Close-up On The Six Tastes Of Ayurveda

Ayurveda recognises six tastes - sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent - and recommends that, in order to be balanced, every meal should contain all six.

Here's why

Each taste has an intimate relationship with the doshas and personal balance:

Sweet or madhura taste is a builder of those tissues that are formed from earth and water. Hence, sweet substances strengthen Kapha. An overload of sweets, on the other hand, can create a Kapha imbalance, which needs to be corrected with pungent, bitter and astringent tastes and warming foods.

Salty, sour and pungent tastes strengthen Pitta. That is, they strengthen all those functions associated with a rise in temperature: metabolic processes, for example. An excess of these tastes, however, aggravates Pitta and needs balancing out with sweet, cooling foods.

Pungent, bitter and astringent tastes increase Vata and all phenomena to do with movement, penetration and cleansing of channels. If you need to pacify Vata, therefore, you need to focus on the sweet, sour and salty tastes and eat more warm foods.

This analysis of taste and its properties was made over centuries of observation by ancient ayurvedic healers many millennia ago, but they make as much sense today.

Each taste is associated with certain chemicals that your body needs:

1. Sweet: carbohydrates, sugars, fats, amino acids (mainly found in sugar, milk, bread, rice, wheat, pasta, and other grains)

2. Sour: organic acids (mainly found in yoghurt, cheese, citrus and other sour fruits, tomato, carbonated drinks)

3. Salty: salts (found in salt)

4. Pungent: volatile oils (mainly found in spicy foods, cumin, ginger, pepper)

5. Bitter: alkaloids, glycosides (mainly found in green leafy vegetables)

6. Astringent: tannin (mainly found in beans, lentils, pomegranate, some apples)

If you are unable to take a balanced meal adding Maharishi Ayurveda Vata, Pitta or Kapha Churna spice mixes to you meal will go a long way to making it balanced.

For further information about and to order the products mentioned above see How to Order or call 01695 51015 and for information about the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Centre see www.MaharishiAyurveda.co.uk or call 01695 51008.

DISCLAIMER: The information in this document is presented for the sole purpose of imparting education on Maharishi Ayurveda and neither the information nor the products are intended to diagnose, treat, mitigate, cure or prevent any disease. If you have a medical condition, or are pregnant or lactating, please consult a health professional and it is recommended that you speak with your physician before making significant changes to your diet or routine.