“Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.”
Hippocrates
Sheila had a love/hate relationship with food. Her weight was always more than she felt comfortable with and if there was a new diet that promised an easy way to drop a few pounds, she was a willing subject. Unfortunately, as quickly as she lost, she regained.
When she came to me requesting an Ayurvedic diet, I asked her to forget about losing weight; rather, I asked her to focus on eating with full awareness. She learned to make her meals a meditation, listening attentively to her appetite and savoring every taste, smell, and sensation.
When I saw her again ten weeks later, she looked and felt terrific and hadn’t stepped on a scale in over a month. Did she lose weight? Why do you ask?
As a physician, I frequently hear the accusation that medical doctors know nothing about nutrition. I used to be perplexed by this statement because I thought I knew a lot about nutrients. I studied biochemistry and could prescribe the precise intravenous requirements of calories, fluids, vitamins, and minerals for my hospitalized patients who were unable to eat. When I would see people in my office complaining of food allergies or vitamin deficiencies, I would check their immunoglobulin or vitamin levels and reassure them they were adequately nourished. Part of my resistance to dietary programs was that they were based on assumptions that were inconsistent with my understanding and experience. For example, I would see people who were told they had candidiasis and therefore needed to avoid any food that had yeast in it. I took care of people with systemic candida infections who were usually severely immune suppressed and invariably very sick. I could not fathom how sourdough bread would contribute to a significant health problem.
It wasn’t until I began studying Ayurveda that I began to appreciate the subtle ways that food could be used to enhance health. Ayurveda provides a framework to understand the many concerns that patients voice about the influence of diet on their well being. It enabled me to grasp why different people had dramatically different experiences of how food impacted their lives. One person ate only pure organic grains and vegetables and was fragile and sickly while another ate burgers and fries and was vibrant. Ayurvedic nutrition made sense to me and did not require any major leaps of faith.
Ayurveda looks at life as the eternal recycling of earth, water, and air. Although our bodies may appear to be stable, we are continuously exchanging the raw material of our physical forms with the environment. We begin life as impulses of orderly intelligence on double-stranded DNA and wrap ourselves in molecules we derive from our surroundings in the form of food. This is how we create a body.
In order to maintain life, we must take something each day from outside ourselves and bring it inside, so that it can become part of us for a while. Since the ability to extract these codes of energy and information and convert them into biological intelligence is truly the foundation of good health, it’s important to make use of the Ayurvedic principles that can help identify the best sources of nourishment and use them to our fullest advantage.
According to Ayurveda, there are six basic tastes into which all edible substances can be classified: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent. Long before the United States Department of Agriculture provided us with the recommended daily allowances for fats, carbohydrates, and proteins, we were sampling our environment with our taste buds. Nature packages its foods according to taste to tell us which ones are of benefit in high quantities, low quantities, or in very minimal amounts. Generally, we consume high quantities of food that are predominantly sweet in taste but small amounts that are bitter. The primary taste of a food, which in Sanskrit is called rasa, begins to take effect on our mind body physiology as soon as it touches our tongue. Although this may appear to defy physiological principles, I’m sure that we have all had the experience of being really hungry but instantly appeased by just a bite of a chocolate brownie. According to Ayurveda, there are direct pathways that communicate the nutrient content of food to our nervous system via taste, even before the biochemical substrates are released into the bloodstream.
THE SIX TASTES
| ENGLISH NAME | SANSKRIT NAME |
| Sweet | Madhura |
| Sour | Amla |
| Salty | Lavana |
| Pungent | Katu |
| Bitter | Tikta |
| Astringent | Kashya |
Understanding the elemental composition of each taste allows us to predict its influence on our physiology. Nature uses taste to code the effects of food.
• The sweet taste (composed of the elements of earth and water) builds body mass and creates a lubricating effect.
• The sour taste (composed of earth and fire) contributes to mass and increases both chemical and physical heat in the body.
• Salty taste (composed of water and fire) is lubricating and increases heat in the system.
• The pungent taste (composed of fire and air) fosters heat and dryness.
