3 Simple, Nourishing Drinks

1. Honey-lemon Water

This simple drink is quite magical, because the warm water stimulates a sluggish kapha dosha, kickstarts your digestive machinery and encourages peristalsis—the waves of muscle contractions within the intestinal walls that keep things moving. The lemons are high in minerals and vitamins and help loosen ama, or toxins, in the digestive tract.

Squeeze a little ginger juice into this water for even more healing benefits. (Read my post of the incredible goodness of ginger to understand what this wonder root can do for you.)

2. Tender Coconut Water

This is 90 to 95 percent water, billed ‘Earth’s purest soft drink.’ Tender coconut water has excellent cooling properties that pacify pitta, the heat element in you. It unclogs the body’s channels, and lubricates the dryness caused by residual digestive wastes. It repairs the gastro-intestinal tract, and its snigdha or sweet quality gives it a pranaropana: life-restoring quality.

Tender coconut is generally available at oriental grocery stores. All you have to do is lop off the top, put in a straw, and sip in a world of healing goodness!

3. Date Milk Shake
An Ayurveda-recommended remedy for settling an agitated digestive system and soothing the nerves. And yummy to boot! Dates truly are nuggets of good health—rich in minerals, easy to digest, a great source of energy, and have a balancing effect on the fiery pitta dosha.

People say milk doesn’t agree with them, but that’s usually because the milk they consume is cold, straight out of the fridge. Try this: boil milk with a pinch of turmeric and cinnamon. Let it cool, and then drink it. The infusion of heat into the milk introduces ‘agni’ the element responsible for digestion, and makes the milk lighter and easier to digest.

4-5 whole dates

1 cup whole milk

A pinch of cinnamon powder (dalchini)

Boil the milk with cinnamon until it rises to a foam once. Cool it and blend with dates in a good blender. The dates should be finely ground. Serve warm in winter and at room temperature in summer.