Erin Power: Hey, health coaches.

So maybe like me, you're kind of an old school health and fitness oriented practitioner.

Erin Power: I know I certainly am.

I've been a meathead for a long time.

Erin Power: And I went to nutrition school and I learned a lot of different stuff, but I really zeroed in on stuff like macros and calories and simple stuff.

Erin Power: And I've been devouring research papers and meta analyses and articles and getting into the weeds on the science.

Erin Power: But deep down inside, there's this ancient wisdom, and it's hard to ignore.

Erin Power: It's hard to ignore.

Erin Power: In fact, I think it's irresponsible to ignore it.

Erin Power: And so I mention that because we're going to explore it in this conversation with Nidhi Pandya, who is a Nama-certified advanced Ayurvedic practitioner, best-selling author of the book, Your Body Already Knows, Women's Health Coach and Speaker.

Erin Power: Her mission is to blend Ayurveda with modern wellness conversations.

Erin Power: So whatever you do or don't know about Ayurveda, whatever your preconceived notions are about Erin Power: Ayurveda, I went in with many of my own.

Erin Power: And this conversation helped to illuminate the science of life, which is the definition Erin Power: of Ayurveda.

Erin Power: We talk about nutrition from an Ayurvedic lens, which I think is a topic that is pertinent Erin Power: for many of us.

Erin Power: So we really kept the conversation centered around the nutrition piece, food, how the Erin Power: food behaves in the body.

It's fascinating.

And I can't wait for you to listen to it.

So please Erin Power: enjoy this conversation with Nidhi Pandya.

Hi, I'm Erin Power.

I'm a health coach, Erin Power: a health coaching educator and mentor and your host of Health Coach Radio.

Erin Power: This podcast delves into the art, science and business of health coaching.

Erin Power: Whether you're aspiring to land a coaching dream job or to embark on your own entrepreneurial Erin Power: adventure, we cover it all.

Our mission is to help you grow your career, elevate your income, Erin Power: change the lives of the clients who need your help, and leave a lasting mark in this rapidly Erin Power: growing field.

It's time for health coaches to make an impact.

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Erin Power: All right, I'm excited to learn from you.

And I know our audience is nitty.

But let's start with Erin Power: the place where podcasts always start, which is your kind of origin story, in a manner of speaking, Erin Power: what led you to first discover Ayurveda and decide to make it your life's work?

Nidhi Pandya: Yeah.

Erin, I was born into it because my grandfather is an Ayurvedic healer, Nidhi Pandya: and I grew up in a family of 14 people, so a large joint family back in Mumbai, India.

Now, Nidhi Pandya: Mumbai is like the New York of India.

It's like a very urban city.

So it was a real experience Nidhi Pandya: growing up in an urban city with a man who understood this science of life that, you know, Nidhi Pandya: Ayurveda is the science of life.

That's what it is.

And I felt like I was immersed into Ayurveda Nidhi Pandya: since birth.

A lot of Ayurveda before I got my formal education and I went back and I studied Nidhi Pandya: from the ancient texts actually happened at home because I learned Ayurveda in my everyday life.

Nidhi Pandya: For example, you know, if I asked for, let's say, cheese at dinner, the response I would inevitably get would be like, oh, you know, do you want to eat it for lunch tomorrow morning?

Nidhi Pandya: That might be able to you might be able to digest it better.

Nidhi Pandya: Now, as a young girl, I'm learning all of these things.

Nidhi Pandya: I'm learning that, oh, cheese must be heavy to digest and lunch may be a better time to digest.

Nidhi Pandya: And dinner, you probably don't digest that well.

Nidhi Pandya: So a lot of what I learned, right, like to me, this way of living is the only way I know how to live, but also living with 14 people and seeing each person respond differently to the same stimulus.

Nidhi Pandya: You could consume the same food, but have a different reaction.

Nidhi Pandya: And in today's day and age, you could just, you know, we're confused.

Nidhi Pandya: We're like, why am I feeling so sick?

Nidhi Pandya: But when you grow up in a niuretic family where people understand bioindividuality, you know, we're already like, this is just the language we speak in.

Nidhi Pandya: You know, like, oh, it was too spicy for your hot body.

Nidhi Pandya: Or like, oh my God, are you sure you're going to consume something cold?

Nidhi Pandya: Because it's going to slow you down even further.

Nidhi Pandya: So you'll learn a lot through immersion.

Nidhi Pandya: Like it becomes your first language.

Nidhi Pandya: And being a sensitive child, I was, I always asked the question, what makes people sick?

Nidhi Pandya: And what makes people tick?

Nidhi Pandya: And I just felt like that was my mind was always open to learning about that.

Nidhi Pandya: So consciously, subconsciously.

Nidhi Pandya: And it was just, it was inevitable that when I, you know, got older, actually, you know, after I became an adult, because I took Ayurveda for granted, to be honest with you.

Nidhi Pandya: And then I moved to the West when I was in my early 20s, about like 20 years plus ago.

Nidhi Pandya: And at that point, I realized that, oh, my God, like the West is so scared of health and they don't know how to live.

Nidhi Pandya: And I was like, if I ever, right, because you step into adulthood and you're suddenly like thinking about your future and whether you're going to have kids one day.

Nidhi Pandya: And I was like, I cannot be in this world devoid of Ayurveda if I'm going to live in the West.

Nidhi Pandya: So my choice, I didn't have a choice, but to actually bring it to the West.

Nidhi Pandya: I'm like, if they can't do this, I have to do this.

Nidhi Pandya: So my kids grew up in a world where Ayurveda exists.

Erin Power: Oh, nice.

Nidhi Pandya: It was as naive as that when it started.

Nidhi Pandya: And then Ayurveda just pulls you in.

Nidhi Pandya: It just calls you.

Nidhi Pandya: You know, you just have once you once you get sucked in at that point, this is 20 years ago.

Nidhi Pandya: It was not even a career choice that people were like, what are you?

Nidhi Pandya: What are you?

Nidhi Pandya: What is that?

Nidhi Pandya: Right.

Nidhi Pandya: And at that point, I was like, just it doesn't matter.

Nidhi Pandya: It doesn't matter if people get it.

Nidhi Pandya: They don't get it.

Nidhi Pandya: Maybe people will never get it.

Nidhi Pandya: And that's fine.

Nidhi Pandya: But this is the this is my life's work and I got to continue doing it.

Erin Power: Oh, that's so interesting.

Erin Power: You know, I just, I kind of want to push a little bit here because I have a suspicion that quite a few listeners here either don't know anything about it or maybe don't believe in it.

Erin Power: I'm just curious, like, what do detractors of Ayurveda, what do people who push back against it say about it that you think is worth, you know, debunking early on or clarifying early on?

Nidhi Pandya: That people who are skeptical of Ayurveda for them?

Nidhi Pandya: Yeah, yeah.

Nidhi Pandya: So people are skeptical of Ayurveda because we have just become a very like, unless you can prove it to me, I don't believe it.

Unless you can prove it to me in a lab, I don't believe it.

But I just think it's a little sad and it's a little ridiculous.

And I'll tell you why that is the case.

Because our senses are limited in their own capacity.

Our cognition is limited.

I mean, there are animals who can hear more than us, who can see more than us, who can sense more than us.

And we don't even know, like cognitive power is limited, right?

Nidhi Pandya: Like at the same time, we see animals in the forest.

Nidhi Pandya: Like the deer knows it's an herbivore.

Nidhi Pandya: It wakes up every morning without an alarm clock.

Nidhi Pandya: And it's not going to go and eat meat.

Nidhi Pandya: It's going to go in and graze on the same patch of grass if nothing else is available.

Nidhi Pandya: And the tiger won't say, prove it to me that I'm nocturnal.

Nidhi Pandya: The tiger knows it's nocturnal.

Nidhi Pandya: It doesn't need proof or a study.

Nidhi Pandya: And there are bruised animals that actually can identify sulfur-rich.

Nidhi Pandya: Like an animal knows this is sulfur-rich soil.

