Samudra Food Philosophy

We at Samudra believe that food is an integral part of not only health and well-being but it is responsible for that special glow of vitality within us. That healthy shine, the sense of calm that comes with an integration of mind, body and spirit requires good, fresh, alive food prepared in a wholesome way.

A lot has been written about health promoting food and nutrition. We work with elements of the age old traditions that have supported perfect health and longevity for generations. We take the best of Ayurveda, Macrobiotics and Raw Living Foods and apply their various principles in a spirit of joy and reverence to provide you with a balanced life enhancing diet that supports your practice and ultimately your life, allowing your life force to surface, to make your mind positive and to put you in a position to make good food choices from a good place.

To this end we are interested in working with the connection between mind and diet. As a culture we eat to the point of discomfort and often snack without really thinking about why. Snacking to fill the hole never really fills the hole, but feeds the psychological processes that created the hole. It is often about a need for some form of emotional nourishment. It can be interesting to start to monitor what is going on emotionally when a craving occurs, and to differentiate it from true hunger.

By combining yoga (quietening the mind, connecting body + spirit) with surfing (connecting with the spirit of the ocean/a natural wonder, freeing the spirit, thereby re-activating the innate healing power within us all) and good food bursting with vitality we can settle the system and truly nourish our body and spirit.

Ayurvedic Food

Ayurveda literally translates as the 'science of life'. We can use ayurvedic  knowledge, which has been tried and tested over thousands of years, to learn about how unique our own particular constitution (dosha) is and how we can achieve optimal health by eating accordingly. As the seasons change so too should our diets; different times and stresses of life require us to eat different foods and change our routines to maintain equilibrium.

The three constitutional types (doshas) are Vata (air), Pitta (fire) and Kapha (earth). Each individual has a unique blend and knowing what that is allows us to attend to our health perfectly by quickly identifying and then pacifying a dosha when it goes out of balance.

• Vata foods are generally dry and crunchy eg Toast
• Pitta foods are generally hot, red, stimulating eg. Chillies, Coffee
• Kapha foods are generally cold and unctuous eg. Ice Cream

Macrobiotic Food

The Macrobiotic approach takes into account our whole environment and all the influences within it- from the foods we eat, the climate and geography in which we live, the people around us and our place in the world. The body naturally wants to return to a state of harmony with the environment, so if what we eat is not in alignment with this, the body will get sick as a way of letting us know we need to harmonise. The literal meaning of Macrobiotics is large, long life!

The basic principles of Macrobiotics are eating more whole grains, beans and fresh vegetables, increasing variety in food selections (including many colours/tastes/textures in each meal), traditional natural cooking methods, adequate chewing to aid digestion and eating less.

Raw, Living Foods

Live food, live body, dead food, dead body' is the underlying philosophy of the Raw Food movement. High quality, fully ripened raw fruits, vegetables (lots of greens!), nuts, seeds and seaweeds are considered key to health and abundant life force. There are many ways of preparing simple, vibrant foods without cooking to ensure they retain their inherent vitality and hence provide ultimate health benefits.

Given modern stresses on our bodies and the soils in which we grow our food, we have depleted natural reserves of essential nutrients. To compensate for this the Raw Food community has researched a group of 'Superfoods' which boost energy and immune function. These are Aloe vera, Bee pollen,  Spirulina, Maca, Wheatgrass, Cacao, Goji berries,  Camucamu, Purple corn and Seagreens.

Bringing it together

We bring all these principles together by focusing on the common thread - which is that good, local produce cooked in a spirit of love is the best food around!

Stay tuned for your chance to join us for a meal, a smoothie or a chai at the Samudra Shala in Dunsborough.