What Foods Should an Air Element Eat?

If you’ve worked with me in the past, you know that I talk endlessly about the FUNCTIONS of food. Because everything is made with a purpose and function in mind, food is simply a fuel for each of those functions. Each food has a function of its own. In short, the functions can either be lubricating, building, congesting, or eliminative in nature. For more on this, I learned from Dr. Thurman Fleet’s theory on the law of Nourishment and think you would find it interesting.
However, functions are not exactly what I would like to discuss today. Functions are simply only a PART of things to consider in choosing the selections of food for your body.
I know it gets confusing what with every popular diet out there telling you to do different things but as we live in a dual world (dual meaning physical and spirit) We are body and we are spirit, it would only make sense that we look at food and nutrition from a physical (function) state and also spiritual need (energetic) state.
Helping us to do that is the understanding of Ayurvedic wisdom. Ayurveda is all about the study of energy and it's system of balance.
I found an absolutely fantastic resource for a woman who calls herself an Ayurvedic Kitchen Doctor. We all know that “food is medicine” and should be used within it’s function to do so. Perhaps its time we understand the energy behind the food. In the energetic system of Ayurveda, there are four elements that play out within us throughout life. While we are all of them, each of us will tend to display and represent one more than the others. And of course they indicate different personality traits and can teach us a lot about our innate tendencies.
So…starting with one of the elements….Air

Air people typically are soft, flowing, free, free spirited. They have a lot of ideas and believe in the possibilities of those ideas. These are the kind of people that wear you out just hearing them talk. It’s hard to keep up with all of the ideas they believe in and want to see happen. You can identify an air element also by their writing and drawing style. It will be very curvy, loopy, round and flowing. The doodles will be hearts and circles and curly Qs.
To the positive end of the frequency of an air person, these are the most wonderful people to employ for a positive person that has ideas and believes in the possibility of fixing anything.
On the negative side, if not used in balance, these people can be seen as “flighty” or “can’t stick to anything”, simply because they have so many ideas, it’s hard to follow through on them.
I always say to “maximize the positive”. Too often in our culture, we want to judge and define in a way that is condemning, rather than seeing the innate characteristics of a person and helping them to maximize their potential in a balanced way.
The foods an air person should eat should be from the sour category predominantly, like lemons, which are cooling. It’s very easy for air to stimulate fire aggressively, so things like peppers and spices of the hot realm can quickly get out of hand and cause a lot of mucous, ulcers, inflammation and are common in the Inflammatory Bowel Disease category. Interestingly, air element people need sugar and starch foods as an absolute necessity because they are foods that will build cells and tissues. However, I always caution to use in moderation as sweet foods in excess can cause other calamaties such as retention, headaches, weight gain, adrenal exhaustion and more. Also, the sugars the qualify do not include that candy bar! That causes an unnecessary spike in blood sugar, which takes away the benefit.
Air people need to steer clear of astringent and bitter foods which are drying. You will recognize this in air element people because they will often be suffering from drying conditions like dry hair, dry skin, eczema, and psoriasis. Food allergies can be common mainly because of the inappropriate level of mucous being dry. These elemental people can suffer from bloody noses and other bleeding conditions because of the dry brittle quality.
Air people will feel irritated living in the plains, or windy areas, and winter is especially tough on them because of how dry it is.
Therefore, a humidifier is necessary in the home, as well as sinus rinse. To keep an elemental person balanced, mineral baths (1 cup Epsom salts in warm water) and warm moist area especially during winter will keep them the most happy.
Food listing:
Lemons, limes, lemon/lime water
Protein foods, particularly amino acids (proteins that are already broken down)
Quality starches and sugars in moderation, like rice cakes, rice, oatmeal, quinoa, fruit, honey, sweet potatoes, yam,
Proteins such as nuts but in the nut butter form
Fats, like avocados, coconut oil, coconut meat, nuts, quality oils

For more information, click the resource for the ayurvedic kitchen doctor to learn more about foods to eat in balance.
If you don’t know what your element is, click here
To learn your ayurvedic type, click here
Also, watch my blog as I will be posting more for each element and how it incorporates into your life.

Lastly, click here if you want to learn how your element may be influencing your illness and even your relationships and your abundance. Enter an email that allows us to keep in touch and I can send you information for your particular element.