Hay Fever Sufferer from Hay Fever attack
- Very effective in accelerating weight loss (also see Weight Loss article)
Highly nutritious and absorbs easily! You will notice a difference in your energy and improvement in your immune system after 2-4 weeks of usage.
How Often and When to Get Most out of Carrots Health Benefits:
For best results, drink it twice per day. Once, first thing in the morning and then before your meal (use it as an appetizer). If you choose once per day, go with the first thing in the morning.
YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE! TRY IT- IT DOES NOT COST MUCH MONEY TO PROMOTE HEALTH AND WELLNESS NATURALLY (with this simple miracle drink of carrots health benefits)!
If you liked this article then biggest compliment you can give is by sharing it with others. As always keep in mind natural health tips along with right eating offer preventive care and promote health and wellness naturally. Be Well!
Subscribe to FREE mini course below to discover your constitution:
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Share your comments, thoughts and suggestions below. I appreciate your time & will take the time to read every single one!
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How to Detoxify Body Naturally in 7 Days?
Vacation and holidays are fun! But we all know when we have over eaten, over drunk, over enjoyed, over done and all at the expense of our body. Our body goes out of balance (health) and if we continue such a life style, we feel lethargic, dull, lack of energy, low appetite, gas, bloating, constipation, and we gain weight. Just like we do oil change & tune up for our car, now is good time to do “oil change”, that is to detoxify body naturally.
Your body, overtime, has accumulated toxins and body systems functions are compromised and if you do not detoxify whole body now, you may land yourself some illness. If you have come to this point, taking a short cut with vitamins or energy drinks is not the answer. In fact your “digestive fire” is already compromised & you may be harming your body by putting unnecessary doses of vitamins plus throwing your hard earned money down the drain. So at this time go with the total body cleanse and also as a general maintenance to do a whole body cleanse is good for you.
Let me show you exactly how you can detoxify body naturally in 6 to 7 days gently following simple steps:
1. Start first day with ONLY 32 oz. – 48 oz. of warm to hot water in the morning. Have warm light vegetable soup for lunch. Or if you can manage with fruits only choose cooked apple or pear or uncooked grapefruit or pomegranate. In the afternoon have only fresh Ginger tea. Evening meal if you can skip great, if not, have only Moong lentil soup. Rest & avoid exercising on this day.
2. For the next 5-6 days:
- Have warm light easy to digest foods like chicken broth soups, rice & Moong lentil soups, or other light meals
- Drink hot fresh cut ginger tea 3 cups and only hot water through out the day
- Take 1000mg Turmeric (2x500mg capsules) after each meal w/ warm water
- Take 2000mg Triphala (2x1000mg tablets) Not after dinner but 1 hour before bedtime w/ warm water
3. AVOID the following during these days:
Icy cold drinks, Fried foods, Red Meats, Cheese, Heavy creamy & sugary foods, Raw vegetables, Cold foods
Follow the above steps and you will detoxify body naturally of accumulated toxins in a matter of days. No shock & aw or synthetic chemicals- all natural gentle process. If you do not see enough improvement in 7 days, extend it for 3 more days. A good measure is – Your energy level & robust appetite will return.
For more gradual and gentle detoxification, use herbal formula Eliminate Toxins.
Caution: Do NOT detoxify body, if pregnant. Also if you have any medical condition, check with your physician before starting any procedure.
Note: If you like, you can practice “mini” version of the detox by following the above steps EXCEPT rather than five to six days in step two, do this step for only for two days. Use this mini version to detoxify body naturally more frequently (every or every other month) for it to be effective. Consult with your Ayurveda practitioner how often to detoxify the body.
If you liked this article then biggest compliment you can give is by sharing this wellness with others. As always keep in mind natural health tips along with right eating offer preventive care and promote health and wellness naturally. Be Well!
Rakesh Sethi
PS: To know more if you are Eating Right Foods as per your unique Mind-Body constitution and create less toxins in the body, please subscribe to the FREE “simple secrets to good health with right eating” mini course.
What Do You Think? Feel Free to Speak Your Mind
Share your comments, thoughts and suggestions below. I appreciate your time & will take the time to read every single one!
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Turmeric Health Benefits in Preventing Cancer and How to Use?
Turmeric health benefits are numerous and is considered one the most valuable cancer preventing foods and an herbal medicine. Turmeric brings strong medicinal antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immune enhancing, and detoxifying properties. Just about half a teaspoon (2000mg) of turmeric consumed per day in the diet regularly could eliminate DNA damage characteristic of aiding cancer development. But preventing cancer is not all; there are many other significant turmeric health benefits in the following conditions:
1. Treats skin inflammation diseases like eczema, psoriasis as it is cooling herb, removes excessive heat and cleanses liver.
2. Treats indigestion, dyspepsia, suppresses inflammation in stomach, prevents & treats ulcerations of all kinds including gastritis & colitis (Irritable Bowl Syndrome).
3. Helps tremendously with the hemorrhoids pain & skin inflammation.
4. Helps curb bleeding & other fluid excesses and pulls in prolapsed tissues so it is good for “wet” macular degeneration plus works for other inflammatory conditions in the eye.