• The bitter taste (composed of air and space) is the most drying and depleting to the system.
• The astringent taste (composed of air and earth) has a compacting, densifying effect.
THE ELEMENTAL COMPOSITION OF TASTE
| Sweet | Earth and Water |
| Sour | Earth and Fire |
| Salty | Water and Fire |
| Pungent | Fire and Air |
| Bitter | Air and Space |
| Astringent | Air and Earth |
Each taste influences the doshas in a particular way. Kapha dosha, composed of earth and water, is increased by tastes that have a predominance of those elements. Pitta dosha is increased by tastes that have the fire element. Vata dosha, which is made up of air and space, will be increased by tastes that have a predominance of air. For each dosha, there are three tastes that increase its power in the physiology and three that diminish it.
VATA
| TASTES THAT INCREASE | TASTES THAT DECREASE |
| Pungent | Sweet |
| Bitter | Salty |
| Astringent | Sour |
PITTA
| TASTES THAT INCREASE | TASTES THAT DECREASE |
| Pungent | Sweet |
| Sour | Bitter |
| Salty | Astringent |
KAPHA
| TASTES THAT INCREASE | TASTES THAT DECREASE |
| Sweet | Pungent |
| Sour | Bitter |
| Salty | Astringent |
The science of taste in Ayurveda may on first exposure seem complicated, but the principles that underlie it are actually very simple. They may be stated:
Like qualities increase.
Opposite qualities decrease.
Tastes with elements that make up a dosha will increase that dosha. Tastes with elements that do not comprise a dosha will reduce that dosha. For example, the taste of pungent chili peppers is composed primarily of the fire element. Therefore, peppers will increase Pitta dosha, which is made up primarily of fire. A sweet roll is composed of the earth and water elements; therefore, eating one will increase the Kapha dosha, which is composed of those two elements.
In addition to its influence on the doshas, each taste has other effects on our mind body physiology. Although these physiological effects are mild, they can be used therapeutically. Some of the predominant influences for each taste are listed below:
| SWEET | SOUR |
| Nutritive | Appetite enhancement |
| Soothing | Digestive aid |
| Softening | Carminative |
| SALTY | PUNGENT |
| Digestive aid | Digestive aid |
| Laxative | Diaphoretic |
| Mildly sedative | Expectorant |
| BITTER | ASTRINGENT |
| Depleting | Reduces sweating |
| Anti-inflammatory | Constipative |
| Detoxifying | Wound healing |
Along with the effect of taste on the physiology, Ayurveda recognizes two other important influences that are present in nutritional substances: energy and postdigestive effect. In Sanskrit, these are known as virya and vipaka.
Virya refers to the intrinsic energy of a food, and can be characterized in several ways. The most common distinction is between the heating or cooling effects of a food. Substances that have a heating quality reduce Vata and Kapha, but increase Pitta, while those with a cooling quality have an opposite effect. Heating foods tend to contribute to the digestive process, whereas cooling foods require more energy for digestion. Most pungent, spicy foods such as pepper, chilies, and mustard are noted for their heating virya. Cooling foods include rice, wheat, and lentils.
The energy of a food can also be characterized according to whether it is heavy or light, and whether it is oily or dry.
Heavy foods increase Kapha but reduce Pitta and Vata. Examples include meat, cheese, honey, soy and garbanzo beans, beets, and carrots.
Light foods increase Vata and Pitta and reduce Kapha. Examples include nonfat milk, barley, millet, mung beans, leafy vegetables, and apples.
Oily foods increase Kapha and Pitta and reduce Vata. Examples include milk, butter, yogurt, meat, and eggs.
Dry foods increase Vata while reducing Kapha and Pitta. Examples include beans, cabbage, potatoes, and most grains.
Knowing the energy of a food can be useful in determining the most effective means to influence a dosha. For most purposes, knowing whether the virya is heating or cooling is of greatest usefulness. This understanding can usually explain why a food that you would think should have an effect on a dosha in one direction is classified in a different way. For example, you would probably assume that due to its sweet taste, honey pacifies Vata and Pitta and increases Kapha. Because honey has a heating virya, however, it actually slightly increases Pitta and decreases Kapha.