Nidhi Pandya: And, you know, I'm just going to roll my body.

Nidhi Pandya: I have a bruise.

Nidhi Pandya: I'm going to heal with this.

Nidhi Pandya: And nursing mammals are going to pick galactagogue foods for them.

Nidhi Pandya: They may give up their favorite foods that they're used to eating when they're not nursing.

Nidhi Pandya: But eat nursing foods.

Nidhi Pandya: They know their mating seasons.

Nidhi Pandya: Now, imagine if this was a human being, right?

Nidhi Pandya: We'd be like, I'm bruised.

Nidhi Pandya: I'm bruised.

Nidhi Pandya: But I got to take this soil into a laboratory and do these tests and do all these clinical trials.

Nidhi Pandya: And then I'm going to go and by the time, you know what, forget it.

Nidhi Pandya: It's like you're not even alive anymore by the time that happens, right?

Nidhi Pandya: So like the understanding that, listen, as a species on this planet, even worms know they have to dig their holes.

Nidhi Pandya: This is how they live.

Nidhi Pandya: To have to take it back to the lab to prove the basics is something that I find ridiculous.

Nidhi Pandya: When it comes to pharmaceuticals and drugs, it's very important that we take them to the laboratories, we do the clinical trials, and we prove it like that.

Nidhi Pandya: But these are simple, logical ideas.

Nidhi Pandya: And I want to say one more thing, Erin.

Nidhi Pandya: A lot of these current trends, whether it's adaptogens, whether it's oil pulling, whether it's tongue scraping, things that your doctors will ask you to do today, antioxidants, Nidhi Pandya: All of them have their origins in Ayurveda.

Nidhi Pandya: In fact, all the adaptogens, the known adaptogens today, Nidhi Pandya: come from mostly Ayurveda and some from traditional Chinese medicine.

Nidhi Pandya: And if you go back to the scriptures, I study directly from the ancient texts, Nidhi Pandya: and you look at, for example, what Ashwagandha does, right?

Nidhi Pandya: Let's just say, for example, look at what Ashwagandha does.

Nidhi Pandya: And you'll say, oh, this is what it does for your brain, Nidhi Pandya: this is what it does for your nervous system, Nidhi Pandya: and this is what it does for your reproductive system.

Nidhi Pandya: And it's not code language.

Nidhi Pandya: It's very specific.

Nidhi Pandya: It's more specific than a research paper.

Nidhi Pandya: And then if you look at modern research and it will say, oh, ashwagandha can support your nervous system in this way.

Nidhi Pandya: It can reduce cortisol and it's an adaptogen and it can increase your testosterone levels.

Nidhi Pandya: It's exactly what Ayurveda says.

Nidhi Pandya: Now, if every time science is coming to what Ayurveda said 5,000 years ago, to me, that itself is credibility.

Nidhi Pandya: You know, and I'm like, it's OK.

Nidhi Pandya: They're 5,000 years too late, but that's fine.

Nidhi Pandya: At least, you know, we've been around for 300,000 years, so 5,000 years is fine.

Erin Power: I think you nailed that answer.

Erin Power: I'm so excited you went there.

Erin Power: I really am.

Erin Power: There's this ancient wisdom.

Erin Power: And, you know, I completely agree with you.

Erin Power: And I'm just going to say this, and I don't care what the haters come for me.

Erin Power: But yes, evidence-based.

Erin Power: We need evidence.

Erin Power: But there's a lot of different kinds of evidence.

Erin Power: So, you know, you describe or define Ayurveda as the science of life.

Erin Power: And you gave us amazing examples of how other animals have figured it out somehow, Erin Power: have managed to figure out effortless lifelong health without needing randomized control trials.

Erin Power: And why are we moving away from this?

Erin Power: We're moving away from our own ancient wisdom.

Nidhi Pandya: Exactly.

Nidhi Pandya: Like wisdom, this is cellular intelligence.

Nidhi Pandya: We've become so intellectual that we've left our instincts behind.

Nidhi Pandya: And our intellect is our biggest problem.

Nidhi Pandya: Actually, thinking creates a lot of issues.

Nidhi Pandya: It's great that we are this thinking species because it allows us to live better, Nidhi Pandya: but we've overdone it drastically to the point that our own thinking hurts us.

Nidhi Pandya: And now scientists are also discovering this overthinking creates debris in the nervous system.

Nidhi Pandya: And then you have to sleep at night and your glymphatic system comes, Nidhi Pandya: kicks in and cleans up the debris.

Nidhi Pandya: Debris you can see on a microscope, like your thinking thoughts.

Nidhi Pandya: And you can see it under a microscope that it's, you know, Nidhi Pandya: like there's debris in your nervous system.

Nidhi Pandya: It's mucky.

It's like muddy waters.

And then it's all of this.

Everybody gets to work to clean that Nidhi Pandya: out.

So we're overthinking everything and we are forgetting that evidence base.

I mean, it's like Nidhi Pandya: saying that, oh, if I'm cold, give me evidence that a sweater is going to keep me warm.

Nidhi Pandya: Like because it's experience, you know, and we've just we can do a 3D physical, external body, Nidhi Pandya: superficial experience we can rely on.

But we've we don't believe anymore that we have the wisdom Nidhi Pandya: within us.

We just are looking for information and no wisdom.

And Ayurveda is that science that Nidhi Pandya: really takes you back to that wisdom with a framework, not guesswork.

Right.

So it's

Erin Power: interesting you brought up the debris because when I was devouring your Instagram feed, which is Erin Power: fascinating and just highly recommended, I jotted down a few topics that I said, Erin Power: ooh, I'm going to sort of rapid fire these topics at you at the end.

There's a little fun finishing Erin Power: move.

But one of them was this brain debris.

But I still want to come back to this because the way Erin Power: you just framed it up here was the overthinking.

And I do see this in my own clients.

So just for Erin Power: quickest backstory ever, I work with women on weight loss and the women that I work with are Erin Power: my age.

So they're in their fifties and have been battling their bodies since they were teenagers,

Nidhi Pandya: because that's culturally is what we were told to do.

Anyway, I'm not going to get on my soapbox.

Erin Power: So the amount of overthinking for decades that's gone on about how much of what to eat and when, Erin Power: and what I'm supposed to look like, and I don't look good enough and all this struggle.

Erin Power: I've said to my clients that I don't have any, I have no evidence of this apart from my own sort of wisdom, which is I think overthinking is holding you back from results.

Erin Power: Yeah.

Erin Power: Now you're saying there's actual physical evidence of overthinking, this debris, this nervous system brain debris that is visible under microscope that the glymphatic system has to work on while we're sleeping.

Erin Power: Can you say more about that?

Erin Power: I'm just so curious.

Erin Power: Yeah, absolutely.

Erin Power: And like luckily now science realizes that there is this system and all the day's thoughts.

Nidhi Pandya: And it happens usually between the hours of 10 and 2 if you find yourself sleeping.

Nidhi Pandya: And the glymphatic system, which is like the glial cells and everybody, they come together to kind of flush out that debris.

Nidhi Pandya: Some of it can happen in meditative states as well, that it can get activated and kicked in.

Nidhi Pandya: But I think they're still like it's such a fascinating new topic for science today that they're still investigating it further.

Nidhi Pandya: But kind of this is what the general idea is for everyone that, oh, this is certain.

Nidhi Pandya: It's been proven that this is what happens.

Nidhi Pandya: And especially, you know, Erin, when it comes to working with clients on weight loss and food is a big part of the tissue we carry on our body.

Nidhi Pandya: And like one of the things that I say in my book as well is that when it comes to our relationship with food, your mind can't do it.

Nidhi Pandya: Because the mind is like the last place that you can use to actually change your relationship with food has been what my experience with my clients has been, right?

Nidhi Pandya: Because then it's a cycle of shame and guilt.

Nidhi Pandya: And then that increases your cortisol.

Nidhi Pandya: And then you get in stress.

Nidhi Pandya: And then you forget everything rational.

