By: Ivan Palijan |
How to combine food properly (Ayurveda style) |
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How to preserve health; prevent numerous illnesses and strengthen the resistance of our organism with the help of food?
The answer to this question, asked today by a growing number of people, is in choosing healthy food.
But that is not all. It is not enough just to choose healthy food; we have to combine them properly.
Due to various processes and duration of digestion of certain nutrients, experts recommend that we should not combine certain foods.
We are all familiar with certain principles in food combining (separation of carbohydrates from proteins, fruit consumption separated from other food classes etc.).
But, Ayurveda has a completely different approach to food combining. Only things taken into account are rasa (original taste of the particular food item) and vipaka (taste of the particular food item after digestion).
Influence of taste on doshas
Each taste has a different influence on our doshas and health. Ayurveda claims that food should be chosen according to our body type – combination of doshas in our body that can be calculated here.
Sweet reduces vata and pitta, but increases kapha.
Sweet taste enhances the exertion of bodily fluids, enhances digestion, strengthens immunity, and nurtures our cells, skin, hair and joints. But we should not eat too much of it since it can cause weight gain and creation of excess slime in our organism.
Sour increases pitta and kapha, but reduces vata.
Sour taste stimulates our digestive process, cleans our organism and enhances heart rate. But, excessive amounts of sour foods have an influence on gastritis and ulcer occurrences and can trigger various skin diseases, hemorrhoids and sight disorders.
Salt increases pitta and kapha, but reduces vata.
Salty taste cleans our organism, enhances poison integration, regulates appetite, enhances digestion and stimulates our metabolism. Excessive amounts of salt can cause skin problems, inflammatory processes and heart and cardiovascular system diseases.
Acerbity increases vata, but reduces pitta and kapha.
Acerbic taste has a calming influence, help treating diarrhea and bleeding, prompts healing of wounds and injuries and has anti-inflammatory properties. Excess amounts of this taste can cause weakness, formation of blood clots and premature aging.
Bitter reduces pitta and kapha, but increases vata.
Bitter taste has anti-microbial effect, enhances weight loss and purifies blood. Excessive amount of bitter taste can cause dosha vata disorders in the organism.
Hot increases vata and pitta, but reduces kapha.
Hot taste stimulates appetite, enhances digestion, helps with weight loss, purifies blood and has anti-parasite properties. The excessive amount of hot can cause fatigue, weakness, dizziness, thirst and stomach mucosa inflammation.
A diet based on doshas
People with a vata constitution should avoid excessive consumptions of bitter, hot and acerbic foods because those foods increase vata, which leads to the formation of gases. Food items that contain sweet, sour and salty are good for people with vata constitution.
People with pitta constitution should avoid salty, sour and hot foods because those foods increase vata. Sweet, bitter and acerbic foods have a positive impact on people with pitta constitution.
People with kapha constitution should avoid sour, salty and sweet foods because these foods increase bodily fluids. Such people should eat bitter, hot and acerbic foods.
Instant and subsequent effects of food
When taste (rasa) passes through digestive fire (agni), its quality can change.
That way, food that is originally bitter will create an additional hot taste called vipaka. That subsequent taste also influences our doshas.
Effects of vipaka and rasa are the same, but they differ in a way that rasa has instant effect over our tongue and vipaka has effect only at the end of metabolic process.
Conversion of rasa (first taste) into vipaka (secondary taste)
| Rasa | Vipaka |
| sweet | sweet |
| salty | sweet |
| sour | sour |
| bitter | hot |
| acerbic | hot |
| hot | hot |
Food combinations to be avoided
According to ayurveda it is mandatory to be careful about combining food because some food combinations create toxins in our body.
Milk is not to be combined with bananas, sour fruits, watermelons, melons, yoghurt and bread. Thermally processed honey is considered toxic in ayurveda.
Yoghurt is not to be combined with sour fruits, milk, hot beverages, cheese, melons, watermelons or bananas.
You should drink only warm water during your meals, since it enhances digestion. Cold water extinguishes digestive fire, which leads to creation of ama – toxins.
Do not combine pulse with fruits, cheese, milk and yoghurt. Fruits in general are not good for combining with other food.
Always eat watermelon and melon separately from other foods. A piece of fresh ginger and lemon before meal is beneficial for digestion.
Do not consume potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant with dairy products and pickles.
Do not eat too much because that will extinguish digestive fire. Eat slowly and chew your food properly. Do not eat when you are under stress.
Breakfast and dinner should be light. You should eat dinner before sunset. Lunch is the main meal of the day and you should have it between noon and 2 p.m., since digestion is at its highest levels during that time of the day.
Spices that enhance digestion
Ayurvedic diet principle includes a rich source of spices that have a beneficial effect on digestive processes.
Here are listed some advices on how to spice everyday food items properly:
- spice yogurt with ginger or cumin
- eat cheese with the addition of black or cayenne pepper and chilly
- put ghee on popcorns
- use salt and black pepper to spice rice
- eat potatoes with the addition of butter and pepper
- add lime and cumin to tomatoes
- stew cabbage on sunflower oil with curcuma and mustard seeds
- spice green salad with olive oil and lemon
- spice pulse with black pepper, chilly powder, cumin and salt
- spice beans with cumin and salt to make it more digestible
- nuts should be soaked overnight before eating
- combine avocado with curcuma, lemon and black pepper
- spray apples with cinnamon
- you can add ginger powder or cardamom to bananas
- it is good to eat chocolate with cardamom or cumin
- it is advisable to sprinkle ice-cream with minced cardamom or clove
By knowing the effects certain food items have on our organism, we can take appropriate countermeasures and use food combinations to suppress all negative effects and to significantly increase the positive effects of food items.
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