Sunday 26 October 2014

 Dr. Girija was telling a patient with a throat problem to stop curd. The patient started argueing saying that he had had curd daily all his life, and had not suffered. She smiled, and pointed to the diabetic, cholestrol and BP conditions he had, and said that all these were due to excessive intake of curd taken daily.

Curd is to be taken in limited and specific manner - and not daily. Then it gives benefits, otherwise it causes various problems from diabetes to skin problem to anaemia. Many conditions which are 'etiology unknown' in allopathy are very clearly tracable in ayuveda to food and lifestyle.


(From 'Jeevani - Ayurveda for Women' by Dr. P.L.T. Girija ) 


Good and Bad Properties of Curd 

Curd is sour in taste and hot in efficacy and increases fat tissue and semen. It improves digestion and is constipating. Curd possesses some medicinal properties. It is a good medicine for persons who suffer from loss of appetite, loss of taste for food, intermittent f...ever, coldness in the body, extreme dryness, difficulty in urination and nasal discharge. It helps in the treatment of aggravated Vata. However curd aggravates Pitta and Kapha in the body. As it increases Kapha it is capable of causing diseases, especially in the respiratory system. It also causes many diseases of Pitta origin.
Curd has a property known as abhishyandi, which means it blocks the fine pathways and channels in the body. Blocked pathways and channels are responsible for causing many diseases.

While consuming curd, some rules have to be observed:
• Curd should not be consumed daily
• It should never be consumed at night
• It should not be heated
• Curd can be consumed only in winter and rainy seasons.
As curd is hot in efficacy it is not to be consumed in hot seasons – spring (mid-March to mid-May), summer (mid-May to mid-July) and autumn (mid-September to mid-November).
• Even in cold seasons it should not be consumed daily
• While consuming curd, it should be mixed with one of the following – honey, ghee and sugar, green gram, goose berry (amalaki).
• Curd which is not fully formed should not be consumed


Violating the above rules can cause diseases such as fever,
bleeding diseases, visarpa (herpes), skin diseases, anaemia, giddiness  and swelling (oedema). Obviously curd can cause both health and  ill health depending on how we use it. Now it is not difficult to  understand why daily use of curd is restricted in Ayurveda.

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