Ayurveda is the oldest documented health system. Paleo Ayurveda™ (as opposed to commodity Ayurveda) refers to the original form of Ayurveda. This particular form comes directly from Charaka, the author of the original Ayurvedic texts.
Commodity Ayurveda refers to the diluted form of Ayurveda that is being taught by most organizations today. Below are only a few examples that will give you an idea of how significantly different these two forms of Ayurveda are.
Most of today’s commodity Ayurveda speaks of being vegetarian or vegan, not drinking alcohol, and suppressing your senses.
The original Ayurveda (Paleo Ayurveda™) speaks about eating meat, drinking wine, honoring your senses and enjoying life.
Commodity Ayurveda talks about following a whole foods and / or raw foods based diet, advocating eating salads and drinking juices.
Paleo Ayurveda™ talks about eating a limited set of vegetables but only after they have been cooked in animal fat.
Commodity Ayurveda advocates consuming large amounts of grains, nuts and seeds.
Paleo Ayurveda™ only uses very specific preparations of grains and seeds and mainly for medicinal purposes.
Commodity Ayurveda recommends not drinking alcohol and eating lots of fruits.
Paleo Ayurveda™ only uses fruits to make alcoholic beverages.
Commodity Ayurveda™ says that you should only eat meat if you are sick but it does not specify what sick means.
Paleo Ayurveda™ says to eat meat in order not to become sick.
And last but not least, commodity Ayurveda only looks at the individual person, without any regard to the greater community.
Paleo Ayurveda™ looks at the person as an integral part of their community.
- If you like to eat meat, you will love Paleo Ayurveda™.
- If you are vegetarian and not healthy, you will love Paleo Ayurveda™.
- If you are vegan and not healthy, you will love Paleo Ayurveda™.
- If you want to thrive, you will love Paleo Ayurveda™.
- If you wish to learn Ayurveda in its original form, you will love Paleo Ayurveda™.
- If you wish to continue being vegetarian or vegan, Paleo Ayurveda™ is not for you.
- If you don’t want to thrive, Paleo Ayurveda™ is not for you.
- If you can’t handle the truth, Paleo Ayurveda™ is not for you.
By now you might be wondering why Ayurveda shifted that much from its original form.
Somewhere around 500 AD (after Charaka composed the original texts) India started going under major socio-economic, religious and political turmoil. So the original form of Ayurveda was adjusted and modified in order to serve the goals of certain groups. This lead to numerous widespread misconceptions about Ayurveda that unfortunately today have turned into dogma.
“There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.” – Hippocrates
