Agni – The Digestive Fire
Agni is the concept and energy of digestion, transformation and metabolism in Ayurveda. It is the internal intelligence that breaks down and cooks food, absorbs the nutrients, and knows what is required and what is not required by the body.
Agni is fire, heat, and temperature located between the navel and the colon in the stomach. This is the source of our energy. Just like fire in our atmosphere, agni needs the support of vata to function properly. Vata is the energy of movement, a blend of air and space elements, as such, it stokes the fire and performs an important role in our digestion. The functional vata energy also moves the food throughout the entire digestive system from esophagus to colon.
Agni transforms food, materially and energetically, in a way the body can absorb, assimilate, and utilize for tissue construction and energy. Agni functions as creator, preserver, and destroyer. Agni creates nutrients to supply energy and support and repair tissues, gives heat and warmth to the body, and contributes to the healthy glow. Agni acts as preserver by working every day, each moment to transform external material into internal materials and maintaining construction of new, healthy tissues. As a destroyer, agni breaks down old tissues, toxins, clogged energy, ama, and food so waste is able to be removed from the body.
Properly functioning agni is important for the clear, natural flow of energy throughout your body for proper digestion and cognition. Agni can be functioning and fluctuating between four different levels: balanced, irregular, low, or high.
Agni transforms food, materially and energetically, in a way the body can absorb, assimilate, and utilize for tissue construction and energy. Agni functions as creator, preserver, and destroyer. Agni creates nutrients to supply energy and support and repair tissues, gives heat and warmth to the body, and contributes to the healthy glow. Agni acts as preserver by working every day, each moment to transform external material into internal materials and maintaining construction of new, healthy tissues. As a destroyer, agni breaks down old tissues, toxins, clogged energy, ama, and food so waste is able to be removed from the body.
Properly functioning agni is important for the clear, natural flow of energy throughout your body for proper digestion and cognition. Agni can be functioning and fluctuating between four different levels: balanced, irregular, low, or high.
How do you know if your agni is balanced?
How is your appetite?
How is your appetite?
- If you’re hungry 30 minutes after you eat, your agni is too high (teekshna). Other signs include sour burping and acidity.
- If you’re not getting hungry, agni is low (manda). Other signs include feeling heavy, sluggish, or lethargic.
- If you’re really hungry, then not hungry and unable to have a routine, your agni is irregular (vishama). Other signs include bloating, gas, cramps, burping, and abdominal pain.
- If you have sama agni, meaning balanced, you will feel hungry with a light stomach that is ready for food at your regular mealtimes.
Why is balanced agni important?
Agni is the doorway through which everything we ingest (food, water, breath, and experiences/perceptions) with our senses gets metabolized and transformed into energy able to be processed by our body. If agni is not functioning well, even if you’re eating healthy, good food your body isn’t able to optimally absorb those nutrients.
Agni is an innate intelligence our body naturally has that we are able to support through simple actions with big impacts on our overall health. Agni not only digests food, but processes all sensory information and thoughts, transforms neural images, and maintains body temperature. It’s a very important function for our mind-body-spirit system.
Agni is the doorway through which everything we ingest (food, water, breath, and experiences/perceptions) with our senses gets metabolized and transformed into energy able to be processed by our body. If agni is not functioning well, even if you’re eating healthy, good food your body isn’t able to optimally absorb those nutrients.
Agni is an innate intelligence our body naturally has that we are able to support through simple actions with big impacts on our overall health. Agni not only digests food, but processes all sensory information and thoughts, transforms neural images, and maintains body temperature. It’s a very important function for our mind-body-spirit system.
How to care for your agni
- Don’t drink ice cold water. Period. Anything below body temperature must be brought up to temperature by the body before anything can be absorbed, so our body has to work extra hard to be able to digest anything cold, not just water.
- Don’t drink a lot of water right before eating. This is like pouring water on coals you’ve just tended to get just right for cooking. What would happen? The coals would be extinguished! Agni is like the coals, we want it hot and crackling, ready to cook our food from a yummy meal.
- Sip warm water 30 min before eating. This is a very simple way to support agni at any stage or any prakriti (your constitution). Everyone can benefit from sipping on warm water. Hint – what I do to try and keep things simple, heat up some water as your starting to prepare your meal, then sip on it throughout your preparation. By the time you sit down to eat, you will have stoked your agni appropriately!
- If your agni is feeling low, have some ginger tea. You could add lemon if you’d like. Another tea option is ginger, black pepper, and cumin.
- If your agni is feeling high, have a snack. If agni is too stimulated and there is no food in the system, agni will start digesting the tissues. This is the process that is stimulated by fasting; however, if this is not your goal, and you would like to maintain, have a small snack between meals. Incorporate coriander cold infusion. Take ½ teaspoon coriander seeds, crush them slightly, set in room temperature water overnight, in the morning strain seeds (keep the water), and drink first thing in the morning. This helps cool the body and expel excess heat in the system.
- If your agni if feeling irregular, try to set a routine. The body will learn the routine easily. If you’re not feeling hungry in the morning at breakfast, have a piece of fruit, something very light. Drink some ginger tea 30 minutes before lunch. Have a light dinner before 9 pm. Try to do this each day for a week and see how the body adjusts. It will start to become hungry at your regular meal times.