Your Best Diet​​​​​​​

A nourishing Ayurvedic regimen naturally guides you to the body weight that’s right for you.

- Niika Quistgard

While living in an ashram in Northern India years ago, I loved playing auntie to two young girls—Chaya and Lakshmi—from a nearby village. When Lakshmi neared puberty, she started to gain weight. As she grew softer and wider, her mother continued her usual mealtime practice of putting balls of rice and lentils into Lakshmi’s mouth, well past the point of satiety. The family became more and more delighted, parading her ahead of them as they walked to temple, showing off their daughter’s fleshly abundance. “Look how round and healthy she is,” they’d say. “She’s going to catch quite a husband!”

Meanwhile, back in California, the women in my own extended family were worried about a distant cousin—a beautiful, creative girl who happened to be a little chubby in her elementary-school years. “We’ve got to help her control her weight,” they’d whisper with desperation. “We don’t want her to feel bad about herself for being heavy.”