Optimizing Vata Nutrition to Combat Anxiety | Ep. 89

Hi, welcome to Holistic Inner Balance. I'm Dr. Nicole Kane, and this is

Happy Healthy Hadlee.

We're so happy to be here today, and you're going to love this episode. You're definitely going to want to stick around to the end. We are talking all about how you can optimize your dosha to help you combat your anxiety. And this has been a really popular topic. You can definitely check out more information on our socials to take the quizzes, to get access to everything. Definitely check out the carousel that we posted just so you can find it more easily. We're filming this around the end of March in 2023. And so you're going to want to check that out because what we're going to help you figure out today is number one is where are you in terms of your Ayurvedic dosha balance? And then how that may be contributing to symptoms of anxiety or irritability or brain fog or whatever's going on mentally and emotionally. And then Hadley is going to teach us about lifestyle changes that you can make right now so that you're not having to pop more pills, take more supplements, but you can actually eat in a way that helps you get the results that you want. So this is going to be an awesome episode.

Yeah. So we're going to go into all things nutrition. This is like the— this is the question that I get asked probably like very high up on the list. And so I am really excited to be able to talk about nutrition, With Ayurveda, and today we're going to go into Vata and how Vata comes up in the body, in the mind, and then how do we actually balance that based on the foods that we're eating? And potentially as important as the types of food we're eating is actually how we're eating. And so we're going to go into that today as well. Ayurveda is all about how we're eating. How we do things is just as important as what we're doing and how we're eating and all. of that good stuff. So let's do it.

Let's do it. All right. So your homework is, if you haven't yet, I want you to go to your website and I want you to go online and then click on the link in the bio. There's gonna be a link in the show notes here, and I want you to pause this episode and then take, number one, take the dosha quiz that's there. It's free. I want you to take that and then write down your results. And then secondly, you're going to click on the link that says to take the 8 types of anxiety quiz. And when you get that result, write that down and then come back here, unpause this episode and give it a listen.

Yes.

All right. So Hadlee, I would love to talk about, first of all, just what is vata, and then we'll go into how vata can show up in anxiety.

Perfect. Yes. So Vata is, you know, we've talked about, we've given a rundown of all of the doshas. If you haven't listened to those podcasts in the past, that'll give you, that'll help you get more of an idea of what it is. But just briefly, Vata is the, is made of the elements of space and air or wind in, in Ayurveda. And so basically what that means is it's super light, very mobile. If you think about like how we might have too much air in the body, we might think like bloating, gas, constipation, all the things that you're like, oh, that's just trapped air literally in the body. And then in the mind, it might look more like an airiness in the mind. So maybe a spaciness, racing thoughts, you know, kind of Anxiety is is very very very common if you have a lot of vata, though we've talked about how all of the doshas can have anxiety just in different ways. But vata is the most like classical in Ayurvedic texts. It's like anxiety is like there's there's some vata in all anxiety. And so so yeah, so basically vata is the air and ether or space elements, and so they can it can show up in a number of ways. Oh, another way is like. Cracking joints, right? Like literally air trapped in our joints, arthritis, things like that. Achiness, dryness, dryness in the skin, the sinuses, in our digestive tract, all of that good stuff.

So Vata, you're describing all these air sensations. And so like floating air in your head, something rising up. And did you say reflux or is it more like gas and bloating? Does it like stay put and get trapped or does it rise up?

More like gas and bloating. The reflux would be more like pitta.

So it's the burning, the heat and reflux.

Yeah, exactly. And pitta, usually the direction of pitta is usually up or, or like straightforward. Pitta is very like focused, whereas vata is very dispersed. So there's just like a, like movement and kind of a chaos that ensues with vata.

So the thoughts like that, I'm imagining that chaos. So if you have thought anxiety, one of the 8 types of anxiety, like you're describing, these vata thoughts are like racing and chaotic and all over the place, and they can be anxious. But it doesn't sound like there's any of that like grounding element that may help you like feel centered, feel focused. It just sounds like it's just pure all over the place.