Nidhi Pandya: You forget all the affirmation because physically your brain gets disintegrated.

Nidhi Pandya: It's not integrated anymore.

Nidhi Pandya: And then you're going to go into a binge pattern.

Nidhi Pandya: It's going to lead to more shame.

Nidhi Pandya: And then the more you try with your brain to be like, oh, I can't do this.

Nidhi Pandya: I should do this.

Nidhi Pandya: I should do that.

Nidhi Pandya: The worse I think the cycle becomes.

Nidhi Pandya: So I personally use more like somatic methods for people to reform their relationship with food.

Nidhi Pandya: And then also like the first, our first relationship with food was at a mother's breast, you know, fortunate ones.

Nidhi Pandya: And, you know, I mean, let's say for some of us is the right way to say it.

Nidhi Pandya: And you don't overthink it.

Nidhi Pandya: Like it is so natural.

Nidhi Pandya: A baby does not even have full cognitive power and is out of the womb, has never used its mouth before.

Nidhi Pandya: Never, never.

Nidhi Pandya: It's not like, well, we study that I should be drinking breast milk.

Nidhi Pandya: You know, the baby just like opens its mouth, finds the breast, knows how to suckle.

Nidhi Pandya: And it is such an intimate, such a relaxing, what a loving relationship.

Nidhi Pandya: So, and it produces oxytocin for the mother.

Nidhi Pandya: It relaxes and calms the baby.

Nidhi Pandya: What a great experience.

Nidhi Pandya: and we all ideally want to find our way back to that experience with food you know that loving Nidhi Pandya: romantic to me it's like the ultimate it's the ultimate romantic relationship with your food

Erin Power: yeah okay now i now see now i'm down a rabbit hole with you so let me pull this thread a little bit Erin Power: so because that what you just described with the baby latching onto the breast and the baby knows Erin Power: how to do it and the act of doing that releases oxytocin in the mom which nurtures her mothering Erin Power: instinct.

And it's this incredible symbiotic thing that nature created.

And we, in our DNA, Erin Power: the baby knows how to do it, right?

So what is the equivalent?

Like, how do we, what is sort of Erin Power: the equivalent or what is an example you can use or to help us to help me educate and understand Erin Power: sort of food relationship as we mature into adulthood?

Do you know what I mean?

Like, Erin Power: what's the sort of adult equivalent of that if there is such a thing so erin i encourage personally

Nidhi Pandya: when i work with my clients i encourage them to not even think about this right like to not even Nidhi Pandya: find the goal but this is what i do right i have a method called the spoon down method so i say don't Nidhi Pandya: put your brain to it you don't have to overthink it forget that you know let me do the work for you Nidhi Pandya: so i just it's like literally the only time i get prescriptive and i say every time you eat so this Nidhi Pandya: is where the spoon down method works and i find i feel like it is the most it's one of the most Nidhi Pandya: successful methods out there so you take a bite you put your spoon down you put your spoon down Nidhi Pandya: you put your place your palm on your lap and then i don't say chew fast i don't say chew slowly all Nidhi Pandya: i say is before you swallow you notice the texture of your food just notice the texture Nidhi Pandya: and then before you pick up that spoon again for that next bite Nidhi Pandya: you just want to make sure that your body has exhaled like you've exhaled from your nose so Nidhi Pandya: it's not an active exhale if somebody's talking to you they should not even be able to notice it Nidhi Pandya: because most of us eat and inhale with a diaphragm kind of completely tight and our Nidhi Pandya: muscles lifted up but i actually don't even say all of this to my clients like i don't want them Nidhi Pandya: to use their mind at all i don't want them to get self-conscious i don't want them to be like i'm Nidhi Pandya: giving you three steps but what happens is that because of that exhale which puts you in parasympathetic Nidhi Pandya: every exhale puts you in the parasympathetic and because that happens the body is so relaxed Nidhi Pandya: they start to taste flavors they're like you know and the satiety like it allows your body to release Nidhi Pandya: its own glp1 so you have such high satiety you're tasting your foods better you're not eating for Nidhi Pandya: craving and when you start eating like this you kind of awaken your cellular intelligence Nidhi Pandya: and then suddenly people are like you know i'm just like recently working with a couple together Nidhi Pandya: and the man's like listen i have not i have i need my diet coke and i've had diet coke for the last Nidhi Pandya: 20 years there's no way i can't have it and i said okay that's fine but but i but you you you Nidhi Pandya: drink it later in the day because in the lunchtime which is their main meal i want you to try the Nidhi Pandya: spoon down method and if you still create it and it's only day five but he's like it's the first Nidhi Pandya: time in my life in five days that i've not consumed a diet coke because he's like by the time i'm Nidhi Pandya: I'm there.

I'm not even craving it.

And I'm sure part of him, he's still thinking about the Diet Coke, Nidhi Pandya: but it's not a strong craving.

So what this kind of method does, because it increases satiety, Nidhi Pandya: because it creates safety in the body when you're eating.

So the idea is, do I feel safe eating?

Nidhi Pandya: And you don't have to ask your mind this, but you just want to start creating a method which builds Nidhi Pandya: safety around food and when you're ready.

And sometimes people need, you know, depends on how Nidhi Pandya: long you've had a poor relationship with food and how deep is that poor relationship.

Sometimes you Nidhi Pandya: need other types of therapy before you are actually comfortable trying this phone down method.

But Nidhi Pandya: that's only a part of the population, you know, who's really kind of suffering tremendously.

Erin Power: Yeah, I love that.

That's similar to how I approach eating with my clients.

I do really Erin Power: lean on the satiety signal.

But bringing that nervous system parasympathetic piece into it is Erin Power: is like obvious now that you, now that you mentioned it, like just a simple, you know, Erin Power: complete the breath, have the exhale to sort of, you know, send that signal to the parasympathetic Erin Power: half of your nervous system that we're safe and everything's fine.

And so this Diet Coke fella, Erin Power: his craving, his craving for Diet Coke is quieter because he's tapped his satiety signal and satiety Erin Power: is the enough signal from the body, right?

We have enough, we have everything we need.

Nidhi Pandya: Yeah.

And it doesn't require mind, right?

So you never have to have people ask me, how much do I eat?

I said, no, don't ask me how much you eat.

There's no portion.

You do this.

That is your price that you're going to eat like this.

And people are like, I'm eating less and I'm not even feeling like I'm eating less.

Like I don't want to eat more.

And people who like to even stuff themselves, trust me, there's enough people who like to eat themselves into a food coma, but they just because their body is feeling safe, right?

Like you would put themselves into a food coma.

Nidhi Pandya: it's a coping mechanism.

But when your body's feeling safe, you just naturally don't crave.

Nidhi Pandya: And if you eat like this for lunch, you don't crave.

Like one of my biggest principles is you Nidhi Pandya: eat a very small dinner.

Before we had electricity, which is like 100 years ago, like not even that Nidhi Pandya: long.

And our ancestors were not eating big fat dinners.

They just weren't, you know.

And so now Nidhi Pandya: this whole idea of this large and late dinner is just, it's a very odd idea.

Yep, I agree.

I

Erin Power: I teach that to my clients as well.

It's so interesting how the alignment here.

I'm really Erin Power: excited.

I'm very, very excited about this conversation.

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So if you don't Erin Power: mind, just because you mentioned it a second ago, you mentioned the naturally produced GLP-1.

Erin Power: How do you see tools like GLP-1 medications fitting or not fitting into an Ayurvedic approach?

Erin Power: How is it helping or harming this sort of modern food and diet nutrition health construct we've

Nidhi Pandya: got going on?

Do you have a general opinion on this?

So if your obesity is going to kill you and Nidhi Pandya: the Ozempic is going to save you.

You want to, you know, it's a consideration.

Yeah.

Nidhi Pandya: Everything else, because I mean, it's only when you've come to a real critical survival place Nidhi Pandya: where you're like, oh my God, this is a do or a die.

And I'll tell you why, right?

Forget the fact Nidhi Pandya: that it's a new drug.

