ROLE OF MACRONUTRIENTS, MINERALS AND VITAMINS IN THE BODY- AYURVEDIC INSIGHT

Unlike contemporary science of nutrition, Ayurveda categorized food in six tastes- Sweet, salty, sour, astringent, pungent and bitter. Out of them sweet (not to be confused with sugar) is that taste which provides bulk/matter/density/shape/strength or say gross to our body. While the available Ayurvedic texts do not talk much about it, the fact is that sweet taste of Ayurveda refers to proteins, fats, carbohydrates, Vitamins and minerals which can be referred as sub tastes of sweet from Ayurvedic viewpoint (why Ayurvedic texts donot mention about these sub tastes of sweet will be discussed subsequently). Now, most of the people in today’s world are aware of the importance of proteins, fat and carbs, however the fact is that importance of minerals and vitamins is still undermined. Hence, the aim of this blog is to discuss primarily about the importance of different minerals and vitamins (collectively called as micro nutrients due to the amount that is needed by the body) whose deficiency is a major contributing factor towards many chronic diseases. Please note that despite the fact that they are needed in very small quantities (as small as milligrams or even micrograms per day), they play a huge and essential role in our physiology as part of several thousand reactions happening all the time in our body for keeping it healthy. To begin with let us discuss about the reasons for their deficiency.

*** This blog will use fundamental terms of Ayurveda i.e. Vata, Pitta and Kapha. For those who are not aware, at a basic level, Kapha can be understood as tissues that give gross to the body which are created from food that we eat, vata refers the hollowness that in optimum  quantity is needed  to create channels through which kapha can move from one place to another in the body and Pitta refers to that force (heat) which pushes different chemicals/nutrients i.e. Kapha from one place to another through Vata (channels).

Reasons for Deficiency

To begin with here some of the important reasons which have led to the short supply of these micronutrients:-

• Mal-absorption due to leaky/inflamed gut/chronic diseases which arise due to high Vata Pitta. Even lactose and gluten intolerance is due to high VP in intestines.
• High Metabolism is another reason which is again high VP that quickly uses up and excretes them. This also means that those having high VP in their basic constitution will need more of these micronutrients in all meals and forever. Astrologically, it means those people who have very strong Rahu (usually place in their early houses and/or placed in 3^rd zodiac i.e. Gemini, which is the zodiac of Rahu itself).
• During recovery stage from all inflammatory diseases (fever, excess burning, insomnia, acidity, ulcers etc), the body needs more of these nutrients than usual amount.
• Lack of consumption due to junk/poverty/ignorance of importance of science of nutrition etc. at micro level especially because people’s focus remains on making muscles and curves which keeps them focussed more on understanding proteins, carbs and fats.
• Depletion in body due to vomiting, diarrhoea, indiscreet use of antibiotics (as they kill good bacteria), diuretics, laxatives.
• Depletion in soil and thus plants (including herbs used in Ayurvedic meds) too due to environmental factors like deforestation, un-scientific agriculture methods, floods, fires etc, which finally leads to shortage in our body (This is again due to high VP i.e. high Rahu which increases desires and disparity and disorganized growth including unscientific agriculture practices).
• Last but most importantly, the root cause of this reason is the lack of understanding of sweet taste (and even other tastes) of Ayurveda right till the micro level (i.e. at sub taste level of sweet) because of dark ages that majority of the earth faced barring a few countries where science of nutrition was being followed if not with complete awareness at scientific level (of knowing the logic) but at least at sub conscious level due to specific system in place. At spiritual level (which is also factual however being called as spiritual here as its proof is not available), the majority of the knowledge (called as Vedas in Vedic language) of the world got lost after the war of Mahabharata (the scriptures say that only about 15-20 percent) got saved. And thus, majority of the world entered the dark ages barring a few places where this knowledge existed in bits and pieces therefore avoiding a total collapse of the Vedic systems. Probably this is the reason that with resurgence of knowledge/science, it has become easy to connect dots to understand the logic of Vedic texts.

Finally about essential Minerals/Elements/Vitamins

There are around 118 known elements on earth out of which human body needs around 20 elements out of which some are macro elements like carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and partly nitrogen which are part of our basic structure (and are called as hydrocarbons) and are therefore present in our bodies in abundance and are also major part of proteins, carbs and fats. And the rest like sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, chloride, fluoride, iron, chromium, manganese, copper, zinc, sulphur, iodine, selenium are needed in very small quantities (from milligrams to micrograms) which is why the latter set is called as Micro minerals. All these elements are found in our body in different mineral forms (like magnesium mixed with sulphur to create magnesium sulphate etc) and hence are called as essential minerals and not essential elements. While macro minerals create the body (tissues) itself, micro minerals are essential in numerous biochemical processes/reactions like processes; for generating energy and/or synthesize/break down different proteins, fats, carbs; for contracting/expanding muscles for body movement, for  nerve stimulation and calming; for regulating flow of pitta in the body due to their ionic movements etc.

Paucity of these minerals can trigger many diseases like weak bone formation (rickets) due to paucity of vitamin D, bleeding gums (scurvy) and skin due to paucity of Vitamin C, hypertension due to less of magnesium, weak bones due to less of calcium, weakness due to lack of Vitamin B complex etc. Different sources of food provide different vitamins and minerals. As a thumb rule milk (and its products including ghee), grains, cereals and pulses, beans, seasonal vegetables, nuts, seeds and vegetable oils are good enough to provide all the minerals and vitamins. However, it is possible that due to environmental and other reasons one may run short on these. It is therefore important that one must know the function of different vitamins and minerals, their function, their sources, the symptoms of their deficiency and ideally how much should we consume them to avoid excess or less of them as both in extremes can be harmful. Not only that the interesting fact is that like everything even these minerals act opposite to each other by working on different forces of VPK e.g. magnesium calms down the nerves and muscles whereas calcium activates them. Both are necessary for a healthy body hence both are essential in our food and excess of one may need to be balanced by other.

However sometimes due to our ignorance we tend to skip their consumption leading to chronic issues which put us in a vicious circle of diseases. For example, in contemporary times, we consume a lot of sodium (in salt) and calcium (through milk etc) but we donot balance them with potassium (through sources like potatoes and coconut water) and magnesium (through sources like unrefined grains, seeds etc). In fact, absence or paucity of magnesium or potassium can even lead to congenital diseases of high VP nature. On the other hand their excess too can cause over suppression of Pitta and again diseases of congenital nature with high kapha but low Pitta. That is why their wise consumption can help humanity in getting rid of even genetic defects and juvenile diseases apart from lifestyle imbalances.

*** Since all the above mentioned attributes of each mineral and vitamin cannot be captured in a few pages, the readers are requested to open the excel file by clicking on this link… role of minerals and vitamins in body 020426