Help! Do I Really Have to Stick with Kitchari for My Whole Cleanse? [video]

Welcome to our AskBanyan series, where we answer the most popular questions about living an Ayurvedic lifestyle.

Kitchari is integral to an at-home cleanse—in fact, eating a monodiet of kitchari is the foundation of traditional Ayurvedic cleansing. But must we really eat kitchari for every meal of our cleanse—even if we get sick of it?

 

Do I Have to Eat Only Kitchari While Cleansing?

Eating kitchari during a cleanse is super important. It's a very simple meal—just rice and mung dal—which is easy for our bodies to digest.

While cleansing, we want to give agni (the digestive fire) a little break in digesting, so we don't want to eat harsh foods, heavy meats, or anything like that. That's why Ayurveda recommends kitchari while cleansing. It's not an absolute must, but it's the easiest thing to digest and for us to get good nutrients and sustenance as well.

 

 

What Can I Eat During a Cleanse If I'm Tired of Kitchari?

That said, many people get tired of eating kitchari, and that's okay. That gives us an indication of agni—of what is going on between agni and the toxins, or what we call ama in Ayurveda. Sometimes, what can happen is we'll get these cravings based on ama, as well.

If you can push through and have kitchari during your cleanse, it's fantastic, but if you can't, then there are substitutes that you can do.

You can have just plain rice, or you can make just the mung dal by itself, so it feels like you're having a soup, so you can separate both of them.

You can even have puffed rice, which is called poha. It's a flattened, dried rice, and then when you cook it, it's very easy to digest as well. So that's another option.

Or sometimes, people cannot handle rice, so we'll even substitute things like quinoa.

Keep in mind that, as the modifications happen, then digestion also gets impeded a little bit, because things are a little bit harder to digest.

So there are modifications that you can make, but staying committed to a kitchari monodiet is the best choice because it helps with agni and just kind of keeping everything nice and easy.

For more ideas to help you stay committed to your kitchari cleanse, here are 5 ways to change up your kitchari.

 

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