BC Home & Garden

food to align the mind, b SPIRIT Lululemon co-founder Amrita Sondhi offers up a batch of colourful vegetarian recipes to balance the mind, body and spirit in her second cookbook, The Tastes of Ayurveda TEXT NATALIE WALTERS The book dishes up an array of hearty and healthy recipes including meals, snacks and sweets. The Tastes of Ayurveda also includes menu planning, balcony vegetable gardening tips, as well as yoga poses and breathing exercises. The cookbook is an extension of The Modern Ayurvedic Cookbook, first published in 2006. Hailing from a Southeast Asian household in Mombasa, Kenya, Sondhi grew up on Indian foods and spices, but it wasn't until she started teaching yoga that she began exploring Ayurveda. "Once I got into yoga I got interested to study Ayurveda in depth . . . because yoga is one of the branches of Ayurveda," says Sondhi, who now lives and teaches on Bowen Island. Ayurveda is about whole-body health, a large part of which includes diet. The 5,000-year-old Indian healing tradition is based on the idea that the body is composed of five essential elements: water, ether, air, fire and earth. The proper balance of these elements is the key to maintaining physical, mental and spiritual well-being. Sondhi teaches that we can tap into these vital elements through a conscious diet based on one's individual body constitution. According to Ayurveda, everyone is made up of three main elements, or doshas: vata (air), pitta (fire) and kapha (earth). The balance of these doshas impacts your mood and food cravings, she says. 56 | BC HOME & GARDEN February 2013 p56-57_Tastes of Ayurveda.indd 56 13-01-23 11:22 AM dim ind ney actu pac Son tion

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