Hemsley - East by West

Dedicated to my mum, Evangelina; my partner, Nick; and my great aunt, Joan for all the love.

We are not necessarily what we eat. We are what we digest, absorb and assimilate physically, emotionally and mentally. I have long had a fascination with digestion and the critical role it plays in gut health, not only for our immunity but for the entire health of our mind and body. Enter Ayurveda the 5,000-year-old ancient holistic system that supports the idea that our vitality, wellbeing and happiness come from a life in balance, and that the secret to maintaining this balance lies in the strength of our Agni, or digestive fire (see ). Ayurveda is the science of life, revolving around an awareness of your world and how to live according to your personal, physical and emotional needs and attributes.

It is our individual food choices, daily routines and connection to the environment that dictate the balance of the physical, mental and emotional states that we enjoy (or dont enjoy) every day. And it was these dont enjoy days that fuelled my desire to make wellbeing a priority. Seemingly small and often obvious changes had a profound impact on my health. I found that once I understood my wellbeing in this more elemental way that it is connected to the Ayurvedic qualities of foods, rather than their chemical breakdown I could let my body, rather than my cravings, dictate what it needs.

Ayurveda enriched my life, giving me a tried-and-tested structure to fall back on and a more intuitive understanding of my changing needs. For the last 15 years I have been exploring and refining my knowledge around how to be well and stay well in manic modern times. I wanted to share this understanding in East by West, which is my interpretation of Ayurveda, presented in a way that is accessible for anyone looking to embrace a holistic lifestyle.

MY JOURNEY TO AYURVEDA

I have come a long way from the processed white-bread cheese and ketchup toasties that I lived on in my first year at uni. Add uni nights to a uni diet and you have a digestive system in disarray and the symptoms to match: midday fatigue; lack of concentration; dull complexion; weak hair, skin and nails. When I started modelling full-time after university, it was an awakening few jobs make you think so much about the effects of food and lifestyle habits on your body. I was a commercial model, so thankfully I never had to suffer measurements, weigh-ins and weight loss. However, during this time I became much more clued up about which foods suited me, and I learned more about nutrition in general. This was the start of my connection to healthy eating and the mindbody balance that would become a passion. When I discovered Ayurveda, the oldest healing system in the world, I was a little late, or a little too early, to the party it was 2001 and health was all about fitness: punitive gym sessions and restrictive eating programmes, low-fat and low-cal. It wasnt about rest (unless you earned it) and nurturing your body, or understanding the qualities, processes and provenance of foods.

Picking up my first book on Ayurveda was like picking up a book on rocket science in Russian it was a whole new language, a whole new concept. I dipped and dived through several books, simultaneously absorbing what I could and only taking on board messages that made sense in the light of my own experiences. For example, cooked foods are gently nourishing think of the soups, stews and porridges given to babies, the elderly and the sick. The advice to eat earlier in the day was also a light-bulb moment. There were the obvious things, too, like eating warm food when youre cold and cooling foods when youre hot. The absolute game-changers were the power of the gut recently acknowledged in the West as the second brain and centre of immunity and of course the importance of digestion.

These are the basic principles that informed my lifestyle overhaul. In 2010 I became a food and wellbeing coach and a chef for private clients who were looking for something more to life than calorie-counting, calorie-burning workouts and fat-free meals. Using emerging new science combined with traditional wisdom, the Hemsley + Hemsley philosophy was born of a passion to distil the best health advice.

As my commitment to this field grows, the more I am convinced that the new health rules are actually the old ones 5,000 years old, in fact. As youll see from my love and appreciation of food in this cookbook, every meal is an opportunity to fortify your body and boost energy, but at the same time the food you eat is by no means the whole 360. Beyond food there are so many ways we can help our bodies and minds to find balance. If youre stressed and not sleeping well, you will find it hard to digest and get the most out of even the most nutritious food.

EASTERN WISDOM FOR WESTERN WELLBEING

Over the years I have enjoyed yoga and meditation as part of my daily routine, and I have also spent time in India studying with Vaidyas (Ayurvedic practitioners) to get a better understanding of what many in the West would consider esoteric nonsense. I undertook two Panchakarmas month-long Ayurvedic detoxes far removed from any detox we know in the West. These experiences led me to open my own pop-up cafe called East by West, Londons first Ayurvedic restaurant. In the run-up to Christmas, we served hot bowls of dal, lightly spiced desserts and chai teas to cold and curious customers. The food was embraced by everyone from businessmen to fashionistas, curious foodies to tourists. They loved that I had removed overwhelming choice from their lives for a moment and that they could enjoy simple, delicious Ayurveda-inspired food. At long last, Londoners came to understand that newly popular steaming mugs of turmeric latte are in fact Golden Milk, an ancient nourishing drink, and the now-ubiquitous energy balls are based on the traditional Ayurvedic sweets called ladoos.

Ive immersed myself in the subject and grown a lot as a person to get here, but for me this is still the tip of the iceberg. I continue to be inspired, influenced and educated by some of the most remarkable and generous individuals in the Ayurvedic world, people whose knowledge and commitment to this science of life runs so deep. Im still dancing around the periphery of Western eating and Ayurvedic philosophy, and I hope that my experience and interpretation will fuel your passion for Ayurveda and enrich and empower you on your journey towards true mindbody balance.

First and foremost this is a cookbook albeit with a difference! so feel free to flick through the host of breakfast, lunch, supper and snack ideas inspired by my travels. You will begin to feel the vibe of Ayurvedic philosophies through the ingredients, terminology and recipe introductions that tell the story of the recipes and how they came about. Or you can start at the beginning.

My mission with East by West is to introduce the way of Ayurveda and impart a deeper understanding of its principles and styles. For example, why milk and sugar, which have become the outcasts of modern health philosophies, can be good and nourishing in their whole form when properly prepared, and why, according to ancient Ayurveda, animal foods such as bone broth and meat have a place in our diet.