Dive into the essence of healthy living with Jay Shetty and guest Radhi Devlukia on the "On Purpose with Jay Shetty" podcast, as they explore time-honored culinary traditions and Ayurvedic wisdom for enhancing wellbeing. Radhi shares her profound connection to cooking, inherited from her mother and grandmother, embodying not just the nourishment of homemade meals, but the woven threads of culture, celebration, and ancestral heritage. Their heartfelt conversation extends into the holistic teachings from Radhi's book, illuminating how the simplest daily practices can bring forth a life of mindfulness and healthful harmony.
Together, Radhi and Jay reveal how the Ayurvedic modes of nature—goodness, passion, ignorance—affect our food and lifestyle choices, emphasizing the vitality that foods in the mode of goodness offer to the body. They delve into practical advice, such as the significance of chewing food thoroughly to aid digestion, and the benefits of early dining for optimal sleep and health. Radhi further discusses her book's guidance on mindful morning and evening routines, and the potent medicinal properties of spices, inviting listeners to embrace these routines and ingredients to enrich their daily lives with flavor and wellness.
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Radhi Devlukia credits her love for cooking to her mother and grandmother, who instilled the importance of homemade meals made with love. Despite their demanding jobs, Radhi's mother upheld the tradition of cooking daily, much like her own mother did from the young age of 12. Food, to Radhi, signifies more than sustenance; it represents celebration, connection, and a deep familial bond. In her book, Radhi pays homage to the lessons, values, and affection infused in the family's cooking traditions, which for her, perpetuate a strong sense of connection to her Indian heritage and ancestors.
Radhi speaks about the three Ayurvedic modes of nature: goodness, passion, and ignorance, outlining their influence on food and lifestyle choices. Foods in the mode of goodness particularly fuel and invigorate the body with life force or prana. Radhi advises that consuming fresh, organic produce is key for nurturing the body according to the mode of goodness. She highlights the importance of such foods in the diet, advocating for their naturally sourced freshness to maximize health benefits.
Chewing food thoroughly is a practice that Radhi Devlukia and Jay Shetty emphasize for optimal digestive health. Chewing triggers the release of digestive enzymes in the mouth, which aids in breaking down food and signaling the body to prepare for digestion. This process reduces the digestive system's workload and can prevent discomfort such as bloating and headaches. Radhi recalls her grandfather's advice to chew each bite 32 times to facilitate pre-digestion. Jay's personal experiences reinforce the importance of thorough chewing in avoiding digestive issues.
Radhi and Jay suggest that abstaining from late-night eating can enhance sleep quality and overall health. Radhi mentions that forgoing food after 5pm allows the body to focus on restorative processes during sleep instead of digestion. She has personally noticed a significant improvement in her own sleep score by dining earlier and avoiding heavy meals at night.
In "Joyful," Radhi outlines her morning routine, which includes tongue scraping, making cumin-coriander-fennel tea (CCFT), meditation, breathwork, and exercise, followed by a nutritious breakfast. Her evening routine is a calming transition to rest, featuring blue light reduction, walking, and a self-care oil massage (Abhyanga). These practices—whether done in the morning or evening—support Radhi's mindfulness, health, and wellbeing.
Radhi discusses spices' anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and adaptogenic properties and their dual role of enhancing flavor while providing health benefits. She shares her childhood memories of using spices as remedies, and now, as an adult, she continues to integrate spices like coriander, cumin, and fennel into her daily routines for their medicinal advantages. In her book, Radhi provides insight on the health and culinary uses of different spices, advocating for their regular inclusion in meals for not just taste, but also for their enriching health benefits.
1-Page Summary
Radhi Devlukia shares her deep connection to culinary arts, attributing her love and approach to cooking to the influence of her mother and grandmother.
From an early age, Radhi resonated with the daily ritual of consuming homemade meals with care and affection by her mother and grandmother. Despite juggling full-time jobs, Radhi's mom consistently prepared breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the family. This dedication to home cooking was a tradition Radhi's mother inherited from her own mother, who nurtured her love for cooking starting at around 12 years old.
For Radhi, food is much more than sustenance. It has always been at the core of her Indian family's life, marking occasions for celebration and facilitating connections over daily fam ...
Radhi's family inspires her love of cooking
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Radhi explains the three modes of nature in Ayurveda — goodness, passion, and ignorance — and how they relate to food and lifestyle choices. She emphasizes the significance of these modes in determining the vitality and healthiness of the foods we consume.