Right, exactly. Yeah. And, and like When we have, when we have a lot of that vata, then we can actually also become depleted from all of that movement and all of the things that are, you know, going on either in our minds or maybe in our schedules, or maybe we're just moving our bodies too much, right? Like that, that's possible too. And then we can feel depleted. And so that can happen with vata as well. Sometimes people think that kapha, that they, that they're like, well, I'm like lethargic and like tired all the time, so I must have more kapha in my constitution, or I must have a kapha imbalance, when really they're just depleted because of all of the movement that they've been doing in their minds or their bodies or their schedules.

How does vata depletion present?

So that can happen from— and we've talked about how sometimes, sometimes kapha will come in To protect that vata depletion. But essentially it looks like fatigue. And vata fatigue is slightly different from kapha lethargy. So vata fatigue is like a feeling of, I have done so much and now I'm empty. Whereas kapha is like, I have been resting so much and now I feel heavy. If that makes sense, that differentiation.

I can totally resonate with that, like doing all the things, all the chaos, like especially traveling. So before we hit the record button, you know, we got, we were talking about how I've been doing a lot of traveling. I know you have also. And it's like, I have done nothing but fly through the air at 30,000 feet and I just feel so exhausted, but it's not, it's not the same feeling of exhaustion versus like if you sleep in too late and you just like don't want to get off the couch, it's different.

Yes. Yeah, exactly. Totally different. And then if you want to bring Pitta into the mix, that can also cause that more like depletion where you're just like burning your fire so much and then it burns out and then that can cause like a Vata depletion. And then Kapha can sometimes come in and be like, oh, now I'm going to make you sit on the couch for like a week and not move. And then you might also Have a kapha imbalance as well.

So this can really take a tax on your endocrine system. And so I'm thinking about like all of this activity, all of this chaos and how that can affect the endocrine system. And so this is endocrine anxiety and how the endocrine system can also contribute to this. So I'm thinking as an example, the thyroid, if your thyroid is a little bit overactive, Whether it's caused by something you ate or your lifestyle or your genetics or medications or trauma or whatever it is, regardless of the cause of it, it can put us out of balance, but then our being out of balance can further aggravate the thyroid.

Exactly.

I imagine like that could be the same with your sex hormones. And so you wanna be thinking about your doshas. You wanna be thinking about your organ systems with respect to those. Right. So I'm curious, we talked about this a little bit in a previous episode, but if I'm in a vata state, what, what can I do to start to protect my endocrine organs? Like, what can I do that would be protective and nourishing for like my thyroid, my adrenals, or my male or female sex organs?

Yeah. So nutritionally, and this is actually going to be helpful for all of the types of anxiety if it's a vata type of anxiety for any you know, if it's gut anxiety or if it's endocrine anxiety or if, you know, it's cardiac anxiety, it's probably— if it's presenting as vata symptoms with the anxiety, this will likely be helpful. And so, you know, we talked in the endocrine anxiety episode, we talked about the specifics of how, you know, the vata can really show up and then kapha can kind of come in to try to protect the, the vata and stuff. And the endocrine one is a little bit more complicated than some of the other ones. So definitely go back and listen to that one if you want to know the like how of how that all happens. And we talked a little bit about like what we can actually do about that. But today we're going to go even deeper into the actual nutrition and the things that we can do with food, which is super fun. So the thing that comes to mind first, especially for endocrine anxiety, but for all of the vata types of anxiety is adding, adding fats, adding oils, both to our body. We can, we can add oil, like we can put oil on our bodies. And we've talked about self-massage in the past. But we can also oil, oleate internally, which basically is just adding, you know, things like ghee or olive oil or sesame oil to our foods. And a lot of times we think, oh no, I shouldn't eat too many too many fats. Although, you know, now there's the keto movement and all of that, which, you know, we don't need to demonize fats anymore, which is great. For, for vata, it's going to be really helpful to bring some of those fats in and especially more warming fats. So a lot of times people are like, well, I eat avocado all the time, which is great. Like, that's a— that is a healthy fat, but it's more cooling. And so if you want to really bring in more of the what's going to actually pacify your, your nerves, your endocrine system, the vata. You want to, you want it to be oily and also heating, which is sesame oil is more heating. Ghee, ghee is tridoshic, so you can have ghee for whatever, or even butter is if you can handle, you know, lactose and stuff. olive oil can be helpful as well. All of these things that are going to make your food more unctuous. You want to think, you want to think like oily, unctuous, warming, uh, that kind of thing for just for vata in general.