Postdigestive effect is the taste that emerges later in the digestive process. As a result of the metabolism of food, the influence of a food on the doshas will change as it moves down the gastrointestinal tract. Sweet and salty tastes usually result in a sweet postdigestive effect, with an overall nutritive effect on the physiology. Sour taste results in a sour postdigestive effect, which increases the fire in the system and often stimulates the desire for more nutrition. Pungent, bitter, and astringent tastes usually create a pungent postdigestive effect, which has a generally reducing effect on the physiology. Thus, the six rasas result in three vipakas. Even when a food has a number of tastes, there will usually be only one predominant postdigestive effect.
Knowledge of the vipaka can be very useful in determining a food’s net influence on the doshas. For example, fresh ginger root has a pungent and sweet taste but a sweet vipaka. This sweet postdigestive effect allows ginger to be used in people with high Pitta who have weak agnis, as it can stimulate the digestive fire without aggravating the predominant dosha.
Another Sanskrit term, prabhava, refers to special effects of a food or herb that cannot be predicted on the basis of its rasa, virya, or vipaka. For example, the cardiotonic effect of foxglove (digitalis) is a special effect that can be used therapeutically, but would not be expected on the basis of its taste or potency. There are many examples of two substances that have the same rasa, virya, and vipaka but have different overall influences on the mind body physiology. Their special effects, or prabhava, result from subtler, intrinsic chemical properties.
The six tastes can also be understood to reflect the various stages of digestion that food undergoes. For complete assimilation of nutrition, food must progress through all six phases in the gastrointestinal tract.
• Sweet taste is predominant in the mouth as salivary enzymes begin the digestion of carbohydrates.
• Sour taste is represented in the stomach with the secretion of gastric acid.
• Salty taste is expressed by the secretion of bile salts from the gallbladder into the duodenum.
• Pungent taste is reflected in the intense digestive enzymes of the small intestines.
• Bitter taste is expressed in the absorption of fluids, which results in the drying of stool in the large intestines.
• Finally, astringent taste is represented in the descending colon with the compaction of the fecal material in preparation for elimination.
According to Ayurveda, our ability to metabolize food is as important as what we choose to eat. Even normally healthy, nutritious food is of limited value when digestive power is weak. If food is not completely metabolized, healthy tissues cannot form; instead, there is an accumulation of toxicity. How we prepare and consume food is as essential to its nourishing influence as its carbohydrate, protein, vitamin, and mineral composition. Eating food with full awareness takes advantage of the enlivening power of attention.
There are some basic principles to follow in regard to the preparation and eating of a meal. We refer to these principles as Body Intelligence Techniques or BITS. If you pay attention to these simple principles, you can help your system extract the highest levels of nourishment from everything you eat.
BODY INTELLIGENCE TECHNIQUES (BITS)
1. Eat in a settled environment.
If you are eating in chaotic surroundings, you are metabolizing the chaos along with your food. Try not to be watching a violent television show while eating dinner. Enjoy your meals in silence or with people that you love.
2. Never eat when upset.
Although a pint of ice cream after a fight with your lover may seem like just the right thing to soothe your wounded heart, the powerful emotional chemicals that are released after an argument do not contribute to optimal digestion. Wait until you have settled down a bit, listen to your appetite, and then use food to fill your metabolic, not your emotional, needs.
3. Always sit down to eat.
This doesn’t mean eating a taco while driving on the highway. If you can’t eat with your full attention on your food, wait until you can.
Your appetite is your best friend when it comes to nutrition. If you think of your appetite as a fuel gauge with zero being empty and ten being full, wait until you are at a level two or three before eating and then stop when you are at a six or seven. This means eat when you are really hungry and stop when you are comfortably full. The only way to be clear about the level of your appetite is to check in regularly with your bodily sensations and eat with awareness. When we overeat, it is usually because we are doing something else while we are taking our meal and therefore, eat past our satiety point without noticing it until we are stuffed. If we eat consciously, we cannot miss the signals that a healthy physiology provides.
