Dietary Guidelines - Body Type/Dosha

Eat by your body type/dosha

Choose foods that have the opposite qualities to the dosha that you want to balance. Thus if you have a prominence of Vata in your nature (cold, dry skin, restlessness, worry, light sleep etc) it is necessary to be careful to keep Vata in balance by favouring warm, moist, oily, heavy, sweet, sour and salty foods and by reducing (but not eliminating) cold, dry, light, pungent, bitter and astringent foods.

To balance the dosha shown in the first column choose foods of the properties/tastes listed in the second column. The foods of the properties/tastes in the third column have the opposite effect. The following information is available on our laminated wall chart (30x42 cm) convenient for keeping in the kitchen.

 

Eat by your Body Type / Dosha
  Decrease/balance Increase/aggravate
Vata Warm, moist, oily, heavy, sweet, sour, salty Cold, light, dry, pungent, bitter, astringent
Pitta Cool, heavy, oily, sweet, bitter, astringent Hot, light, dry, pungent, sour, salty
Kapha Warm, dry, light, pungent, bitter, astringent Cold, moist, oily, sweet, sour, salty

 

Examples of foods of the six tastes (rasas)

Sweet:  Sugar, milk, bread, rice, wheat, pasta.

Sour:  Yoghurt, cheese, sour fruits, tomato

Salty:  Salt.

Pungent:  Spicy foods, cumin, ginger, peppers.

Bitter:  Green leafy vegetables.

Astringent:  Beans, lentils, pomegranate, some apples.

 

Food qualities (gunas)

There are said to be 25 food qualities.

The main ones are heavy (hard to digest), light (easy to digest), oily, dry (drying), hot (temp) and cold (temp).

 

Dosha specific recommendations : Vata diet

Dairy products:  All dairy products pacify Vata. Do not take milk with a full meal. Cheese should be soft and fresh.

Fruits:  Favour sweet, heavy fruits, such as avocados, grapes, cherries, peaches, melons, berries, plums, bananas, sweet oranges, pineapples, mangoes and papayas. Avoid or reduce dry light fruits such as apples, pears, pomegranates, cranberries and dried fruits. (Dried fruit can be taken first soaked in hot water. Dates are best taken with ghee).

Sweeteners:  All sweeteners are good for Vata (but not in excess).

Beans:  Avoid all beans except for tofu, (soybean curd) and mung dhal (split mung beans).

Nuts:  All nuts are good.

Grains:  Rice and wheat are very good; reduce barley, corn, millet, buckwheat, rye, and oats.

Oils:  All oils pacify Vata.

Spices:  Cardamom, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, salt, cloves, mustard seed, and small quantities of black pepper pacify Vata.

Vegetables:  Beets, carrots, asparagus, cucumber, and sweet potatoes are good, but they   should be cooked and not raw. The following vegetables are alright in moderate quantities, if cooked and especially cooked with ghee (clarified butter) and Vata reducing spices: peas, green leafy vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, courgettes and spinach (small quantity). It is best to avoid sprouts and cabbage.

 

Dosha specific recommendations : Pitta diet

Dairy products:  Ghee (clarified butter), milk, cream, and cream cheese, are good. Avoid salty butter and sour milk, e.g. yoghurt, aged cheeses.

Fruits:  Sweet and astringent fruits are good e.g. grapes, pomegranates, bananas, avocados, mangoes. Avoid sour fruit, e.g. most citrus (a little lemon is alright).

Sweeteners:  White or semi-refined sugars are good. Avoid molasses and brown sugar. Honey can be taken in small quantities.

Beans:  Mung dhal and soybean are good.

Nuts:  Avoid all nuts except coconut.

Grains: Wheat, rice, barley, and oats are good. Avoid millet, corn, buckwheat, and rye.

Oils:  Ghee is best for pacifying Pitta.

Spices:  Coriander, cumin, ginger (small quantities), turmeric, saffron, fennel, cinnamon, cardamom. Avoid black pepper, mustard seed, cloves, and chillies.

Vegetables:  Asparagus, courgettes, cauliflowers, broccoli, cabbage, green beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas and peppers are good. Reduce beets & carrots and avoid tomatoes.

 

Dosha specific recommendations : Kapha diet

Avoid large quantities of food, especially at night.

Dairy products:  Avoid aged cheese. Avoid or reduce other cheeses and yoghurt. Low-fat milk is better. Always boil milk before you drink it, and take it warm. Do not take milk with meal or with sour or salty foods. You may add one or two pinches of turmeric or ginger to whole milk before boiling.