I love this. And that can be really nourishing to the cells. And so when we think about human physiology, every single cell in your body has Something surrounding it. It's called a phospholipid bilayer, and it's made of fat. There's a head and a tail, and the fat is a really important part of that. And so when we go on these really low-fat diets or eat low-fat foods or low-fat ice cream or skim milk, we're not getting that richness to nourish and feed ourselves. Yeah. And I imagine in Ayurveda, we also see that if you're in a state of deficiency of that, then it can put us out balance into a way that's vata. If you're not getting enough of that fat, then we may be more predisposed to vata. So that can make a huge difference for your endocrine health, for your organ health, for your brain health. And I also love that you kind of differentiated that Ayurveda takes it beyond just like, yeah, you need fats to survive. Fats are important, but you emphasized the importance of Heating or tridoshic fats. Tridoshic, can you define that?

Oh yeah. That just means that it will balance all of the doshas. So ghee is great for pitta. It's great for kapha. It's great for vata.

I love that. So ghee, like when in doubt, ghee.

Yes.

And then, and then if you're in a vata state, so if you got gut anxiety and you have gassiness, bloating, like that could be, you know, you could benefit from a warming oil, a warming fat for that. If you have Neurological anxiety. Again, we're thinking about the neurons and the fat in the neurons, the myelin that's on the neurons. So if you have twitching or jumping of your nerves, you know, that kind of chaotic activity, then trying to focus on adding more fats, more warming fats to your diet. I'm thinking too about depressive anxiety and vata, where what I had written down was overconsumption to dull senses. Do you know what that means, Hadlee?

Yeah, so so depressive anxiety is kind of that that mixture of okay I've overdone it and now I'm feeling depletion and that's when the kapha will like kind of come in over top of the the vata and it just feels like ugh. So a lot of times like vata vata depression will come after a period of so much chaos. And it's that, that more of that feeling of depletion rather than the feeling of, of like lethargy and like feeling like a sack of potatoes because you haven't been moving. Right. But that can start to happen after you've had that depletion. And so, yeah, so it might be like an over— overconsumption of— so it says overconsumption to dull, to dull senses is like You might overconsume food, you might overconsume Netflix, you might overconsume Instagram in order to dull your senses because you have so much going on in your mind or so much going on in your schedule or whatever. And you're like, I just need to numb. And then, and then that becomes the depressive anxiety.

I thought you said nom, like nom nom, I'm gonna eat. But you said numb.

That too. You just speak too well.

You hear what you want to

hear,

right?

Oh my gosh! I love it.

She said nom. I so love that. Like om noms,

om noms.

So so if you if you were detecting in yourself, you're like, gosh, I'm like I'm getting depressive anxiety, and I know it's in a vata way. Like you're you're seeing those signs that you just described, like that overconsumption. of food, noms, and Netflix and things, right? And what would be like the meal that you would turn to? It's like, ooh, I want to stop this. I'm in the pay attention zone. I want to stop this.

Yeah, totally. So a lot of times people will be like, oh, I've been eating too much, so I need to, you know, like start just eating like salads and, um, And drinking like green juices, green smoothies. Actually, okay, so this is something that I gave a talk on Sunday talking about the different doshas. And so many people have a vata imbalance, even if vata isn't like their, their strongest dosha in their constitution. Like so many people have a vata imbalance because our world is kind of crazy right now. And So, so it's really interesting because in our like modern wellness culture, raw vegan is really popular, especially I'm in San Diego, like raw vegan is very popular here. Raw vegan like smoothies, salads, green juices, sparkling water, popcorn because it's like a low-calorie food, crackers, all of these things. things that are like, quote unquote, healthy. And then people are like, but why do I feel like crap? Like, why am I having constipation? Why am I having all these things? And it's because all of those things are drying and cooling, and they're all things that, that dysregulate vata. And so if we already have a vata imbalance and then we're just piling on all of that stuff, then that's actually going to make things worse for us, which people don't know, which is why I'm just so passionate about Ayurveda and how it's not a one-size-fits-all thing. But so with depressive anxiety, if I were to say like, what is like a go-to food? Well, first of all, it's healing our relationship with food and not using food to numb. So that's like one piece of this, which is what I help my clients with. a ton. Like, that's like one of the biggest pillars of my work that I do with my clients is helping to heal our relationship with food. Because there's a lot of just like wonkiness, even if it's not like a full-blown eating disorder, there's just a lot of like weird stuff with food. But then the other piece of that is my go-to meal if I'm ever, you know, just out of balance in any way is kitchari. So if you follow me on Instagram, you'll see I post kitchari a lot. Like I eat it Almost every day. It's, it's tridoshic. So like we said before, tridoshic just means that it's balancing for all the doshas. But you can add spices, and you can also add fats, and you can do different vegetables and stuff based on the dosha that you have. And so if you were experiencing a lot of vata, you might do more heating spices. And then you might also add You might make the khichdi, which is just mung beans and rice with spices. You might make the beans and rice with bone broth instead of just water or instead of vegetable broth, because bone broth is super, super healing for— well, for anyone, but especially for vata, because it's got all of those minerals and nutrients from the bones of an animal. And make sure it's a high-quality bone broth. But, but that's going to be super nourishing. So you can use that as the liquid that you cook your rice and beans in. And then you can add some, some more, you know, heating spices, things like, things like cumin. Cumin is actually tridoshic, so is turmeric. You could add things like fennel are really good for vata because it's a little bit sweeter. You could add ginger. Ginger is really helpful. All of those All of those spices that are just going to make you feel super nourished.

