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Ayurvedic Diet

» Ayurvedic Diet: Basic Principal Of Diet

» Ayurvedic Normal Diet: Ten Rules For Food Intake

» Ayurvedic Normal Diet: As Per The Mental Status

» Ayurvedic Normal Diet: Time Factor

» Infant Feeding

» Menu Planning & Diet Chart: Kapha Dosha

» Menu Planning & Diet Chart: Pitta Dosha

» Menu Planning & Diet Chart: Vata Dosha

» Seasonal Diet

» Greeshma Ritu – The Summer

» Varsha Ritu -The Monsoon

» Sharad Ritu – Autumn

» Shishir Ritu – The Late Winter

» Ayurvedic Diet: Contraindication Of Food  

Ayurvedic Diet: Basic Principal of Diet

AYURVEDIC VIEW

The concept of digestion is totally depends on AGNI. Agni literally means the fire. In normal terms it is digestive fire. There are so many types of agni, but mainly there are four…

Samagni                   –    regular or balanced digestive fire.

Vishamagni              –    irregular digestive fire.

Mandaagni               –    dull or mild digestive fire.

Tikshnaagni              –    sharp and heavy digestive fire.

According to ayurveda, there are six types of tastes…

Madhur                    –    sweet, composed of prithvi (earth) and jala (water)

Amla                        –    sour, composed of prithvi (earth) and tej(fire)

Lavan                       –    salty, composed of tej (fire) and jala(water)

Katu                         –    pungent, composed of tej (fire) and vayu (air)

Tikta                         –    bitter, composed of aakash (ether) and vayu (air)

Kashay                     –    astringent, composed of prithvi (earth) and vayu (air).

These rasa’s (tastes) are present in every food. Ayurveda believes that certain rasa’s increase or decrease certain doshas (Vata, Pitta and Kapha). This is as per below information… Madhur usually increases Kapha dosha. Amla usually increases Pitta dosha. Lavan usually increases Pitta and Kapha. Katu usually increases Pitta. Tikta usually increases Vata. Kashay usually increases Vata. Now as per the taste the regulation of dosha take place. For instance a person fond of sweets and have been consuming the same since years, tend to have Kapha priority and so the diseases related to Kapha.

Ayurvedic Normal Diet: Ten Rules For Food Intake

(Charaka Viman sthana chapter 1)

1. Intake of food should be warm. It is delicious after intake and it helps digestive fire to digest the food properly.

2. Intake of food should be unctuous because slightly oily food gets disintegrated quickly and hence gets digested. This also helps in the downward movement of Vata. It increases oiliness of the body, strengthens the sense faculties, promotes strength and brings out the brightness of complexion.

3. Intake of the food in proper quantity promotes longevity without affecting Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Food with proper quantity easily passes downwards and gets digested without any difficulty.

4. Intake after digestion of previous meal because if the food is taken after the digestion of previous food at a time when doshas are at their proper places and Agni is provoked, there is good appetite, the entrances of the channels of circulation are open, there is unimpaired cardiac function, downward passage of Vata and proper manifestation of the urges for voiding flatus, urine and stool, then such food promotes longevity. So one should take food only when the previous one is digested.

5. Intake of food having no contradictory potencies, as diseases caused by the intake of food having mutually contradictory potencies are kushtha (skin diseases) etc. to avoid this one should take food having no contradictories.

6. Intake of food in proper place because if the food is taken at improper places and without the required accessories emotional strain will occur which may cause passion, anger, confusion, anxiety etc. this will naturally disturb the digestion. Hence it should be consumed at proper place.

7. Intake of food without hurries and worries because if is taken too hurriedly, it is not digested properly. In this situation, one can never determine the taste of food articles and foreign bodies like hair etc. can get mixed up with food, which, can lead to bad consequences. Hence one should not take food too hurriedly.

8. Intake of food, not too slow because this will not give satisfaction to the individual and he would take more than what is required. The food would become cold and there will be irregularity in digestion.

9. One should take food while not talking or laughing and with concentration.

10. One should eat after due consideration to himself.

Ayurvedic Normal Diet: As per the Mental Status

AS PER THE MENTAL STATUS – MANASIK DOSHA SATVIK FOOD – milk, fruits, ghee and other stable substances, which do not undergo fermentation and putrefaction, promote the satvik quality of mind. Satvik food should be of sweet taste but should also be light for digestion, which will not consist of any meat and alcohol. Satvik people have steady mind, good manners, good characters and righteousness.