5. Reduce ice-cold food and drink.
For most of our evolutionary experience, we ate food at room temperature or hotter. All of our digestive enzymes work best at body temperature. It is only recently that we have consumed so many cold foods, particularly cold beverages. Ice tends to numb our taste buds, which may be why we are encouraged to drink alcoholic beverages and sodas ice cold—it may be the only way we would tolerate putting these nutritionally empty substances into our bodies. If we were forced to drink beer or colas at room temperature, our consumption would probably go way down. This doesn’t mean we should never eat ice cream, but when we do consume cold food or beverages, it is best to do so when our digestive power is at its strongest—that is, during the noon meal.
6. Eat at a moderate pace.
This means neither too fast nor too slow. When you eat with awareness, the pace will be appropriate for maximal digestion because you will have savored each mouthful before you are ready for the next.
7. Wait until one meal is digested before starting the next (two to six hours).
This again requires us to be in touch with our bodies. It is useful to place your attention consciously on your stomach and even place your hand on your belly to focus your awareness. Eat only when your stomach is calling for more.
This helps the digestive process work efficiently. By avoiding ice-cold drinks your digestive enzymes can function optimally.
9. Eat freshly cooked meals.
The life force is greatest in meals prepared with fresh ingredients. The delicious smells and pleasing display of a freshly prepared meal stimulate the appetite and the secretion of digestive enzymes even before food is placed in the mouth.
10. Reduce raw foods.
Although there is no question that raw vegetables are richest in essential nutrients, if we cannot readily assimilate them, they are of little value. Appropriate cooking begins the digestive process, allowing us to extract maximal nourishment from our food.
11. Experience all six tastes at every meal.
If all six tastes are represented, you will be fully satisfied at the end of a meal. When you feel that you have eaten an adequate volume of food but still feel hungry, it usually implies that one of the tastes was missing. If you consciously identify and consume the missing taste, you will feel satiated.
12. Drink milk separately from meals, either alone or with other sweet foods.
Milk is a complete food in itself. Of course, if you are going to eat something with milk, the best choice would be cookies.
13. Leave one-third to one-fourth of your stomach empty to aid digestion.
Leaving some space allows the churning process to optimize digestion. This state of fullness can be recognized when you feel satisfied from a meal without being stuffed.
14. Sit quietly for a few minutes after your meal.
Eating is a sacred process. It is a magical transformation that allows for the energy of the universe to be transformed into the intelligence of our body. Savor the moments after a meal to appreciate the magic.
Spices add variety to life. Just as every food influences each mind body principle, so does every herb and spice. Blends of dosha-balancing seasonings are available or can be prepared to be used in cooking or sprinkled on food during a meal. These herb-and-spice blends ensure that each taste is represented in the right proportion. Vata, Pitta, and Kapha types eating the same pasta primavera can use the appropriate spice blends to personalize their meals.
In general, Vata-balancing spices are warm and sweet, Pitta-balancing spices are bitter and cool, and Kapha-balancing spices are light and hot. You can create your own dosha-specific spice-and-herb blends choosing from the ingredients listed below:
1. Vata-Balancing Herbs and Spices
Basil, Bay, Black Pepper, Cardamom, Ginger, Marjoram, Nutmeg, Salt, Savory
2. Pitta-Balancing Herbs and Spices
Cilantro, Coriander, Cumin, Dill, Fennel, Lemongrass, Licorice, Mint, Sugar
3. Kapha-Balancing Herbs and Spices
Basil, Black Pepper, Caraway, Cardamom, Cayenne, Cinnamon, Dill, Fenugreek, Ginger, Mint, Mustard, Nutmeg, Parsley, Rosemary, Sage
According to Ayurveda, a weak appetite is both a cause for and a result of an accumulation of toxicity in the system. The collective term for toxic residues, ama, is described by Ayurveda as cold, heavy, cloudy, malodorous, sticky, and impure. Certain foods are considered to be ama reducing and are recommended when your ability to assimilate nourishing foods seems weakened. A comprehensive ama-reducing program is presented in Chapter 11.