But I mean, just when I think about it logically, I am not giving my body Nidhi Pandya: enough raw materials to generate new cells because the way it works with glucose and your desire to Nidhi Pandya: eat building foods you know what in iraida i call building nourishing foods which are very important Nidhi Pandya: because our cells are being regenerated all the time we lose cells and we need to build new cells Nidhi Pandya: and if you don't have the right raw materials and that's why right people they have an ozempic face Nidhi Pandya: and people have reproductive failure and people just there's just so many things associated with it Nidhi Pandya: It is such an anti-nature thing to do.

Nidhi Pandya: This is how we nourish our bodies.

Nidhi Pandya: And to be like, oh, I'm just going to make you want to not nourish yourself at all.

Nidhi Pandya: So unless the obesity will kill you, you know, which can happen.

Nidhi Pandya: Like with people who are just like really, really struggling.

Nidhi Pandya: But unfortunately for most of those people, like they also have some other concerns.

Nidhi Pandya: Usually they're diabetic, et cetera.

Nidhi Pandya: And then they can, they're not eligible.

Nidhi Pandya: Like if they have multiple concerns and renal failures, et cetera, then they're not always Nidhi Pandya: eligible for the ozempic or for another GLP, a one-like drug.

Erin Power: Yeah.

Erin Power: I think the way I interpreted what you shared there is these medications, by the way, I Erin Power: tried it.

Erin Power: I tried ozempic to see what it feels like.

Erin Power: Not for any weight loss outcome.

Nidhi Pandya: I just wanted to try it because I am in the world's weight loss.

Erin Power: Yeah.

Erin Power: And I didn't like the way it felt from the perspective, well, I mean, not to get into Erin Power: the weeds, but I didn't like the delayed gastric emptying.

The slowness of my excretory system Erin Power: made me feel green and ill.

It was not great.

So I didn't really enjoy the feeling of it.

But to me, Erin Power: it also, it felt so catabolic.

I'm not hungry.

I don't want to eat anything.

I don't want to eat Erin Power: protein.

I don't want to eat vegetables.

I would have a cracker or maybe a handful of pretzels.

Erin Power: So it has a catabolic, well, it is catabolic.

It is an anorectic class of drugs.

Erin Power: That's exactly what it is.

It's complete.

It's a catabolic.

It's just enhances your catabolism,

Nidhi Pandya: which is not, which is very, very destructive.

Our body gets catabolic when it's like, Nidhi Pandya: in its decaying phase, it's decaying.

Yeah.

So, and I don't want to make this an anti-GLP1

Erin Power: rant per se, because to your point, there are some people who, for whom it will be Erin Power: a life changing thing.

And I want to, as somebody who's in weight loss, I know half of my clients Erin Power: are going to try it and so I need to be just open-minded to it but you mentioned this idea Erin Power: of the building foods the building foods what are some of those so Ayurveda classifies foods

Nidhi Pandya: actually in many ways I just love I love love the way Ayurveda looks at foods Nidhi Pandya: and I'll say two things that Ayurveda does with foods right so one is Nidhi Pandya: okay so let's say for Ayurveda to evaluate any food like how do we evaluate any food Nidhi Pandya: The beauty of Ayurvedic science is you could have a brand new food on the planet today and a person is able to evaluate the food.

Nidhi Pandya: And so these are the five parameters on which we evaluate.

Nidhi Pandya: OK, the first one is taste.

Nidhi Pandya: But depending on the taste, you'll be able to tell what the function of the food is.

Nidhi Pandya: And we can go over those six tastes because it's such a it's a quick and it's a fascinating conversation.

Erin Power: Because I'm super geeked out on this because, you know, the satiety piece, the umami flavor of protein and how the palate is clocking every bite and doing the tabulations for you.

Erin Power: Is that kind of what we're talking about here?

Nidhi Pandya: Because I'm super geeked out on that.

Nidhi Pandya: Kind of, kind of.

Nidhi Pandya: Yes, yes.

Nidhi Pandya: I mean, it definitely aligns with the same thought, right?

Nidhi Pandya: But like the taste will actually give you the function of the food.

Nidhi Pandya: So if there's a brand new food and you can study its properties, you'll be fine.

Nidhi Pandya: So basically, what are the five factors at evaluation, right?

Nidhi Pandya: For traditional foods, because we have this, first is taste.

Nidhi Pandya: So you look at the taste.

Nidhi Pandya: Then you look at the potency of food, whether it's warming or it's cooling for your body.

Nidhi Pandya: And there are ways that we do this.

Nidhi Pandya: And once we go down the taste, we'll be able to tell.

Nidhi Pandya: Then the third part is we look at the post-digestive effect.

Nidhi Pandya: So there could be a post-digestive effect, you know, that, oh, it's cooling first, but it can become warming after digestion.

Nidhi Pandya: And like, and I tell you what cooling and warming foods mean.

Nidhi Pandya: Cooling and warming doesn't mean like cold water is cooling.

Nidhi Pandya: But can you relate to like coconut being cooling?

Nidhi Pandya: Like, for example, coconut, even if you had coconut, like just dry, desiccated coconut, you know, or like room temperature coconut water that's cooling.

Nidhi Pandya: And if you had kimchi that was refrigerated, spicy kimchi, that's still warming in your body.

Nidhi Pandya: Right.

And that affects, right?

Nidhi Pandya: Like warming foods will do certain things and we'll talk about that.

Nidhi Pandya: So it's basically the taste, the potency, post-digestive effect, and thus the action, properties and action of that food.

Nidhi Pandya: And the properties also like, yeah, if it's heavy, it's smooth, it's oily.

Nidhi Pandya: And like you kind of look at all of this, right, all of these figures.

Nidhi Pandya: And there's a way you look at it like a formula.

Nidhi Pandya: And then you can just see exactly what a certain food will do to your body once you've kind of evaluated these factors.

Nidhi Pandya: And they're always back on.

Nidhi Pandya: And then what I've asked my students to do sometimes, we'll discuss these things.

Nidhi Pandya: And then I'll ask them to make their own evaluations.

Nidhi Pandya: And then I'll say, OK, now let's go to Mr.

Google and let's look at what modern science has to say about this food and the research has to say.

Nidhi Pandya: And it's almost always the same.

Nidhi Pandya: But I'm like, when you can do this yourself, you don't need an external source.

Nidhi Pandya: Okay, so let's talk about the six tastes because three of those six tastes are building and nourishing and three of them are nutrient rich and they can be depleting.

Nidhi Pandya: They have great use.

Nidhi Pandya: I mean, it doesn't mean you don't use them.

Nidhi Pandya: You kind of combine these tastes.

Nidhi Pandya: All six tastes are combined.

Nidhi Pandya: So the first taste is the sweet taste.

Nidhi Pandya: Now, sweet doesn't mean necessarily sugar, but think rice.

Nidhi Pandya: Think if you're chewing white rice.

Nidhi Pandya: Think not the current day milk, which is completely adulterated, but think milk back in the day if your grandparents were living in a cow, like living with a cow and you had milk, fresh milk with good cows who are grass fed.

Nidhi Pandya: You know, that's sweet.

Nidhi Pandya: So a lot of whole grains can feel sweet.

Nidhi Pandya: Root vegetables can feel sweet.

Nidhi Pandya: And these are the essential building block that our body needs to build new tissue, right?

Nidhi Pandya: Because as babies, we relied upon a sweet food, milk, right?

Nidhi Pandya: We're born as these little, like tiny infants.

Nidhi Pandya: And within six months, we become toddlers consuming nothing else but milk.

Nidhi Pandya: So your body knows how to use the sweet taste to produce new tissue and to produce new cells.

Nidhi Pandya: So this is the most important.

Nidhi Pandya: So whether it's avocados, root vegetables, certain soaked nuts, rice, coconut, milk, etc.

Nidhi Pandya: Some good fats.