That sounds amazing. And could you make that with ghee instead of bone broth? I'm thinking about supporting the vegans, or— and bone broth can be high histamine. And so those listeners who are like, gosh, I want to be low histamine, but I also want to try this.

Yes. So I actually make it with bone broth and ghee a lot of the time because I'm just like, Like, give me all the nutrients. Yes. But you could totally do it with ghee. Um, ghee is not vegan because it's, it's clarified butter, but a lot of times if people are dairy-free, they can still handle ghee because it's the, the, the whey has been taken out of it, which is the harder part of the butter to digest. And so then it just leaves the oil. Um, and the whey is like more of the protein, and so it solidifies and you can take that out. But yeah, so if you are also vegan and you don't want to have either bone broth or, or ghee, I would say olive oil or sesame oil would be a good— just drizzling it on top. Don't cook it with that because it can oxidize if it's at too high of heat, but just, just drizzle it on top of the, the Kitchari, and then you should be good to go.

I asked you this last time, but can you spell kitchari?

Yeah, there are actually a few different ways that it's spelled. Um,

I can never remember.

Yeah,

for those taking notes like myself, how do we spell kitchari?

So the way that it's most commonly spelled is K-I-T-C-H-A-R-I.

A-R-I. Got it. Thank you.

Yes. And then the types of, the types of vegetables that you want to be adding to your khichdi. A lot of times I'll just make my khichdi in the Instant Pot and then cook my vegetables kind of like I'll just steam some vegetables on the side just because the vegetables get really mushy if you do them in the pressure cooker and then it's not as tasty. Although vata does well with like very cooked vegetables, if you want to have some of that crunch still, you might want to do it on, on the side. So root vegetables are really helpful for, for vata because if we think about, if we think about vata, it's all of the air and ether element. And so we want to ground it down. And what kinds of foods are going to be the most grounding? It's the foods that are literally in the ground, right?

Carrots, radishes.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So, so you can base your root veggies based on like the time of year, you know, And like some, some root veggies are going to be more appropriate for the fall, whereas like things like parsnip, radishes, carrots, those kinds of things are going to be more appropriate for the springtime just because they're in season. They're a little bit lighter, which our bodies need in the spring, even if we, even if we have mostly like vata dosha, we still need a little bit lighter. depending on the season. Um, but in the fall, especially if you're listening to this at another time of year, um, things like squashes are really helpful for vata as well. So like pumpkin and butternut squash, kabocha squash, all of those kinds of things are really helpful for, for vata too. So you can add that to your kitri as well.

So to make sure that I'm hearing everything is that Anxiety, and we talked about the 8 types of anxiety, they can show up differently depending on the dosha imbalance. And so today we've been learning about how they can show up in the vata imbalance. And so the theme that you're describing is lots of air and movement and chaos and a lack of groundedness. And so you were describing how nutrition can make such a huge difference And you gave us a really good couple of hacks, um, the khichdi, some of the ingredients and spices, oils, how to prepare them, how to select them. And then there was something that you said at the beginning that I don't want to gloss over because I think it's really important. And you said the way that you eat is just as important as what you eat. Yeah. And so I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit before we finish up with this episode today, a little bit about how to eat in a way that grounds, balances, and nourishes us, especially us vatas.

