This book is interesting to read and great help in deciding what to eat to balance your vikrities (imbalances). You start out learning some Ayurvedic basics and then you can test yourself to find out what your dosha (constitution) is. Then you learn what foods and tastes agrivate or calm that dosha. It tells you a little bit about what the symptoms of an imbalance might be, but I got more descriptive information about that on the Internet. One reason I like this book is because me and my fiance are different constitutions, and this book tells us which foods will calm/ balance us both. There are simple instructions on most recipes that explain how to modify the recipe so that it suits a person with a different constitution. It also has codes for what seasons to eat what food, and every chapter or so has interesting blurbs about different foods and philosophies. That part I enjoy. And from my experience, Ayurveda WORKS. Fast and precisely.
Feeling flighty, hyper, dried out and flaky? Balance your Vata. Feeling irritable, is your skin oily, have heartburn, or an infection? Balance your Pitta. Are you overweight, or sluggish? Balance your Kapha. Eating ayurvedicly will heal all/ any of those (and many other) ailments very quickly. I haven't been sick at all since I started paying attention to my ayurvedic needs, and I used to get sick all the time. I am a Pitta person, and by eating to calm pitta imbalances, I wiped out acne in a short time (a week) - something prescription creams and antibiotics didn't help with at all. In doing so, I also managed to become a less angry, irritable person. But remember that this is a continuous process. Balancing one dosha can offset another. That's why its such a fine art and requires years of training to become a certified practitioner. This (and other ayurveda books) have helped me become more in tune with my body and mind. I also notice a lot of other people's imbalances, and surprisingly I am now able to understand other people's mood changes, personalities, and tendencies by determining their dosha and their imbalances. Granted, I didn't get this way just from reading this book alone, but this is the one that sparked my interest to read more about ayurveda elsewhere. I'd definitely get this book with another book on Ayurvedic philosophy, signs and symptoms of imbalances, and other non-dietic ways to balance your dosha (like yoga, oil massage and pranayama). I'd recommend maybe one by Robert Svaboda or Deepak Chopra.
The recipes are all very easy to make. I've tried quite a few of them, everything from their fruit bowls to pasta sauces. Unfortunately, they're not all ones I enjoy eating... I eat them more for their healing aspects rather than for their tastiness. However, from what I've heard, tastier ayurvedic recipes exist.
I also found a few spelling errors, and a medical discrepency. This book says Pitta people should eat/ favor apricots while every other source says pitta people should avoid apricots. Of course, many ayurvedic professionals disagree with certain things, but I found this confusing and discreditting to the author.
Overall, I like the book but think it could offer more in terms of knowledge, and tastier recipes.
