“Food becomes healing when cooked with love and guided by knowledge.”

The birth of the “Uma’s Authentic Kitchen “concept is very personal to me. In a busy life, with a software career, and the caretaking of my family and children, cooking 3 fresh meals every day was a challenge. As we started consuming processed and pre-cooked, week-old meals, my mental and physical health started deteriorating.

Having developed severe digestive and intestinal issues, I spent over a decade trying to find food I could eat and doctors who could help me. In that decade, I used to cook and serve 3 fresh meals a day for yoga and meditation retreats, and the amount of prana and energy felt through the food was expressed.

That was when I understood the nutritional value of using authentic Ayurvedic principles and began to see change. Food plays the most important role in our physical and mental well-being.

I began to reflect on all of the processed foods that I used to consume, and all of the restaurants that served them. These foods were so easily available and accessible, and many people may have gone through what I went through. So I began to imagine a place I could eat, and would want to eat at. I imagined a peaceful holy place built on the highest quality food and my highest ideals: for people to find nourishing refuge in affordable, conscious food, that doesn’t sacrifice taste. Food that doesn’t exist at practically any restaurant in this country.

After several years of imagining and several months of hard work, Uma’s Authentic Kitchen now exists in the real world — in Chandanagar, Hyderabad.

At Uma’s Authentic Kitchen, we strive to serve the highest quality, authentic, vegetarian food available. The preparation is simple and relies heavily on Ayurvedic ideals.

The health of our bodies, minds, and consciousness is dependent on how we nourish ourselves; be it by the food on our plates or the food for our thoughts. Ayurveda emphasizes properly cooked food, and simple, flavors and dishes, enhanced with appropriate spices. Grains, fruits, vegetables, seeds, beans, herbs, and roots are vital carriers and balancers for the life force of the body. The power of these foods only manifests when they are used in the proper execution with these principals in mind.

The principles of Ayurveda are thousands of years old.

FACTS:

Food plays a bigger role than you may think! When I learned the strong connection between the mind and our digestive system, it inspired me to take charge of my health.

Wrong eating and drinking habits negatively impact our thoughts and actions. An unrestrained appetite will cause poor reasoning, making it easier to give in to debasing things. To make good blood, you need good, healthful food. When the digestive organs are taxed, it weakens your mental capacities.

Eating a balanced diet rich in vegetables and fruits helps with feelings of well-being, according to a study published in 2014. The opposite is also true. Poor nutrition also leads to physical health problems, which affect how we feel and think.

The mind sympathizes with the stomach. The pneumogastric nerve is what establishes this connection between the brain and the stomach. Eating low Prana (life) food causes our minds to be clouded, forgetful, and irritable. Keeping our stomach in a healthy condition will keep the mind vigorous & Dynamic & Creative.

The link between depression and nutrition:

Few understand the strong link between nutrition and mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety. Depression is commonly thought to be based on a chemical imbalance or unstable emotions. Although they may well play a role, it’s often nutrition that surprisingly plays a significant role in the onset, duration, and intensity of depression. Common symptoms of depression involve skipping meals, craving sweets, and having a poor appetite. In a word, the solution for depression lies within the depression itself. Prior to depression, these unhealthy habits lead to depression.

What’s the future of depression?

Within their lifetime, more than 25% of individuals will develop at least one mental or behavioral disorder

• By 2020, depression will be the second leading cause of medical disability, according to the World Health Organization.
• 70% of primary care visits are related to psychological issues (6).
• There has been a 400% increase in antidepressant drug usage since 1994.

Why has there been such a massive increase in mental health disorders?

The focus of treatment has been to correct chemical imbalances and emotional instability in the brain. The scientific evidence, however, clearly shows that these disorders are not entirely in our heads, but also in our bodies. What about the current food system? The growing amount of processed and chemical-laden foods are not supplying the nutrients necessary for us to function properly.

This phenomenal link between mental health and nutrition isn’t a new concept. It is quite clear that these fundamentals have been lost in the sea of new medical research and interventions.

Solution: Eating Healthy for Mental Health

Researchers continue to prove the old adage that you are what you eat, most recently by exploring the strong connection between our intestines and brain. Our guts and brain are physically linked via the vagus nerve, and the two can send messages to one another. While the gut can influence emotional behavior in the brain, the brain can also alter the type of bacteria living in the gut.

According to the American Psychological Association, gut bacteria produce an array of neurochemicals that the brain uses for the regulation of physiological and mental processes, including mood. It’s believed 95 percent of the body's supply of serotonin, a mood stabilizer, is produced by gut bacteria. Stress is thought to suppress beneficial gut bacteria.