Consuming foods in the mode of goodness, Radhi states, deeply nourishes and energizes the body. These foods are imbued with life force, or prana, which is the essence that denotes a high level of vitality and energy. Radhi illustrates this by using the example of an apple freshly picked from a tree, bursting with nutrients and life force. However, as time passes and the apple's quality degrades, it transitions through the modes of nature and becomes progressively less beneficial to one's health.
In line with Ayurved ...
The three modes of nature according to Ayurveda (goodness, passion, ignorance)
Radhi Devlukia and Jay Shetty highlight the significant benefits of chewing your food thoroughly for overall digestive health and comfort.
Radhi emphasizes the importance of being present and mindful when eating. She explains that when we chew our food thoroughly, our body gets a signal to start producing the necessary digestive enzymes right in the mouth.
Eating without distractions is also beneficial, as it allows the body to prepare for digestion. Radhi suggests that a focused approach to eating helps initiate digestion even before the first bite is taken.
Chewing food well in the mouth means there's less work for the stomach later on. Radhi shares how her grandfather would remind everyone to chew their food about 32 times per mouthful to aid digestion, utilizing the teeth as tools for pre-digestion. This practice is particularly crucial for those with digestive issues.
By pre-digesting food through proper chewing, it's possible to prevent common digestive discomforts such as gut pain, bloating, and headaches caused by undigested food. Foods th ...
Importance of chewing food thoroughly
Adjusting meal times and refraining from late-night eating can have significant benefits for both sleep quality and overall well-being.
Radhi Devlukia notes that if you refrain from eating after 5pm, the body doesn't have to work on digesting food while sleeping. This leads to a more restful sleep since the body’s energy can be redirected from digestion to other restorative processes during the night.
Radhi shares that by using a sleep tracker to monitor her rest, she noticed that her sleep score increased significantly—from 70% to 100%—when she stopped eating past the early evening. Jay Shetty also mentions that he feels healthier and ha ...
The benefit of adjusting meal times and not eating late
Radhi Devlukia shares her comprehensive morning and evening routines aimed at supporting mindfulness, health, and wellbeing throughout the day, as discussed in the book "Joyful."
Radhi's morning routine is carefully structured to provide a strong foundation for her day. She begins with the Ayurvedic ritual of using a tongue scraper after brushing her teeth, noting that it's important for removing toxins that accumulate overnight. She then prepares her CCFT (cumin, coriander, and fennel tea) before settling down for her meditation session. This session is a lengthy one, lasting for about an hour and a half and incorporates both mantra meditation and breathwork, which helps her manage anxiety, collect her thoughts, and energize herself for the day ahead.
After her meditative practice, Radhi takes on her workout routine, which alternates between activities like weight training, running, or heated yoga. Following her workout, she returns home to get ready before eating a savory breakfast, often consisting of sourdough toast with hummus and vegetables sprinkled with toasted coriander seeds or cumin powder, along with a protein shake.
Radhi's evening routine is designed to support her body's transition into rest. For her, this includes relaxing activities like walking, rather than engaging in intense workouts as in the morning. To maintain her circadian rh ...
Radhi's morning and evening routines
Radhi, a spice enthusiast, shares her profound experiences with the healing powers of spices, narrating how they contribute vastly to health and culinary arts.
From a very young age, spices have immensely influenced Radhi's life—not only as culinary aids but also as home remedies for common ailments like coughs and cuts. Over a decade, Radhi has been studying their medicinal potency, revealing that they indeed impart significant health impacts.
She shares how spices, due to their vibrant and variety-inducing taste, make basic ingredients spring to life, allowing one to journey through different cultural flavors. Radhi has been incorporating spices into her medicine box, turning to them for natural relief from headaches and similar discomforts.
Radhi explains how natural elements like spices, oils, and certain foods have fortified her body's immunity and stress responses. She advocates for daily spice rituals, such as a morning tea with a blend of coriander, cumin, and fennel—her CCFT—which is a simple method to reap the benefits of these ingredients.
Further expressing the culinary versatility of spices, Radhi encourages experimentation in the kitchen, emphasizing that food doesn't have to follow a rigid set of rules. Her book aims to arm readers with a comprehensive spice cupboard, and it includes a chart that illustrates the benefits of spices and advises on their medicinal and culinary ap ...
Medicinal benefits of spices
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