Treatment of Obesity in Ayurveda
Obesity is a condition in which individual is significantly overweight. Excessive body fat is accumulated on the belly, buttocks, breasts and thighs. This may lead to diabetes, hypertension and arthritis.
causes:
mainly due to absence of physical activity. Other causes may be sleeping during the day, intake of Kapha - increasing foods (heavy, sweet, cooling and unctuous food in excess). Over intake of food.
Heredity and Pathology are rare causes
Pathogenesis
Body is made of 7- Dhatus {Rasa (Lymph), Rakta(Blood), Maans (Muscle), Meda( Fat), Asthi (Bones), Majja (Nervous System) Shukra (Reproductive System)}. But in Obese fellow Meda is excessively nourished and remaining other Dhatus get malnourished. Kapha gets accumulated in between. Roll of medicines with dietary correction is to remove obstructed Kapha and let allDhatus nourish equally. When Kapha increases in abnormal fashion, Fat metabolism gets hampered and person be comes Obese.
- Controlling eating habits.
- Regular exercise.
- Avoiding the causes of weight gain
A diet that helps to lose weight:
- Early morning - A glass of warm water mixed with the juice of half a lemon. A teaspoonful of honey can be added if you like.
- Breakfast - Wheat or Mung (green beans) sprouts and one cup skimmed milk.
- Mid morning - A glass of orange, pineapple or carrot juice.
- Lunch - Salad of raw vegetables such as carrot, beet, cucumber, cabbage, tomatoes. In case you can not digest raw vegetables, either steam or boil them. Whole grain bread or whole wheat chapatis (Indian recipe) and a glass of buttermilk. It will be good to add some roasted cumin seeds, green coriander leaves, a little salt and some grated ginger in the butter milk.
- Mid afternoon - Coconut water or dry fruits or lemon tea or vegetable soup.
- Dinner - Whole grain bread or chapatis, steamed vegetables and any seasonal fruit except banana and apple.
Diet and Regimen:
- Avoid cold drinks, fatty fried foods and chocolates.
- Fruits and green vegetables are low calorie foods, so over weight persons should use these more frequently include the green leafy vegetables, sprouted moong beans in your salad. Salad is to be taken without any dressing . If you want relish it, take it with lemon juice and salt. Salad should form a major part of meals
- One should avoid intake of too much salt . Salt may be a factor for increasing the body weight.
- Milk products like cheese, butter should be avoided because these are rich in fat. Meat and non-vegetarian foods should also be avoided.
- Vegetables like bitter gourd (Karela), and bitter variety of drumstick are useful for loosing weight.
- Avoid red meat (lamb/pork/beef) but be on white meat (chicken/fish).
- Avoid Smoking/ drinking alcohol.
- Do not drink water immediately after meals. Drink it after half an hour. Try to drink warm water.
- 'Honey' - Taking honey is an excellent home remedy for obesity. It mobilizes the extra deposited fat in the body and puts it into circulation which is utilized as energy for normal functions. One should start with small quantity of about 10 GM's. or a tablespoonful to be taken with hot water. It is good to take it in early morning. A teaspoonful of fresh lemon juice may also be added.
- Exercise
Exercise is an important part of weight reduction plan. It helps to use up calories stored in body as fat. In addition, it also relieves tension and tones up the muscles of the body. Walking daily for half an hour is the best exercise to begin with and may be followed by running, swimming and rowing. Increase physical activities in daily life.
Herbs useful for Weight loss
Herbs like amla (Emblica officinalis), Haritaki (Terminalia chebula), Bibhitaka (Terminalia belericia), Guggul are effective.
Some generally used preparation for obesity are as follows :