Nidhi Pandya: so that's the first taste right but there's a there's a disadvantage of the first taste and Nidhi Pandya: that's why you need the other taste pair with it and that is that too much of it is very heavy for Nidhi Pandya: the body you need it to break down if you are using any building material you need something Nidhi Pandya: to break it down so you can put it to use right and so the other tastes will support so what are Nidhi Pandya: the other tastes right the second taste is the sour taste and now erin i just want you to think Nidhi Pandya: if there was somebody who was squeezing a lime or a lemon in front of you and you are thinking of

Erin Power: those drops what is that going to do to your mouth yeah right well right there your body's getting

Nidhi Pandya: ready for digestion like right in the mouth it's saying okay let me get my salivary glands ready Nidhi Pandya: and you start salivating and you have enzymes that are released and the same thing happens in your gut Nidhi Pandya: so that's why plus if you were to if you were to put lemon juice on an open bruise Nidhi Pandya: Erin how would that feel would it sting or would it feel not cooling on an open open wound yeah Nidhi Pandya: like I'm sure at some point you've had like it burns it burns right so that tells you that it's Nidhi Pandya: warming versus if you put let's just say you put rice like like you just had a bruise and you just Nidhi Pandya: I'm going to just put a like, I'm going to put rice.

It's going to feel cooling.

It's going to Nidhi Pandya: feel like comforting.

It's going to feel even if it's not technically healing, but it's going to Nidhi Pandya: feel comforting, right?

So you know that, okay, so most sweet-taste foods are cooling in the body.

Nidhi Pandya: And then we have a way of looking into it.

And that's more, you know, it's more detailed and Nidhi Pandya: complicated.

But anyways, but the sour taste, which is the second taste, is more of a warming taste.

Nidhi Pandya: It's very stimulating.

And because it is warm, it will help your body to transform, right?

You Nidhi Pandya: never break down anything without the heat.

That's how metabolism happens.

Anywhere, like charging Nidhi Pandya: your phone, the sun, plants cannot do photosynthesis without the sun.

You cook your foods on the stove, Nidhi Pandya: all of that, right?

So the heating taste will support your digestion.

So if you're consuming Nidhi Pandya: the sweet foods and then you have this second taste, which is the amla, which is a sour taste, Nidhi Pandya: then you have the third taste, which is salty.

Now, again, I'm going to ask you, if you had a bruise Nidhi Pandya: and you were going to wrap salt on it, Nidhi Pandya: what was going to happen?

Nidhi Pandya: That's also going to burn.

Nidhi Pandya: Going to burn.

Nidhi Pandya: What does salt do to ice on the roads?

Erin Power: I mean, I live in New York City.

Erin Power: I live in Canada.

Nidhi Pandya: Yeah.

Nidhi Pandya: Oh, all right.

Nidhi Pandya: Worse, you know.

Nidhi Pandya: So your salt breaks down.

Nidhi Pandya: It's a salt.

Nidhi Pandya: Salt breaks down.

Nidhi Pandya: It's hot and it's warming.

Nidhi Pandya: And it breaks down.

Nidhi Pandya: It breaks down.

Nidhi Pandya: You know, if you put, Nidhi Pandya: if you take two pots of water to boil Nidhi Pandya: with the same exact amounts of water Nidhi Pandya: and you put salt in one Nidhi Pandya: and no salt in the other.

Nidhi Pandya: The one with the salt will boil faster.

Nidhi Pandya: Yeah.

Nidhi Pandya: Right?

Nidhi Pandya: So you have these.

Nidhi Pandya: Yeah.

Nidhi Pandya: So these three tastes, right?

Nidhi Pandya: The sweet, the sour, and the salty.

Nidhi Pandya: These are, they're pleasant.

Nidhi Pandya: They're nourishing tastes.

Nidhi Pandya: Because even though the salty and the sour Nidhi Pandya: will help you to break down your foods, Nidhi Pandya: they're still pleasing to the mind.

Nidhi Pandya: They want to stimulate your appetite.

Nidhi Pandya: You want to eat more.

Nidhi Pandya: You know, like I tell my clients that, Nidhi Pandya: If it's nighttime and you don't want to eat, but if you eat even one bite of something that's salty, you're done.

Nidhi Pandya: So don't sit on the dining table and be like, I'm not going to eat, but I'll try it.

Nidhi Pandya: I'll try the food.

Nidhi Pandya: You're done.

Nidhi Pandya: Because if it's salty, you're going to awaken your appetite.

Nidhi Pandya: But if you eat, for example, almonds, if you eat two, three nuts, you're going to be fine.

Nidhi Pandya: You're going to be like, fine, I ate those two, three nuts.

Nidhi Pandya: I don't want more food.

Nidhi Pandya: So anyway, these three are nourishing tastes.

Nidhi Pandya: They nourish your mind.

Nidhi Pandya: They nourish your taste buds.

Nidhi Pandya: And they want you to keep eating in a good manner.

Nidhi Pandya: But they also, the salty and the sour also will support to break down the sweet.

Erin Power: Yes.

Erin Power: Okay, so I know we have three more flavors to go through, but are these the building foods then, these three?

Erin Power: These are the building tastes.

Nidhi Pandya: Okay.

Nidhi Pandya: The main three foods are the sweet foods, are the building foods.

Nidhi Pandya: Gotcha.

Nidhi Pandya: Like the sweet potatoes, the avocados, the whole grains, the rice, the good fats, milk, like dairy.

Nidhi Pandya: Those are the building foods.

Nidhi Pandya: These are the three building and nourishing tastes.

Erin Power: Okay.

Erin Power: And then just, this is a really into the weeds question, Erin Power: but I'm thinking about what you just said about how a reawakening appetite.

Erin Power: So this is like in practice, the person who after dinner, Erin Power: I just need a little something.

Erin Power: I just need a little something.

Erin Power: And they go to the pantry and they have a little cookie.

Erin Power: They have a little cracker and now they're snacking all night.

Erin Power: Yeah.

Erin Power: So this is the reawakening of the appetite, I guess.

Nidhi Pandya: Especially if you do something salty.

Nidhi Pandya: So if you do something that's salty or if you do processed sugar, processed sugar through a different mechanism, because of course now your body is playing your glucose and insulin are playing this game with each other.

Nidhi Pandya: So that sugar will also make you want to snack more for that reason.

Nidhi Pandya: But the salty foods will make you want to snack because it awakens, reawakens.

Nidhi Pandya: It makes perfect sense.

Nidhi Pandya: But if you have something which has like nuts, which technically are also sweet foods, but they're not processed, like it's not processed sugar.

Nidhi Pandya: It's going to, you can eat three, four almonds and be like, you know what?

Nidhi Pandya: I chew them well.

Nidhi Pandya: It's fine if I'm not eating more.

Nidhi Pandya: But if you're sitting on the table and you're taking one, one bite of everything, forget it.

Nidhi Pandya: Like you're just, you're going to eat everything.

Nidhi Pandya: Then the three tastes, which I find fascinating.

Nidhi Pandya: These are nutrient rich tastes and they are, they are depleting.

Nidhi Pandya: I mean, in a way, but they're very important, right?

Nidhi Pandya: Because when you're paired with the first three nourishing and you have these three tastes, Nidhi Pandya: which can technically be slightly depleting, Nidhi Pandya: but they pair well together Nidhi Pandya: because we just don't want only nourishing tastes, right?

Nidhi Pandya: So the three tastes, the first one is bitter.

Nidhi Pandya: So bitter greens.

Nidhi Pandya: So like, think about your digestive system.

Nidhi Pandya: You had that sweet, you've had your rice and the salt Nidhi Pandya: and there's like some lemon juice Nidhi Pandya: and you're consuming it.

Nidhi Pandya: So nourishing, it's like yummy.

Nidhi Pandya: And then you need bitters.

Nidhi Pandya: Now your digestive system is activated.

Nidhi Pandya: It's like, oh my God, I'm on fire.

Nidhi Pandya: It's like the kitchen is active.

Nidhi Pandya: And then these bitter greens, if you imagine even eating a mouthful of kale, it's going to dry your mouth or mouth any bitter greens.