Once the signs of accumulated toxicity are reduced, Ayurveda recommends that you follow a dosha-specific diet—but only if you can do so with a sense of ease and joyfulness rather than strain or restriction. And always remember that the intention is to favor or reduce certain choices, rather than to completely eliminate variety from the diet. Your meals should be taken with a sense of appreciation, pleasure, and with awareness that the enjoyment of eating is as important to nutrition as the food that is eaten.
Because Vata is drying, cooling, and light, you should favor foods that are oily, warming, and heavy. The best tastes for pacifying or balancing Vata are sweet, sour, and salty. Deemphasize foods that are pungent, bitter, and astringent.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. To balance the lightness of Vata eat larger quantities, but do not overeat.
2. Dairy products pacify Vata. Heat milk before drinking it and take it warm. Do not drink milk at a full meal with mixed tastes.
3. All sweeteners pacify Vata and may be taken in moderation.
4. Fats and oils reduce Vata.
5. Rice and wheat are the best grains. Use less barley, corn, millet, buckwheat, rye, and oats.
6. Favor sweet, heavy fruits such as avocados, bananas, berries, cherries, grapes, mangoes, sweet oranges, papayas, peaches, pineapples, and plums. Reduce dry or light fruits such as apples, cranberries, pears, and pomegranates.
7. Cooked vegetables are best. Raw vegetables should be minimized. Favor asparagus, beets, and carrots. Other vegetables such as peas, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, and potatoes should be sautéed or steamed. Sprouts and cabbage tend to produce gas and should be minimized.
8. Spices known to pacify Vata are cardamom, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, salt, cloves, mustard seed, and black pepper. Vata spice blends are also useful.
9. All varieties of nuts are recommended.
10. Except for tofu and mung dahl, reduce the intake of beans.
11. For nonvegetarians, chicken, turkey, and seafood are best; beef should be minimized.
Although oily, heavier, sweeter, and richer foods are usually recommended to pacify Vata, there are circumstances in which lighter foods with Vata-pacifying qualities are desirable. People with Vata-aggravated minds who are overweight or those with high cholesterol levels who have been instructed to reduce their intake of fats and oils should favor a lighter Vata-pacifying diet.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Rice, wheat, and oats are the favored grains, prepared with reduced amounts of oil or sweeteners.
2. All sweeteners may be taken in reduced amounts.
3. Favor low-fat milk and lassi. Reduce your quantities of cheeses and cream.
4. All oils except for coconut can be used in small quantities. Small amounts of clarified butter (ghee) may be taken.
5. Green or yellow mung beans and red lentils are preferable. They are usually prepared by mixing one part dried beans with two parts water and boiling to the consistency of soup.
6. Vegetables should be well cooked and are best taken in soups, casseroles, and stews. Almost all vegetables are acceptable, with carrots, zucchini, asparagus, spinach, tomato, and artichoke most desirable.
7. Favor sweet, ripe fruits in season. Figs, pineapples, grapes, apricots, sweet oranges, papayas, and small amounts of raisins are acceptable.
8. The warmer and sweeter spices are useful, including ginger, cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, fennel, cloves, hing (asafetida), and anise. Salt, lemon juice, and tamarind are useful in small amounts.
Because Pitta dosha can overheat the mind and body, favor cool foods and liquids. Foods with sweet, bitter, and astringent tastes are best. Reduce foods that are pungent, salty, and sour.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. To balance the heat of Pitta take milk, butter, and ghee. Use less yogurt, cheese, sour cream, and buttermilk as the sour taste aggravates Pitta.
2. All sweeteners may be taken in moderation except molasses and honey.
3. Olive, sunflower, and coconut oils are the best to pacify Pitta. Use less sesame, almond, and corn oil, which are more heating.
4. Wheat, rice, barley, and oats are the best grains to reduce Pitta. Use less corn, rye, millet, and brown rice.
5. The sweeter fruits such as grapes, melons, cherries, coconuts, avocados, mangoes, pomegranates, and fully ripe pineapples, oranges, and plums are recommended. Reduce sour fruits such as grapefruits, apricots, and berries.