Fruits:  Favour lighter fruits such as apples and pears. Reduce heavy or sour fruits such as oranges, bananas, pineapples, figs, dates, avocados, coconut, and melon.

Sweeteners:  Honey is good (but do not heat it above 400C). Avoid sugar products.

Beans:  All beans are fine except tofu (soya bean curd).

Nuts:  Avoid all nuts.

Grains:  Most grains are fine, especially barley and millet. Restrict use of wheat, rice and oats.

Oils:  Reduce or avoid all oils. A small amount of ghee (½-1 teaspoons/day) is fine.

Spices:  All spices are good but restrict the use of salt.

Vegetables:  All are fine, except tomatoes, cucumber, sweet potatoes and courgettes.

 

Special advice

Milk:  It is not recommended to take milk with a meal made up of mixed tastes especially salty and sour foods. It can be taken with sweet foods including grains. Milk is easier to digest after being boiled with spices such as ginger, black pepper, turmeric, and saffron.

Honey:  Do not heat honey above body temperature (400C). Doing so decreases the benefits of honey and actually causes it to have a negative impact on health.

Food best avoided:  Minimize heavy foods (e.g. meats, especially red meat, fish, eggs, aged cheese), refrigerated and ice-cold foods and drinks (they depress digestion), raw vegetables (easier to digest when cooked) and alcohol.

Tea and coffee:  Minimize tea and coffee consumption. The negative effects of both can be very much reduced by adding a little cardamom powder.

GMOs:  It is strongly recommended that you avoid food that has been produced using genetically modified ingredients. Genetic modification of food disrupts the intelligence of the food and is very likely to produce subtle deleterious effects in the long-term.

Organic agriculture:  Organic food is strongly recommended. It has more sattva – balance producing quality. Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture is a system that further enhances the sattva of the food and at the same time produces balance in the farmer.

 

Food preparation

  1. Eat freshly prepared food, preferably organic. Avoid GM food, leftovers, pre-cooked and fast food.
  2. Food is best if warm and well cooked.
  3. The food should look good and taste delicious.
  4. Food prepared by a happy settled cook in a pleasant environment will have the greatest nutritional value.

 

When and how to eat

Ayurveda emphasizes the great importance of a good digestion for health and holds that how and when you eat is as important as what you eat. It recommends:

  1. Eat in a settled atmosphere and savour your food – sit, don’t stand and avoid TV, radio and reading. Let your attention be on the food.
  2. Be regular in your meal times and eat your main meal in the middle of the day when the digestive fire is at its strongest. Eat lightly in the evening at least 2 hours before bedtime.
  3. Do not eat until the previous meal has been digested.
  4. Eat moderately: avoid overeating and do not skip meals.
  5. Avoid sour foods (yoghurt, soft and hard cheese, buttermilk) at night. (Lassi is ok)
  6. Walk for 10 minutes after meals.
  7. Exercise without strain daily. Leave 30 minutes after exercise before eating and do not exercise energetically for 1-2 hours after a main meal.

Fine tuning your diet according to the season

 

Your Diet According to Season
If you have two doshas scoring about equal in the Vata, Pitta, Kapha questionnaire you can fine-tune your diet according to the season:
Body type/dosha Kapha season (Jan-May) Pitta season (June-Aug) Vata season (Sept-Jan)
Vata Vata diet Vata diet Vata diet
Pitta Pitta diet Pitta diet Pitta diet
Kapha Kapha diet Kapha diet Vata/Kapha diet (1)
Vata-Pitta Vata/Kapha diet (1) Pitta diet Vata/Kapha diet (1)
Pitta-Vata Vata/Kapha diet (1) Pitta diet Vata diet
Vata-Kapha Kapha diet Pitta/Vata diet (2) Vata diet
Kapha-Vata Kapha diet Vata diet Vata diet
Pitta-Kapha Kapha diet Pitta diet Pitta/Vata diet (2)
Kapha-Pitta Kapha diet Pitta diet Vata/Kapha diet (1)
Vata-Pitta-Kapha Kapha diet Pitta diet Vata diet

 

(1) Balance Vata & Kapha diets:

Select food properties approximately equally from the decrease/balance column for the Vata & Kapha rows.

 

(2) Balance Pitta & Vata diets:

Especially favour the food properties common to both the Pitta and Vata rows (oily, heavy, sweet) otherwise go by the Pitta row (cool, bitter, astringent).

 

Further information:

For further information about Ayurvedic diet the following books are recommended:

Contemporary Ayurveda by Dr H. Sharma and Dr C. Clark

Conquering Chronic Disease Through Maharishi Vedic Medicine by Dr Kumuda Reddy