Nidhi Pandya: So the role of these bitter foods is to actually settle all those digestive juices that were hot and boiling in the system.

Nidhi Pandya: It's like to open the vent, you know.

Nidhi Pandya: And we know that bitter greens, like they actually detox the liver for the same reason, Nidhi Pandya: whether it's fatty liver, the liver is too heavy.

Nidhi Pandya: So that's why you do greens.

Nidhi Pandya: But that's what greens do to the digestive system.

Nidhi Pandya: The bitter taste cools everything down, says, OK, OK, digestion, take a chill pill, relax, Nidhi Pandya: take it easy.

Nidhi Pandya: So it kind of like settles that.

Nidhi Pandya: So that is the fourth taste.

Nidhi Pandya: So supportive.

Nidhi Pandya: Otherwise, we're just going to be like eating all day long and just overnourishing ourselves.

Nidhi Pandya: This really settles that appetite.

Nidhi Pandya: and it scrapes off.

Nidhi Pandya: Like also in Ayurveda, Nidhi Pandya: we believe that the bitter foods, Nidhi Pandya: they actually scrape excesses, right?

Nidhi Pandya: Because we have all these minute channels in the body Nidhi Pandya: and your food is passing through all of it.

Nidhi Pandya: And the, you know, green foods has had this ability Nidhi Pandya: just how it was scrape slime from your blood.

Nidhi Pandya: And that's why it's a detox food.

Nidhi Pandya: Like dandelion is a detox food.

Nidhi Pandya: Similarly, it was scrape off slime Nidhi Pandya: in the digestive system.

Nidhi Pandya: Then comes the fifth taste, Nidhi Pandya: which is pungent.

Nidhi Pandya: pungent is good spices so things cinnamon cloves black pepper ginger all of that Nidhi Pandya: and today they so they help the breakdown of foods absolutely help the breakdown of foods Nidhi Pandya: because again unless it's warm how can it transform and spices are very inherently warming Nidhi Pandya: you don't have to them up they're just inherently warming like you'll feel it if you make Nidhi Pandya: you know a hot apple cider or even apple cider with cinnamon and it's just so warming inside Nidhi Pandya: So anyways, this taste is great because it breaks down.

Nidhi Pandya: It helps you to break down your foods.

Nidhi Pandya: So that sweet foods, that rice that you were eating, Nidhi Pandya: that you were so concerned about the glycemic index.

Nidhi Pandya: But if you've cooked it with a cinnamon stick and a bay leaf and a cardamom pot Nidhi Pandya: and so many traditional cultures did it and you've paired it, Nidhi Pandya: you know, like Asians put vinegar in their rice Nidhi Pandya: and Indians put ghee in their rice, which is also a fermented food.

Nidhi Pandya: Then, you know, you're helping, you kind of combined all traditional foods Nidhi Pandya: that looked at all traditional foods Nidhi Pandya: that were actually eaten with these six tastes.

Nidhi Pandya: Anyways, so the other thing that the pungent taste does, Nidhi Pandya: and if you're using pungent in the form of good spices, Nidhi Pandya: most of these are antioxidants, Nidhi Pandya: which means metabolic waste.

Nidhi Pandya: Anytime you have a chemical reaction, there is waste, Nidhi Pandya: especially complex chemical reactions.

Nidhi Pandya: So metabolic waste that happens Nidhi Pandya: as a result of your body metabolizing your foods, Nidhi Pandya: instead of creating free radicals, Nidhi Pandya: when you pair them with these spices, Nidhi Pandya: you kind of neutralize some of those free radicals.

Nidhi Pandya: Because most of these spices are antioxidants.

Nidhi Pandya: And then the last taste is astringent foods.

Nidhi Pandya: Astringent foods like a plantain or maybe sometimes lentils.

Nidhi Pandya: These are also nutrient-rich.

Nidhi Pandya: And they're also building in a way Nidhi Pandya: because the secondary taste for a lot of them is the sweet taste.

Nidhi Pandya: They're like astringent and sweet.

Nidhi Pandya: And they kind of help to bind and slow everything down.

Nidhi Pandya: But there's specific astringent foods.

Nidhi Pandya: When you eat them, they kind of seal the deal with your digestion.

Nidhi Pandya: Like in a lot of cultures in South America, they eat plantains at the end of the meal.

Nidhi Pandya: And that is like a seal the deal.

Nidhi Pandya: Like you don't want to eat anymore.

Nidhi Pandya: It's a signaling the body, everything is ready to go.

Nidhi Pandya: So, you know, and of course, this was just an introduction, Erin, to these six days.

Nidhi Pandya: But they all paired together very scientifically.

Nidhi Pandya: And whether you're talking about the falafel or you're talking about fried rice with black bean sauce and a side of veggies, Nidhi Pandya: or you're talking about a kichdi in India, I've looked at all of these foods and they all are paired with six days, just like that.

Nidhi Pandya: All traditional foods have these six days.

Nidhi Pandya: And they, like a bowl, a bowl naturally feels so balanced.

Nidhi Pandya: If you go and get a bowl, it just feels balanced.

Nidhi Pandya: A little bit of greens, a little bit of roots, a little bit of veggies, maybe sometimes beans or lentils.

Nidhi Pandya: You have this condiment.

Nidhi Pandya: So you have all the six tastes in there.

Nidhi Pandya: And most of times these will have all the amino acids you need as well.

Nidhi Pandya: Because for lentils, even for everybody who's plant-based, I'm just talking about that for now.

Nidhi Pandya: Like your lentils and beans don't have all the amino acids.

Nidhi Pandya: But when you pair it, for example, with something like a rice, you bring in the other two, three, four amino acids, which you don't receive from those beans.

Nidhi Pandya: That's a good point.

Erin Power: Yeah.

Erin Power: No, you're right.

Erin Power: I mean, as soon as you said all traditional foods have this balance of flavors, it's true.

Erin Power: Like, I can't think of a single thing I've eaten in a traditional sort of menu that doesn't have everything in a bowl.

Erin Power: And, you know, it speaks to the fact that, and I'm going to make a really general term here.

Erin Power: Anciently, this goes back to the nature, the science of life, but we did not have chronic disease.

Erin Power: We do not descend through illness for our whole adult lives into early terrible deaths.

Erin Power: Like we're doing a lot better anciently.

Erin Power: I do think about the ancestral ancient health thing quite a lot.

Erin Power: But the thing is, there's just so many different ancestral and ancient types of diets.

Erin Power: They are based on tastes.

Nidhi Pandya: Like I looked at it.

Nidhi Pandya: I'm like, what is underlying?

Nidhi Pandya: So it's OK if one culture ate beans and the other culture ate it.

Nidhi Pandya: But if you look at what was beneath them, they ate similar qualities of food.

Nidhi Pandya: Like from the Ayurvedic lens, of course, of course it makes sense that they ate like this.

Nidhi Pandya: And of course in Sardinia, they ate like that, it makes sense.

Nidhi Pandya: And then of course in Crete, they ate like this and it makes sense.

Nidhi Pandya: And of course in this little district in South America, which is a blue zone, they ate like this.

Nidhi Pandya: Like they all ate in the same way.

Nidhi Pandya: Like from the Ayurvedic lens, of course they ate the same way.

Nidhi Pandya: Yeah.

Erin Power: So I just think this question will come up because currently in the current sort of zeitgeist, there's a strong push for protein.

Erin Power: And you mentioned the amino acids.

Erin Power: I did want to know where animal foods fit in, if at all.

Erin Power: Yeah.

Nidhi Pandya: So I will tell you that in Ayurveda, we do animal foods.

Nidhi Pandya: I myself am actually plant-based.

Nidhi Pandya: Not plant-based.

Nidhi Pandya: Sorry.

Nidhi Pandya: I take it back.

Nidhi Pandya: I'm vegetarian.

Nidhi Pandya: I don't do eggs, but I do dairy.

Nidhi Pandya: I do ghee.

Nidhi Pandya: I do yogurt.

