I have a problem with khichari - indigestion troubles...

I don't know how this came about. I use to eat khichari all the time and loved it. Lately though, I noticed that about every other time I eat it I have indigesetion and often diarrhea. What do you think the culprit is? Usually I make the khichari with mung dal and whatever vegetables I feel like throwing in. For spices I often use anything from tumeric, hing, chili or cayene pepper, salt and ginger. I cook it just like this for 30-40 minutes and then add the rice and cook for about 17 more minutes, and then I add a chaunce of mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Sometimes I cook it other ways but usually like this. Regardless, I used to be able to eat it fine but now it is a gamble. What do you think is the cause?

Also, I am looking for some alternative ways to deal with indigestion besides drinking pink stuff from a bottle. Anybody know of any simple ayurvedic or more naturala treatments? Thanks.

Your servant,

Jason

Hmm.. too much oil or chili can cause that kind of result. Try reducing the amount of oil you put in.

Try peppermint tea for indigestion. Always worked pretty well for me.

Hope this helps.

Ginger does wonders for digestion. Slice and chew.

Kichari is a rather heavy food, I wouldn't dare to take it daily, and when I do, I take it in moderate quantities. Most indigestion I see people suffering of comes from overeating.

I was taking khichari about once a week for a while, but even less than that before I started having digestion problems. I have tried cutting back on my oils as well, and when I did use chilis, it was always a very tiny amount. As it stands I only eat one cooked meal a day. I eat very little except for my cooked meal, which sometimes I find myself over eating. It is hard not to when no one else is there to help you eat Krsna's prasad

I'll try hunt down some ginger. I haven't drank tea in years, maybe I'll try that as well.

Gingers usually come out of their caves at the first light in the morning, that's the time you'll want to be alert and hunting in the nearby fields. Grab a net with you, they are fast runners.

Once you catch those gingers, you can also make tea out of them. With a bit of lemon, it's also an excellent remedy, should you catch cold, but also helps with indigestion, makes the digestive fire burn. However, I've found chewing to be the most effective way around to increase digestion. Cut into 3 mm slices and chew a good bunch of ginger, it'll do wonders.

If your diarrhea is preceded by indigestion, you'll want to grab the ginger at the first sign of trouble. Diarrhea often comes about after the food sits long enough in the stomach undigested. A common symptom is burps with a displeasant odor coming up. That's usually the outcome of overeating, or of eating excessive oil. Happens to me in India at times when people invite me for meals.

If you have the luxury of access to thick sour milk, like the stuff we have here in Scandinavia, that's a top choice if your stomach needs to be balanced. Yoghurt is nowhere near a worthy replacement for the product and is one of the few things I wish at times I had when staying in India.

Your indigestion may not be only from the kitchari. You have to look at other foods or drinks that you combine with it. Maybe other foods that you eat at other mealtimes conflict or for instance if you eat fruit for dessert afterwards., that will be problem.

I used to get diarrhea after meal times because I would drink my glass of milk too fast during my meal and it is not even good to drink milk at all with a meal according to proper food combining. Even the vegetables might conflict within the kitchari such as mixing starches with leafy greens and panir can be not good combining for a sensitive stomach. So try kitchari with low oil., fresh lemon., and just rice dahl., no vegies. Even try dry roast spices., no oil.

In addition to yogurt for diarrhea., take grapefruit seed extract oil. It knocks out diarrhea real fast. Also try eating psyllium husk with some cereal and yogurt. It will absorb the acid in the stomach and maybe you can continually enjoy your kithcari without too much problem.

Pm me if you want specific food combining laws.

Your local IFCP (improper food combining police)

I can't eat khichari at all, it gives trouble to my stomach everytime.

I have heard that you shouldn't even mix rice and dal in the same meal. They don't go well together and are too hard to digest. But that's what khichari is about, rice and dal. And that's what they serve in most meals in India, either rice and dal-soup separately or then as a khichari.

I also heard that eating cooked green papaya (slices) with the meals helps the digestion, I have seen this done at my Guru's ashrama. Here in the west they also sell papaya pills in the natural shops.

Please, let's have it in the open unless someone has objections?

Kichari is especially given to the old and infirm as it is easy to digest so I don't know what to make of the problems recounted here. You're making me question Dhavantari himself. But perhaps some of you have pitta issues? There are kichari variations for each dosha so you might want to try them.

As far as combining rice and dal, isn't that supposed to form some kind of complete protein?

You can try drinking a couple of glasses of water before meals as mentioned in www.watercure.com. It works for me

Instead of white processed rice you can substitute millet -the queen of grains, in your kicchari. Bon appetite.