Yeah. So if you have a lot of vata in your constitution, or if you've had a vata imbalance, it's likely that you love to eat on the go. You love to graze. And so you're just kind of like picking at small amounts of food all day long. So grazing— I feel called out. Yeah, I know. My mom, I— we always like— my mom does that too, and she always has. Actually, she does it way less now because she knows how much vata she has, and she's coming into her vata stage of life, and she's doing a great job of like, oh, okay, I need to actually change some of these things. Um, but yeah, like, like just basically like picking, picking at food kind of all day long, like just like little nibbles here and there. And that is going to— um, so essentially what happens in our body is like it— our body is always trying to be like, on and like metabolizing. So if you think about like, you don't want your body to always be trying to sleep and also trying to be awake, right? We also don't want our bodies to be trying to metabolize and also trying to move and do all these things. Because if we think about like the nervous system and parasympathetic state, or versus sympathetic state, like moving our bodies and, you know, maybe like very intellectual activities, all of that kind of thing. We want to kind of separate those from the parasympathetic state, which is the rest and digest. And we want to really be in a state of peace and like serenity. I mean, I say that, and you know, it's not like you have to make your mealtime perfect. Like, please don't try to make your mealtime perfect because that might stress you out more. Um, but just like sitting down, just like having maybe a rule for yourself that you don't eat like standing up in your kitchen at the pantry. Um, and even that's actually also really helpful for, um, for your relationship with food as well. So like, if you're going to eat like a bunch of cookies or chips or whatever it might be, um, and you're like, you know, you're, you're gonna do it, you know you're gonna do it. If you actually just put all of those things— so maybe you put a handful of chips, you put a couple of cookies, you put like, you know, whatever other thing you're gonna eat— you put all of that stuff on a plate and you're just like, I am okay with the fact that I am going to eat these these things, that's going to do a lot for your relationship with food as well as, as well as your digestion of the food. So like a lot of times we like eat things kind of secretly or we eat things like in a rush so that we don't feel guilty about eating them. And so what I'm saying is like, just take the guilt out and be totally okay with it and present with it. And then it's going to be really helpful. And that's going to also— your digestion When you're in that state of guilt or shame, that triggers the sympathetic nervous system state. So that like fight or flight nervous system state, and that's not gonna be good for your digestion because we need the— we need to be in a regulated nervous system state in order to digest properly. So that's what I'll say about how the— how we are eating is so, so, so, so important. especially for vata, because, because vatas do also have just a more sensitive gut. Like it's just a little bit harder to digest foods if we've got a lot of vata in our constitution. And then that will impact the rest of all of the types of anxiety. So obviously gut anxiety, gas, bloating, you know, burping, all of that kind of thing. But it will also help with things like um, you know, depressive anxiety, your relationship with food. It'll also help with, um, endocrine anxiety, thought anxiety, all of, all of the things.

I love that so much. And I was joking because I totally feel called out. Paul and I both do this. Like, for example, yesterday, oh, this is so embarrassing to reflect on now. So yesterday, like, we come home, we're talking about work. We're so excited to watch the new Ted Lasso. So I've got like the remote control out. Paul's bringing me food, which I'm horking rapidly. I'm like, om nom, this is so good. I'm like eating it. And he's standing at the counter, like hovering over the counter, eating it while cooking it. And then we're both like, ugh, when we're like eating or like sitting in front of the TV later and we're both like having indigestion. And it's just like the perfect what not to do scenario for eating.

Yes, exactly. Yeah. And, and, um, and the other thing is like when we eat mindlessly, We also tend not to chew our food as much. And so that introduces not only like just like big chunks of food that our body has to digest, but also if we eat really fast, we're shoveling air as well as food into our mouth and into our body. So we are literally shoveling air into our digestive tract, which then makes us literally bloated because it's air.

