The Dosha Balancing Diet

The Ayurvedic approach to eating allows us to make intelligent food choices, avoid cravings, and satisfy our hunger.

By Miriam Hospodar

Why do we gobble down a chocolate bar when our stomach is pleading for us not to? What makes us reach for a third helping when we are already full? According to Ayurveda, when we are in balance, we automatically desire foods that are good for us. But if our mind, body, or spirit is out of sync, our connection to our body's inner intelligence goes awry. The modern afflictions that affect our eating habits, like excessive consumption and fast-paced living, can be looked at through the lens of the ancient science of Ayurveda.

Ayurvedic texts emphasize ahara, proper diet, as vital for promoting health and happiness. Ayurveda creates health by enlivening the body's inner intelligence to create harmony. Unlike modern nutritional theories, which tend to recommend "one size fits all" guidelines that change with each new wave of research, Ayurvedic physicians maintain there is no one single diet or food that is healthy for all individuals.

Ayurveda identifies six major tastes we need in our diet every day—sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent. Each of these tastes has specific health-giving effects. By including all six, we will be most completely nourished and satisfied. When we consistently eat only a few of the tastes, it not only causes health problems but also triggers cravings for unhealthy foods. For instance, fast food contains mostly sweet, sour, and salty tastes. If we eat a steady diet of fast food, we can develop a craving for sweets. Adding more pungent, bitter, and astringent tastes can help tame out-of-control desires for candy and doughnuts.

Balancing Act

The six tastes also affect the doshas. Different foods cause specific doshas either to increase or decrease. The doshas increase and decrease on the principle of "like attracts like." If you have a predominance of vata, you will have the tendency to accumulate more vata. Foods that decrease a dosha are said to pacify that dosha, and foods that increase it aggravate it. Sweet, sour, and salty foods pacify vata. Sweet, pungent, and bitter foods decrease pitta. Pungent, bitter, and astringent foods pacify kapha.

Vata types need foods that calm their tendency toward anxiety and overactivity. Heavy, cooked foods served warm are the most soothing. Dairy products, sweeteners, and foods cooked or served with fats and oils pacify vata. Steam veggies and drizzle with a little ghee (clarified butter) or olive oil, or stir-fry them in oil or ghee. Rice and wheat are excellent grains for vata types. Juicy fruits and vegetables, heavy fruits (such as avocados and bananas), risotto, sweet and sour veggies, and warm berry cobbler with whipped cream all help pacify vata. Avoid hot, spicy foods. Vatas can healthfully cook with more salt than pittas and kaphas.

Fiery pitta needs to be cooled down. Serve foods at cool temperatures, but not ice cold which inhibits digestion. Pittas thrive on reduced amounts of fats, oils, and salt. Sweet, completely ripe fruits and all vegetables except garlic, tomatoes, radishes, and chilies are pitta-pacifying. Moderate portions of dairy products are fine, but minimize sour-cultured ones. Coriander and mint have cooling effects. Coconuts, pomegranates, grilled vegetable salad, and rice pudding all reduce pitta.

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