Nidhi Pandya: I do all of those things.

Nidhi Pandya: But I don't eat animal meat.

Nidhi Pandya: And I never have.

Nidhi Pandya: And neither do I eat fish or chicken or anything like that.

Nidhi Pandya: But I'm going to have to be honest that the Ayurvedic texts talk about them.

Nidhi Pandya: In fact, there is great merit in bone broths.

Nidhi Pandya: Oh, yeah.

Nidhi Pandya: And it's fascinating.

Nidhi Pandya: The world has come back to it.

Nidhi Pandya: We've come back to discovering the same exact foods.

Nidhi Pandya: Talks about bone broths, meats in certain circumstances.

Nidhi Pandya: It's really funny, you know, for like a man's virility, you know, so you talk about virility and one of the foods is the meat of a rooster.

Nidhi Pandya: And the rooster is called cock and like, you know, like the type for the male organ.

Nidhi Pandya: So it's really funny.

And I feel like it had something to do with that.

Nidhi Pandya: I'm sure other cultures also realize that because it's like one of the best foods for, you know, like a man's virility.

Nidhi Pandya: So it did.

There are concerns.

So it used meat and animal foods mainly as medicine rather than Nidhi Pandya: pleasure.

But there is a talk and mention.

I think there are other concerns today, Nidhi Pandya: but there's concerns with everything.

There are other concerns with how animals are raised and Nidhi Pandya: how they're kept and all of those things.

But yeah, if you go back from the ancestral lens, Nidhi Pandya: it was an acceptable food.

And if you go back to the ancient Ayurveda, it's an acceptable food.

Erin Power: Yeah, great.

Just because we're on the topic, you are going to be creating a nutrition certification program, Ayurvedic Nutrition Certification.

Can we talk about that a little bit?

I know it's like still in the works, but by the time this is published, maybe it's closer.

So take us through.

Nidhi Pandya: Yeah, and actually like almost down to release, October 22nd, we're actually launching the program.

Nidhi Pandya: So the program, and thank you for asking because I love this.

Nidhi Pandya: And so the program is actually divided into three parts.

Nidhi Pandya: So the first part, I actually take people to some of this ancient, you know, actually go back to the Sanskrit verses.

Nidhi Pandya: The Sanskrit verses are the original language in which Ayurveda was written.

Nidhi Pandya: So I actually go back.

I translate it for them because I really want to keep the original, the origins.

Nidhi Pandya: You know, I don't want it to be lost in translation.

Nidhi Pandya: And even though I translate it, you still have like an original first level translation of these things.

Nidhi Pandya: So I go back to a lot of various concepts, whether it's the concept of digestion from the text or the six tastes or what we call the potencies of food and the post digestive impact of food.

Nidhi Pandya: Many ways of looking at these foods.

Nidhi Pandya: Then I also go into food groups in my program.

Nidhi Pandya: so we'll see and Ayurveda talks about it in such detail like how do you look at grains how do you Nidhi Pandya: look at lentils how are different type of grains different from each other so I actually like really Nidhi Pandya: drill it down to that that's the first part so it's first part is going back to the text looking Nidhi Pandya: at that wisdom how do you eat when do you eat and the text had it all those ancient texts had all of Nidhi Pandya: that how much water to consume etc so I go into all of that then in the second part I bridge the Nidhi Pandya: gap between modern nutrition and and ayurveda but i also go back to bio individuality in the second Nidhi Pandya: part i say okay this is how different bodies can receive foods differently and this is how digestion Nidhi Pandya: is we go into some common conditions like if you have you know if this is what you're suffering Nidhi Pandya: from this is how you eat and how do you design it but also like the idea is to empower the students Nidhi Pandya: who take the program to be able to do this on their own it's a very like not to be overly Nidhi Pandya: descriptive for them for them like i want you to have the power that if you have a client from a Nidhi Pandya: certain ethnicity culture come to you you don't want to give them brand new foods but if you Nidhi Pandya: understand the principles you understand how to design their meal plans so the second part is Nidhi Pandya: more practical how to look at micronutrients and macronutrients because those questions will come up Nidhi Pandya: yeah and what are your answers for that so we really make it practical in the second part of Nidhi Pandya: the program and then the third part of the program is it's like like project work and thesis kind of Nidhi Pandya: where you use like you look at for example one of the topics is that you look at different cultural Nidhi Pandya: diets and you see how they use these same ancient cultures and you see how did they have these same Nidhi Pandya: exact principles right of life and how did it show up for them in what they ate and how they lived Nidhi Pandya: so for example that's one and so i will go into everything that has to do around food from like Nidhi Pandya: seasons, to common like ailments and conditions, to like the ancient texts, to reconciling modern Nidhi Pandya: nutrition with Ayurveda, all of it.

Like I wanted to be a course that I could never find, you know?

Erin Power: Yeah.

Well, something that I'm really passionate about and staunch about and talk about all the Erin Power: time on this podcast, so apologies to anybody listening who has to hear me talk about this again, Erin Power: but I always think about scope of practice for health coaches.

And so, you know, you have the Erin Power: highest credential in the Ayurvedic space, right?

So you're highly credentialed in this.

Erin Power: Credentialed in this.

That is correct.

Yeah.

So can a regular normal health coach like me, Erin Power: can I practice Ayurvedic nutrition?

Am I allowed to do that?

Nidhi Pandya: So the thing is, there's no laws around Ayurveda in the country.

But my goal is for people to do Nidhi Pandya: this program for themselves, but also to help others.

And the goal is to make it very easy for Nidhi Pandya: to understand and then practice.

And that's why the program is like goes over a span of six months.

Nidhi Pandya: We have office hours, you know, once a week where you come and bring all your questions, Nidhi Pandya: bring all your doubts, do the self-study.

But also I provide a ton of resources.

Nidhi Pandya: And I actually want for more and more people, like even if you've never had a nutrition career Nidhi Pandya: before, the truth is, Erin, this will give you more than a nutrition degree that, you know, Nidhi Pandya: here in the West, because sometimes that can be very prescriptive or it can be very rich in jargon.

Nidhi Pandya: And you feel like you know something because you know words that maybe people that you're around don't know these words.

Nidhi Pandya: But you may not even fully comprehend the meaning of those words.

Nidhi Pandya: And then so, but I think you have to learn to think very holistically, which you do, right?

Nidhi Pandya: As a nutritionist, which brings in like your logic and the science and the body's intelligence and all of it together.

Nidhi Pandya: And when you see a rich science, like, I don't know what I imagine.

Nidhi Pandya: It talked about every single thing that you could ever question.

Nidhi Pandya: Water consumption.

Nidhi Pandya: What happens if you consume water before?

Nidhi Pandya: What is the right type of water to consume?

Nidhi Pandya: When is water not, you know, what type of, so it talks about like back in the day, it Nidhi Pandya: talks about water that's always flowing.

Nidhi Pandya: And we know today spring water has more oxygenation than other.

Nidhi Pandya: So it talks about that stagnant water and what that stagnant water will do to your body.

Nidhi Pandya: If you're obese, how do you modify your water consumption?

Nidhi Pandya: It talks about just everything.

Nidhi Pandya: I mean, it is more detail than you can find and yet so simply presented than you can find anywhere out there.

Erin Power: I'm absolutely just I could ask you eight million more questions because even just talking about water that's flowing and how it's more oxygenated and you can visualize that.

Erin Power: Yeah.

When water is flowing, it's bubbly and it's moving and it feels more alive.

Erin Power: Yes.

Alive is the word that they use.

Erin Power: That is the word that they use.

Erin Power: Okay.

Gosh.

Oh, my goodness.

Erin Power: well okay so i want to go back to something that you said earlier because you mentioned when you Erin Power: moved to the u.s yeah you said you said i wrote it this out as a direct quote the west is scared of

Nidhi Pandya: health yeah what does that mean yeah so you know growing up erin like you would imagine if i grew Nidhi Pandya: up on in an ayurvedic family maybe my life would be very restrictive and i'm like but the truth is Nidhi Pandya: So it was anything but restrictive, right?