RAJASIK FOOD – pungent, sour, hot, dry and irritating food items in excess nd alcohol, red meat, meat with preservatives and canned food and food prepared with spices, garlic and onions promote the rajsik quality of the mind, such people are proud, ambitious and prone to emotional outbursts.

TAMASIK FOOD – stale, dry, putrefied, left over and unclean food promotes the tamasik quality of the mind. Such people are lazy, greedy and do not have consideration for others. Charaka has specified the ten rules for food intake. These are known as aharavidhi-vidhanam.

Ayurvedic Normal Diet: Time Factor

Ayurveda believes that AMA (undigested food) is the mother of all the diseases. Hence its clearly mentioned that a person is what he eats and what he digests. Numerous numbers of food are available in the market and houses, but it is indeed important to chose the right one to right person in right time and in right season.

THE TIME FACTOR –As we know the season doesn’t remain same through out the year, it is always changing. As per the season the doshas in the body aggravates or decreases. Top of that certain tastes (like madhur-sweet increases Kapha dosha) also play part to the same. In ayurveda basic food are described by its virya (potency), vipak (end product) and guna (the capacity to modify bodily humors).

These qualities are changed with time. Like raw banana gets ripen and so sweeten. There are so many other factors that change the texture or taste or the qualities of the food. In ayurveda there is diet for everyone as per the age, diseases, mental status and so on. One should eat the food in the proper quantity with best quality. Otherwise the body gets its diseased state. Food eaten in either less or more quantity makes the homeostasis disturbed. Food taken in excessive quantity aggravates all the three doshas. But in particular if certain dosha-elevated food are taken, the person suffers from the following diseases…

Aggravated Vata produces colicky pain, constipation, dryness of mouth, fainting, giddiness, and irregularity in the power of the digestion. Aggravated Pitta produces fever, diarrhea, internal burring sensation, thirst, intoxication, giddiness and delirium. Aggravated Kapha produces vomiting, anorexia, indigestion, cold fever and heaviness in the body.

Ayurvedic Normal Diet: Infant Feeding

INFANT FEEDING

During fetal life, the embryo receives all the nutrition through the mother’s placenta. After birth the infant is fed by mothers breast milk. Human breast milk is said to have not only nutritious value but also carries immunity to the baby which none of the other milk can give. It also promotes the growth, development and also acts as a tonic to all the tissues.

Menu Planning & Diet Chart---Kapha Dosha

Kapha dosha

The basic qualities of this are cold, heavy, some what sticky.

Kapha pacifying foods –

To balance this one should eat smaller amounts of food and should go for Vata dosha aggravating foods. Those are dry, hot and sharp are good one. So itinclude foods with pungent, bitter or astringent tastes. Puffed cereals such as puffed rice or corn; small astringent grain like millet, amaranth are to be taken. Geen leafy vegetables and spices like ginger, garlic, turmeric and chili are generally good for Kapha dosha. Chapati without butter or oil or ghee and plain just dry roasted bread is good for the same. Vegetables like cucumbers, pumpkin family, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, brinjal etc are to be avoided in heavy quantity. Fruits like apples, apricots, pears, pomegranates and dried fruits in generalincluding apricots, figs and raisins are good for the same. Beans are welcome as they increase Vata. Spices like ginger and turmeric is best to remove Kapha dosha in terms of unwanted mucus from the body.

Kapha aggravating foods –

 Foods such as dairy product, wheat, avocados and oils increase this. Usually sweet products like desserts, sweets themselves, deep fried foods, salty, heavy food increases Kapha. Laziness, possessiveness, sluggishness and eating plenty of milk product increases Kapha dosha.

Vegetables like cucumber, pumpkin family, sweet potatoes, potatoes and vegetables having too much water within it increses Kapha dosha. Fruits those sweet juicy increases Kapha dosha. Excess salt does increases Kapha dosha

Menu Planning & Diet Chart: Pitta Dosha

Pitta dosha –

This dosha is hot, sharp, light, sticky and oily.

Pitta pacifying foods –

The balancing foods for this are cool, dry and heavy with mild naturally sweet, bitter or

astringent taste. This may include milk, beans, steamed vegetables and sweet fruites like

chickoo. Mild spice like cumin, coriander and cilantro are beneficial. Food having sweet, bitter, astringent taste; cold, heavy and dry property are also good for the same. Ghee, coconut oil, olive oil, coriander seeds, cardamom, sprouts and raw foods are good. One can eat most of the vegetables and fruits except barley, oats, wheat and parboiled rice.

Pitta aggravating foods –

All the spices usually shoot up Pitta dosha. Pungent and oily food also increase this.