Hmm, that's strange. A meal of mixed rice and dahl is a staple food in most places in India.


You can eat it naturally as well. A lot of families slice up a papaya and eat it as their dessert right after the evening meal. Supposedly it's very good for digestion.

Perhaps digestion problems recounted here are to do with individual bodily constitutions or perhaps an overload of spicy ingredients or condiments?

JayF, I must SECOND braja's post here. However, you need to know that I do not eat any cooked oils or fats so you may need to temper what I say but I will speak from past experience as a child reared on traditional indian fare.

1. Khichedee MUST be cooked with real ghee (and ghee only) if any of its purported convalescence support benefits are to be realised.

2. Hing (asafetida) has many digestive benefits BUT can give the opposite effect if you use too much. I have noticed westerners often going overboard with hing.

3. If your system is having problems with ghee (the easiest fat for the liver to handle) try supplementing your diet with lecithin from a reputable source.

4. With the exception of papaya, apple and lemon/lime juice and cucumbers be cautious not to eat any fruit less than 1 hour prior or up to 2 hours after a meal of khichedee OR any grain/starch based cooked food. Therefore do not cook with tomatoes in the khichedee.

5. For double safety go back to the spice mix of ancient India ("vedic"). Use only black pepper and mustard for the hot sensation, omit the chili powder. Curry leaves and umbellliferous spices (eg fennel, dill, cumin) are acceptable.

And yes, peppermint tea is good for washing away toxic bile irritation in the GIT.
Have a medical check for gallstones and other common GIT disorders.

Sorry Madhava, I get a little paranoid when I share food combining information. Devotees would often get irritated with me because the way Krishna prasadam is cooked, it doesn't correspond well with food combining and I would often analyze the dishes. So I have become a closet nutritionist.



Right you are Malati. Kitchari is in direct conflict with rule #2 shown below. I think some license can be taken because some proteins may be more digestible than others so I think certain dahls might be easier than beans. But I have also understood from somewhere somehow that because the dahl mixes so much with the rice when it is cooked that it becomes less of an issue, not to mention what wonders digestive spices such as cumin seed do for the aiding the body's digestion.

I also think we have to take into account how active our body is and how fast the fire of our digestion is. So if you are an athlete, you may get away with eating melons 15 minutes before your oatmeal which normally would be in conflict with rule #8, shown below.


The Basic Rules of Proper Food Combining:

1. Eat acids and starches at separate meals. Acids neutralize the alkaline medium required for starch digestion and the result is fermentation and indigestion.

2. Eat protein foods and carbohydrate foods at separate meals. Protein foods require an acid medium for digestion.

3. Eat but one kind of protein food at a meal.

4. Eat proteins and acid foods at separate meals. The acids of acid foods inhibit the secretion of the digestive acids required for protein digestion. Undigested protein putrefies in bacterial decomposition and produces some potent poisons.

5. Eat fats and proteins at separate meals. Some foods, especially nuts, are over 50% fat and require hours for digestion.

6. Eat sugars (fruits) and proteins at separate meals.

7. Eat sugars (fruits) and starchy foods at separate meals. Fruits undergo no digestion in the stomach and are held up if eaten with foods that require digestion in the stomach.

8. Eat melons alone. They combine with almost no other food.

9. Desert the desserts. Eaten on top of meals they lie heavy on the stomach, requiring no digestion there, and ferment. Bacteria turn them into alcohols and vinegars and acetic acids.



Those interested can look for a book called "Food Combining Made Easy." I purchased it in the nutrition section of Fred Meyers in the Northwest of America. Available at Amazon books I believe.

Whatever Raghunatha das ate was only to keep his body and soul together, and when he ate he would reproach himself thus (Bhag. 7.15.40):

Again, you display interpretations of verses that don't relay the intended meaning. What are you trying to pull?

I went through this type food combination simplicism in the early 1970's during a bout of nutritional neophytism



Now take

1. the best full cream organic milk. Is it not all three protein, fat and carbohydrate - all rolled in one? Hmm?-

2. Most nuts. Are they not equally a source of protein as well as fats? Hmm?

How are you, pray tell, going to eat the same almond at different meals?

Protein and fats do combine and that is why nature provides high quality/level proteins mostly with fats and oils. Please study the research of the famous vegetarian nutritionist Johanna Budwig into the efficacy of protein/fat (flaxseed oil) combination for anti cancer nutrition and healing.

I think there is some merit in certain ideas underlying food combining tenets but care should be taken with over simplification. I think it was Einstein who said something like, "Things should be as simple as they need be but NOT MORE."

Kalki, I am curious whether you researched Budwig and suchlike and whether it was helpful to you.