6. The vegetables to favor are asparagus, cucumbers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green leafy vegetables, pumpkins, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, okra, lettuce, green beans, and zucchini. Reduce tomatoes, hot peppers, carrots, beets, eggplant, onions, garlic, radishes, and spinach.
7. Pitta types need to use seasonings that are more soothing and cooling. These include cinnamon, coriander, cardamom, and fennel. Hotter spices such as ginger, cumin, black pepper, fenugreek, clove, salt, and mustard seed should be used sparingly. Very hot seasonings such as chili peppers and cayenne are best avoided.
8. For nonvegetarians, chicken, pheasant, and turkey are preferable; beef, seafood, and eggs increase Pitta and should be minimized.
Kapha dosha is heavy, oily, and cold, so you should favor foods that are light, dry, and warm. Foods with pungent, bitter, and astringent tastes are most beneficial for pacifying Kapha. Sweet, sour, and salty tastes should be reduced.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Dairy products tend to increase Kapha, so low-fat milk is best. Boiling milk before drinking it makes it easier to digest. Adding turmeric or ginger to milk before boiling reduces its Kapha-increasing qualities.
2. Apples and pears, which are considered lighter fruits, are recommended. Reduce heavier fruits such as bananas, avocados, coconuts, melons, dates, figs, or sour oranges.
3. Honey is a sweetener that is said to pacify Kapha. Other sweeteners increase Kapha and should be reduced.
4. All beans are good for Kapha types except soybeans and tofu.
5. Favor the grains of barley, corn, millet, buckwheat, rye, and oats. Reduce the intake of rice and wheat.
6. Reduce all nuts.
7. All spices except salt are pacifying to Kapha.
8. All vegetables except tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, and zucchini are suitable for Kapha types.
9. For nonvegetarians, white chicken meat, turkey, and seafood are acceptable. Reduce the intake of red meats.
We are biologically capable of eating just about anything—animal or vegetable. Although Ayurveda does not recommend a strict vegetarian diet, there are clear advantages to favoring a nutritional program that is high in whole grains, vegetables, and fruits and low in animal fats. There is now overwhelming scientific evidence that diet plays a significant role in heart disease and many forms of cancer. Vegetarians not only have lower incidences of these two major killers, but also show fewer occurrences of diabetes, gallstones, and osteoporosis.1
It is quite easy to obtain adequate protein and more than enough vitamins and minerals in a vegetarian diet. Primarily vegetarian diets are low in saturated fats and cholesterol and high in natural antioxidants. Pure vegetarians who consume no dairy will need to supplement with vitamin B12, but Ayurveda supports the use of some dairy on a daily basis. A good time to drink milk is before bed when it can be heated with fresh ginger, nutmeg, and cardamom. The herbs along with the natural tryptophan in the milk promote a sound sleep. If you have an elevated cholesterol level, use low- or nonfat milk. If you have a definite lactase deficiency, you can add lactase enzyme or use a milk substitute made from rice, almond, or soy. There are increasing numbers of dairies that avoid pesticides and hormones and treat their cows humanely; they deserve our support even though the milk costs a little more.
From an ecological perspective, the consumption of meat is costly in terms of global food resources, as a pound of hamburger requires about sixteen pounds of grain. Ever since we moved from an agrarian to an urban-based society, most of us have lost touch with nature so that we seldom connect the steak on our plate with the beast that gave its life for our sustenance. Cultures that hunt or raise their own livestock invariably have genuine respect for their animals and acknowledge the sacrifice they are making. In most cultures where meat is an important nutritional component, it is one part of a diet that includes larger quantities of vegetables and grains. If you look at a plate in an American steak house, you may find a pound of sirloin surrounded by a couple of fried potatoes and a few string beans. In societies in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, a smaller meat portion will usually be balanced with substantial helpings of grains and vegetables. As with every aspect of Ayurveda, the emphasis is on balance.
My main recommendation regarding vegetarianism is always to eat with awareness. Whatever you are bringing into your mind or body, do so consciously and with honor and respect, offering your appreciation to the source of your nourishment.