Curry, fried foods and food having strong odor like garlic and ginger does increase. Chilies are the best source of increasing Vata-Pitta. Fermented food highly increases including south Indian snacks, pickles etc. Vegetables like beets, carrots, tomatoes,

garlic, onions, almost all green leafy vegetables increases Pitta dosha. Smoking, alcohol, tobbaco, pickles, vinegar, wafers, curds, corn, mustard and til oil in particular increases the Pitta dosha. Fruits those are sour or unripened shoots up Pitta dosha like grapefruit, papayas, peaches, unripened bananas and apricots. All the junk food including pizza, burger, hot dog and all the snacks generally increases Pitta dosha. Grains like brown rice, millete, rye and cornincreses Pitta dosha.

Menu Planning & Diet Chart: Vata Dosha

As we know there are mainly seven types of prakriti with three individual and three dual. The seventh one is usually rare and having all the three dosha in combination. Those are Vata, Pitta, Kapha, Vata-Pitta, Vata-Kapha, Pitta-Kapha and Vata-Pitta-Kapha. Here is the sample diet plan that suites to different prakriti person. As described earlier, one should be very cautious with his/her eating habits. One should not eat the food that increase the dosha which is alreadydominant in him. So, here is the diet advise in general for people with their constitution.

Vata dosha –

The basic quality for this dosha is rough, dry, cold and subtle.

Vata pacifying food –

This can be balanced with nutritive and tissue building foods, which are warm, moist, heavy, oily and soft. In taste it must be sweet, sour and salty. Ghee, soft dairy products, wheat, rice and bananas. Favor food like hot cereal with ghee, hearty soups including vegetable. Spicy food is generally okay with Vata dosha. Vegetables like asparagus, carrots, cucumber, green beans, bhindi, onions, garlic, beets, radish, sweet potatoes are good for Vata dosha. Grains like oats, wheat and rice.

Vata aggravating food –

Frozen desserts, large quantity of raw vegetables and salads. Foods like refined white flour and sugar, havelight and dry quality and should be best avoided. Taste like pungent, bitter, astringent, coldfood, dry and light food should increase Vata. Smoking, alcohol, junk food, sugar, tea specially long leaf and brown rice. Vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, brinjal, leafy green vegetables, mushrooms, peas, shimla mirch, potatoes, sprouts, tomatoes, cerely etc increases Vata dosha.

Fruits like apples, pear and pomegranates are Vata increasers. Too much dry or hot spices such as dried chili, turmeric, methi seeds, saffron and dhaniya powder

also increases in small quantity.

SEASONAL DIET

Introduction

As per the season, the bodily humors either aggravate or decrease. So one has to follow the diet regimen given in scriptures of ayurveda. As the food has capacity to bring doshas up and down, perfect diet would provide the health in all the seasons. Here are the diet instructions as per the seasons…

Ayurvedic Seasonal Diet for Early Winters (Hemant Ritu)

HEMANT – EARLY WINTER DO’s:

• Unctuous, sour and salty food can be consumed. Flesh of the animals in aanup desh and fish found in wells as they increase Kapha and shukra dhatu (the semen).

• Various preparations of sugarcane, meat soup, new crops, milk products can be taken. Lukewarm water should be consumed.

• As the digestive capacity is good, alcohol can be consumed but in little quantity.

DONT’s:

• Dry, cold, light, food in excess is to be avoided.

• Foodstuffs with tastes pungent, bitter and astringent in excess.

• Daytime sleep is strongly contraindicated in all season except greeshma ritu (summer) especially after meals.

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GREESHMA RITU – THE SUMMER

DO’s:

• Cold and unctuous food should be consumede.g. cow’s ghee,milk etc.

• More liquieds should be consumed e.g. buttermilk.

• Mangoes and pomegranate can be consumed.

• Sweet food stuffs in accordance with agni. E.g. sharkarodak.

• Flesh of animals from jangal desh. E.g. chicken.

• Fish from ponds being unctuous, sweet and cold can be consumed.

DONT’s:

• Alcohol should not be consumed.

• Salty, sour and pungent foods like ginger, black pepper etc.

• Spicy, dry, hot and fermentad food.

• Flesh of lamb, beef and pork.

Ayurvedic Seasonal Diet for Monsoon (Varsha Ritu)

VARSHA RITU -THE MONSOON

DO’s:

• Honey shoud be included in daily diet.

• Barley and wheat can be consumed.

• Flesh of animals of jangal desha.

• Pre heated water should be consumed

• Milk, ghee, plain butter can be taken.

• Fish from lakes being aphrodisiac and unctuous can be consumed.