5. Turmeric is also a blood purifier. It is anti-diabetic and will help normalize blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
6. It is a mild menstrual regulator and the best spice for woman to move stagnant blood.
7. Turmeric is also known as a respiratory herb. It reduces cough and sinus congestion when gargled or consumed in boiled milk. Again its anti inflammatory properties reduce sore throat and combined with its anti bacterial properties it can be used to treat bronchitis. It is also good for asthma.
You can not afford to be without turmeric health benefits in your diet. By the way USA is the largest importer of Turmeric from India (largest producer of Turmeric). US uses Turmeric almost exclusively to add yellow color to mustard. Please do not start consuming excessive amount of mustard in your diet. I would recommend following ways to take in with your daily routine:
Half a teaspoon (2000mg) in tea or milk
or if easier, take 1-2 organic Turmeric capsules (500mg each) after lunch & dinner
Caution: Do NOT use if pregnant or have Bile duct blockage
If you are not using turmeric in your diet then you are missing numerous turmeric health benefits. I would suggest to get some new recipes start including as part of your cancer prevention foods diet. If you liked this article then biggest compliment you can give is by sharing the wellness with others and spread this awareness. Be Well!
Rakesh Sethi
PS: To know more if you are Eating Right Foods as per your unique Mind-Body constitution, subscribe to FREE mini course below to discover your constitution:
Share your comments, thoughts and suggestions below. I appreciate your time & will take the time to read every single one!
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Right Eating and Herbs Help You Lose Weight Naturally and Fast
You will discover here how to lose weight naturally and fast using natural and less expensive remedies you can practice at home. Before discussing the usual diet & exercise for losing weight, I want to introduce the term Body Constitution. This is an important intelligence that will help you understand what are your weight gain and weight loss tendencies and work with them.
You and everyone else is put together with their own unique body constitution. For our purpose, we need to discuss 3 different body constitution types but focus on the one that has the highest probability of gaining and trouble losing weight:
- One body constitution type typically light weight if gains weight can loose it quickly.
- The second body constitution typically medium weight, good muscles but does not gain weight easily.
- The third body constitution type typically large gains weight quickly in pounds but looses slowly in ounces.
It is the third body constitution type that has inherent tendency to be bigger & heavier than the other two types. The standard medical height & weight guidelines do not apply to this third body type. However, if you fall in the third type, no worries; this in itself does not place you at higher health risk. But because of the inherent body tendencies, you will need to be more vigilant about weight gain, especially as you get up in the years. Typical health risks for this body type are diabetes, high BP, and high Cholesterol.
How to Lose Weight Naturally and Fast Techniques?
Before starting, I want you to ask yourself at what weight you feel full of energy, vivacious, and good about yourself. This is the optimum weight for you and you should try to maintain yourself within + or – 4 pounds of this weight. Follow the do’s & don’t’s of lose weight naturally and fast guidelines that can be easily used at home.
1. Don’t’s- what to avoid?
- Ice cold drinks with or before meal (No sodas)
- Raw vegetables, salads etc. as a meal or in large proportions
- Heavy fried foods and red meats (do not eat anything doesn’t come out in 24 hours or less)
- Cheese, Sweets, ice cream, & sugary temptations
- Alcohol (If you must small glass of wine 1-2 times a week)
- Overeating
2. Do’s- what to eat?
- Warm cooked foods
- Oats, Barley, Quinoa, Basmati Rice, & Millets (No other grains)
- Fish, Chicken in moderation, substitute legumes (rich in protein) for meat
- All vegetables especially include Bitter Guard (Bitter Melon) 2-3 times per week. Download recipes from internet for cooking Bitter Guard. Add ginger in almost every meal to your taste. Add pinch of red pepper to your taste, if you can tolerate.
- Only sunflower seeds (avoid all other nuts)
- Berries, grapefruit, pomegranate, apples
- Use light oils like sunflower
- Drink 2-3 cups of Ginger tea per day
- Do mindful eating & listen to your body when full. Make the middle meal your biggest meal of the day.
- Keep Fast once per week with only one light meal in the middle of the day
3. Yoga Postures (optional but will additionally help you lose weight naturally and fast)
Pranayama, Sun Salutation, Most forward or backward bend poses, Cobra, Downward Dog, Upward Dog, and Shoulder Stand poses. Start slowly if you are not doing any exercises then increase frequency & intensity. If you are doing some other form of exercise, just continue that. Do exercise 3 to 4 times per week.
4. Herbal Supplements
After dinner & lunch take 1000mg of Triphala and 1000mg of Guggulu.
Imagine in 4 short weeks you would lose weight naturally and fast, improve your health, appearance, live at your suitable weight, and cleanse your body of toxins.
NOTE: After reaching your suitable weight, continue maintaining with taking Triphala but stop taking Guggulu.
Thank you for your time and attention. If you liked this article then biggest compliment you can give is by sharing it with others. Be Well!
PS: To maintain your right weight, learn to Eat Right Foods suitable to your unique Mind-Body constitution, subscribe FREE to “simple secrets to good health with right eating” mini course.