Nidhi Pandya: Because we knew when to eat, what to eat, how to combine it, Nidhi Pandya: you know, how food combinations work.

Nidhi Pandya: We just, so sickness was not really a thing in our family.

Nidhi Pandya: In fact, there's eight women in the family, Nidhi Pandya: not all from the same genetic pools Nidhi Pandya: because like three brothers married, Nidhi Pandya: three women from different parts of the country.

Nidhi Pandya: And those women like my mom and my two aunts.

Nidhi Pandya: But everybody had, like nobody had any hormonal, Nidhi Pandya: we didn't know there's such a thing as hormonal conditions.

Nidhi Pandya: Everybody had natural vaginal births, Nidhi Pandya: but even in my generation, right?

Nidhi Pandya: like me and all my sisters, natural pregnancies, births.

Nidhi Pandya: Like we didn't know, I was young and I didn't know that people could actually miss their periods.

Nidhi Pandya: I didn't know the idea of irregular periods, right?

Nidhi Pandya: So basically when I moved to the US and I saw all of this, Nidhi Pandya: the one thing that hit me is that in the West, wellness means fear of disease.

Nidhi Pandya: And to me, it was the freedom that comes from being healthy.

Nidhi Pandya: So I always viewed like help as like this freedom.

Nidhi Pandya: Like it's like it's like this ticket to enjoy your life.

Nidhi Pandya: But more and more, especially when you live in New York, right?

Nidhi Pandya: It's about like, I'm just scared.

Nidhi Pandya: I don't want to get sick.

Nidhi Pandya: Like my dad has this and mom has this.

Nidhi Pandya: And what if this will happen?

Nidhi Pandya: And I should be exercising because I don't want to get sick and I should be eating my.

Nidhi Pandya: So it's more like that.

Erin Power: Yeah.

Erin Power: Oh, that really resonates because.

Erin Power: So when I, for example, enroll a new client into my program, I'm asking them for their Erin Power: sort of desired outcome?

What's the dream here?

What do you want?

What is your life like when Erin Power: you have this?

And it's oftentimes, it's framed in this sort of avoidant language.

I don't want to Erin Power: get fat like my sister did.

I don't want to have the same menopause as my mom.

My aunt had liver Erin Power: cancer.

I don't want to, it is very fear-based, very avoidant.

Not this approach.

Like, Erin Power: it's almost as though people that I work with can't even imagine, almost can't even imagine

Nidhi Pandya: the freedom of health so so true and Erin I just gonna tell you how much I love that you ask them Nidhi Pandya: to imagine their dream life the clients that I work with they have to make a vision movie I'm Nidhi Pandya: exactly the same like you're not if you are going to live you're going to get on a reformed nutrition Nidhi Pandya: plan but do it for like survival or because I don't know I have to do this rather than be inspired Nidhi Pandya: I'm like you want to be inspired by the dream of a different life because if you're inspired to do Nidhi Pandya: it then nothing then you're not deprived yeah otherwise you're just making these shifts and Nidhi Pandya: constantly feeling deprived but that deprivation can be replaced by inspiration so I love that

Erin Power: that's how you start with your clients I think that soundbite right there is for all of us Erin Power: working with clients to remember deprivation, inspiration, the distinction between those two, Erin Power: and to operate from a place of inspiration and potentially nurture and guide our clients to Erin Power: think that way, as hard as it might be, as hard as it might be.

We didn't have an Ayurvedic Erin Power: upbringing like you did with us in the West here, but we're all ancient humans.

Erin Power: We all are.

Nidhi Pandya: So right.

Nidhi Pandya: So right.

Nidhi Pandya: You know, we're still connected to the nature, even though we are so far, but we still have Nidhi Pandya: a way back.

Nidhi Pandya: Yes.

Erin Power: Well, Nidhi, I have so many more things I would love to talk to you about, but I feel like Erin Power: this is a really nice little package of information about Ayurvedic nutrition, which I think the Erin Power: health coaches listening can put into practice right away.

Erin Power: Plus, we're going to link in the show notes to your nutrition certification, which is coming Erin Power: out in October.

Erin Power: Thank you.

Erin Power: You know, what's interesting is that I trained as a holistic nutritionist 14 years ago.

Erin Power: And I learned this stuff.

Erin Power: Because the warming and the cooling and the bitter and the pungent, like it's ringing a bell.

Erin Power: I learned it.

Erin Power: But because I'm so like, I guess, Western and old school fitness nutrition person, I thought, well, okay.

Erin Power: You know, all that really matters is your macros and your calories.

Erin Power: then I have that sort of very myopic Western fitness oriented perspective.

Erin Power: This is all coming back to me now.

Erin Power: And maybe just having worked with like thousands of women over the last 12 Erin Power: years, Erin Power: I'm now realizing I do need to come back to this because this is, Erin Power: this is, Erin Power: you know, Erin Power: the science of life.

Erin Power: I absolutely love that as a definition that absolutely speaks to me.

Erin Power: So you've really, Erin Power: really lit a fire of curiosity under me.

Erin Power: And I'm sure.

Nidhi Pandya: Oh, so glad.

And I want to say that, unfortunately, most like you learned it like how many decades ago, but they don't teach you how to bridge the gap.

Nidhi Pandya: You know, one of the reasons why I have carefully curated my program, because I was frustrated with like people teach you and it seems like jargon, but they don't really, you don't really understand, you know, why is this applicable?

Nidhi Pandya: What does it really do?

Nidhi Pandya: But you need that reconciliation.

Nidhi Pandya: In fact, like direct Ayurveda does not even talk about the nouritions and the nutrients, Nidhi Pandya: which this is a derivation of that.

Nidhi Pandya: And you start, so you have to develop that, you know, it's the developing of that I, which Nidhi Pandya: is unfortunately not taught, which is what I intend to teach.

Erin Power: So you can actually apply this to your clients.

Erin Power: That's awesome.

Erin Power: That's really amazing.

Erin Power: Okay, let's do the old wrap up.

Erin Power: I would love to know where people can find you, get more information about what you do and your upcoming certification course and also where to get your book and anything else we need to know to track you down.

Erin Power: Thank you so much.

Nidhi Pandya: So people can find me on my website, nidhi.me.

Nidhi Pandya: It's also like nidhi.pandia.com.

Nidhi Pandya: So my first name, my last name, pandia.com.

Nidhi Pandya: So they both work.

Nidhi Pandya: They both take you to the same place.

Nidhi Pandya: but I'm also on Instagram and my Instagram handle is my underscore Ayurvedic underscore life so Nidhi Pandya: that's my Ayurvedic life with underscores and my book is called and sorry and my website will have Nidhi Pandya: information to the nutrition program there's a place where you can kind of put your name down Nidhi Pandya: and then we'll reach out to you and then my book is called your body already knows and it's kind of Nidhi Pandya: the goal of the book is to bring you back to that wisdom that we talked about that the deer have and Nidhi Pandya: animals and other species have, not through guesswork, through a framework.

Erin Power: Yes.

Amazing.

I'm so excited to get the book, to put my name on the list for the certification.

I'm Erin Power: in.

I'm in because this makes absolute sense.

I feel this down into my toes.

This is an amazing Erin Power: conversation, Nidhi, and you did such an amazing job teaching it in such a gettable way for us.

Nidhi Pandya: So I really appreciate this conversation.

Thanks, Erin.

Thank you so much.

Erin Power: This podcast was brought to you by Primal Health Coach Institute.

Erin Power: To learn more about how to become a successful health coach, Erin Power: get in touch with us by visiting primalhealthcoach.com forward slash call.

Erin Power: Or if you're already a successful health coach, practitioner, influencer, Erin Power: or thought leader with a thriving business and an interesting story, Erin Power: we'd love to hear from you.

Erin Power: Connect with us at hello at primalhealthcoach.com Erin Power: and let us know why we need to interview you for Health Coach Radio.

Erin Power: Thanks for listening.