DONT’s:

• Dry, cold, heavy, food in excess e.g. cheese and curds.

• Bengal gram, field pea etc in excess.s

• Fermented and stale food.

• Cold beverges in excess.

Ayurvedic Diet: Contraindication of Food

In ayurveda it is said that if you mix certain foods, the digestive system gets affected and in certain combination it may work as slow poison too. We should not mix food, which is having opposite quality like cold hot and so on. Here are some of the examples that are useful to keep one healthy. Certain combination with equal quantity is dangerous. Like mixing honey with ghee in equal quantity. Combination with opposite potency (veerya) is contraindicated like fish is hot and milk is cold by nature. As per the prakriti one should consume food. It is bad to take Vata dosha shooter diet for a person with Vata prakriti. For instance rough, dry and cold items to Vata dosha person. As per the disease, one should consume food that is opposite to the dosha involved in disease. For instance one should avoid ripened banana in diarrhoea and spicy items in fever. Certain cooking is contraindicated like honey should not be cooked.

Time is an important factor. One should consume something when the previous food is digested. One should keep gap for at least 2-3 hr. between food and going bed. Certain food is contraincidated in certain time like curd at night. Proper cooking is equally important as half cooked rice may give trouble. One should consume as per the digestion capacity. A person with poor digestion should not go for meat or chicken. One should be very careful if undergone severe disease. Like light diet should be adopted when person is recently treated and came out of jaundice or enteric fever.

Totally opposite food like garlic with honey and milk, raddish with milk and so on. Salt with milk, cow’s flesh, stale food are to be strictly avoided.

SHARAD RITU – AUTUMN

DO’s:

• Foodstuffs with attributes like sweet, slight bitter, light and cold can be consumed.

• The diet should be consumed in accordance with digestive capacity i.e., in proper proportion.

• Flesh of rabbit, fish of spring water being nutritious for mind and body can be taken.

• Barley, ragi and wheat can be consumed.

• Unctuousness of the flesh of animals of aanup desh.

• Oils can be consumed.

DONT’s:

• Curds, fermented food are strongly contraindicated..

• Food of alkaline nature should not be consumed in excess e.g. radish, salts, drumsticks, ginger etc.

• Tomatoes, brinjals, ladies finger, chilies etc.

• Beverages containing sour fruits.

SHISHIR RITU – the late winter

DO’s:

• Unctuous, fresh and warm food.

• Sweet, sour and salty food can be consumed.

• Heavy food such as flesh of lamb, pork, etc. can be consumed.

• Fish from lakes being sweet, unctuous and nutrituous can be taken.

DONT’s :

• Cold food stuffs and bevarages.

• Pungent, bitter and astringent food in excess.

• Dry, light, fermented and stale food.

• Flesh of animals from jangal region e.g. flesh of deer.

VASANTA RITU – THE SPRING

DO’s:

• Food prepared from barley and wheat.

• Consumption of “sidhu” (wine prepared from sugarcane)

• Flesh of birds can be consumed.

• Flesh from rivers being hot and nutritious can be consumed.

DONT’s:

• Heavy, unctuous and cold food.

• Food with sweet and sour tastes.

• Flesh of aquatic animals.

Ayurvedic Diet: Contraindication of Food 

In ayurveda it is said that if you mix certain foods, the digestive system gets affected and in certain combination it may work as slow poison too. We should not mix food, which is having opposite quality like cold hot and so on. Here are some of the examples that are useful to keep one healthy. Certain combination with equal quantity is dangerous. Like mixing honey with ghee in equal quantity. Combination with opposite potency (veerya) is

contraindicated like fish is hot and milk is cold by nature. As per the prakriti one should consume food. It is bad to take Vata dosha shooter diet for a person with Vata prakriti. For instance rough, dry and cold items to Vata dosha person. As per the disease, one should consume food that is opposite to the dosha involved in disease. For instance one should avoid ripened banana in diarrhoea and spicy items in fever. Certain cooking is contraindicated like honey should not be cooked. Time is an important factor. One should consume something when the previous food is digested. One should keep gap for at least 2-3 hr. between food and going bed. Certain food is contraincidated in certain time like curd at night. Proper cooking is equally important as half cooked rice may give trouble. One should consume as per the digestion capacity. A person with poor digestion should not go for meat or chicken. One should be very careful if undergone severe disease. Like light diet should be adopted when person is recently treated and came out of jaundice or enteric fever. Totally opposite food like garlic with honey and milk, raddish with milk and so on. Salt with milk, cow’s flesh, stale food are to be strictly avoided.