I feel good about myself though, because I had a bag of microwave popcorn at the office and I was just gonna eat that. 'Cause I had told Paul, I was like, I'm so hungry. Like, I'm gonna make this microwave popcorn and eat it in the car. And he is like, no, you need to go home and eat real food. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna make a good choice. But then I shoveled and swallowed air and then Paul stood at the counter and it was It wasn't really very good. But you know what? This is just a great way to like notice our opportunities for mindfulness.

Yes. Well, and that's the other thing that will happen for people who have a lot of vata in their constitution is they'll forget to eat. They'll either be like picking at food all day long, or they'll literally like— and this, I hope my mom doesn't care that I'm using her as an example. I don't think she will. But, you know, for like most of my life, she would have like an apple and peanut butter, which also wreaks havoc. Apple and almond butter is going to do a lot better for your body than apple and peanut butter just because of the mix of peanuts are not an actual nut, they're a legume. So you're literally eating beans and apples, which is like just a no-go in our digestive tract. But anyway, I digress. So if you're going to do it, maybe apple and almond butter is a little bit easier to digest. But she would have a few olives, a few pickles, maybe some sauerkraut and apple and peanut butter. And that's what she would eat throughout the day. And she would forget about it. The apple would be brown by the end of the day. It was just out on the counter. Talk about histamines. So a lot of times people with a lot of vata will just like forget about food. And if you have a lot of kapha in your constitution, uh, or a lot of pitta in your constitution, you might be like, what? How do you forget to eat? But it's a real thing. Um, and so, so what will happen then is we become super ravenous by the end of the day, and then we'll do that shoveling into the mouth thing. Um, and then we have all the gas and bloating and constipation and all of the things because we have haven't nourished our body throughout the day, and then we've just like shoveled it all in at the end of the day. And that's really hard for our body to, to be able to handle as well, because we haven't had our metabolism like going. And then it's like all this food at one time is like your body is just like, I don't know what to do. The other thing about the how of eating fravata is if you can, Have a regular eating schedule as much as possible. That's going to be really, really, really helpful too. So like having like maybe like 9 AM, 1 PM, 6 PM, or, you know, whatever it might be, um, that are your eating times. Or if you want to do like 4 different times in the day, sometimes 4, 4 different times is helpful for vata because vatas tend to not like to eat a whole lot. at meals unless they have skipped a bunch of meals and then, and then they're really hungry. But, but so maybe it's like your, your breakfast, your lunch, maybe like a midday, more of like a snack, and then your dinner. Whereas like pittas might only need to eat like 3 times a day, kaphas maybe more like 2 or 3 times a day, but vatas might need to eat just a little bit more regularly, just not all day long. So if that makes sense.

That's super helpful. I hope you all resonated with this. At least my vata friends will. And, you know, we're gonna be doing the same type for each of the doshas. And so if you didn't resonate with vata or if vata didn't come up for you, then forward this podcast onto a vata in your life and then stay tuned because we're gonna be coming back and Hadlee's gonna be walking us through the 8 types of anxiety and how they can show up if you're imbalanced Is a Pitta, and the other episode will be how anxiety can show up if your imbalance is a Kapha. And so don't forget too that we have a whole course on this. And so Hadley is dropping like lots of little breadcrumbs, but if this is something that you wish she was saying even more about, then go check out the course. You can find that at the link in the bio. And definitely if you haven't given Hadlee a follow, just check her out. Her Instagram is wonderful. Happy Healthy Hadlee, and Hadlee is H-A-D-L-E-E. And of course I am Dr. Nicole Cain. Our goal is to help you become your own wellness experts so that you can take your power back and take the health back of your family, your friends, your loved ones. So we're super grateful for being here. And as we close up, is there anything else you wanna add, Hadlee?

Yeah, I would say definitely check out the, the Ayurveda course, because I'm not going to just— like, it has more specifics on, you know, the exact types of foods that you want to incorporate more of, some of the things that you want to avoid. I'm not just going to sit here and like list off foods, right? Like, that would be not so fun on a podcast. But we have, we have like a whole workbook that, that includes literally like exact foods that you can incorporate that will be really, really helpful if you have a vata imbalance, if you have a lot of vata in your constitution. So definitely go check out our mini course, Ayurveda: The Key to Your Success. It's, it's awesome. It was a labor of love for us, so definitely check it out. And yeah, thank you all so much for listening. We always love coming and hanging out with you.

Thank you so much. We'll see you all next time.

Bye.