Milk in ayurveda

Milk in Ayurveda

There is still no way of telling when will people agree whether milk is good for a person or not. However, Ayurveda has some good points on the subject.

Some say that milk is excellent food for humans while others say it is poison in packed cartons and bottles. Even though people who are looking into this matter are close to the truth, sometimes it is not a bad thing for a person to turn to traditional wisdom for the answer.

Ayurveda is a science of healthy eating and it has some answers on milk consumption. It tells in what form and for whom milk is good for intake. According to Ayurveda, milk provides mass, sweetness and coolness to the meal so it is good for nursing mothers. Milk makes the heart stronger in some constitutions but it provokes phlegm in others. Ayurveda agrees with the western researches on the milk intake. Milk is not good for humans when it is drank cold, unspiced, homogenized or taken in combination with inappropriate foods. Milk will be good if it is properly consumed, prepared and stored.

How it should be consumed

Ayurveda says that milk is best raw and boiled. The reason for this is when milk is boiled it denatures the protein in it and that eases the digestion. To improve the balance a person can add cinnamon, cardamom or ginger.

According to Ayurveda, pasteurization is good because it clears the milk of any bacteria. It is not so good because it does nothing to make the milk more digestible or prevent it from getting contaminated in some other way. This is the reason why modern milk is not so good a food. In order to be digested properly, milk must be boiled. Homogenization does not help as well because its only purpose is to make the milk easier to pack, store and retail. According to this fact, organizations do not care about the health improvement provided by milk, they only worry about their profit.

Ayurveda also says that goat's milk is better than cow's. Goat's milk is easier to digest and has less tendencies to form allergens. Stomach chemicals will feel more relaxed with the consumption of goat's milk. Ayurveda says that those who wish to intake milk should do it in specific forms. For instance, milk can be boiled with two teaspoons of clarified butter and a teaspoon of coriander powder.

Ayurveda also advices that those sensitive to cow's milk should drink soy milk instead.