The main goal in Ayurveda and in Yoga is creating balance. When the body and mind are balanced and in harmony with one another, you will be in your healthiest state. Yoga actually means union and Ayurveda is the study of life that offers you the tools to understand and create this balance or union.
What you eat and how you eat it is a big part of creating balance in your life because it determines your state of health and your mind and emotions. For instance a lot of caffeine can create a high, followed by a low with lots of jitters in between. A chocolate binge can give you short term feelings of pleasure but can leave you feeling remorseful and lethargic in the long run. Very spicy food can give you a thrill when you eat it, but over time it can decimate your taste buds and leave you craving highly flavoured foods all the time. Powerful tastes tend to create an acidic cellular environment which is the perfect host for many chronic diseases. It is also easy to become addicted to any substance that alters our brain chemicals and creates a change in our emotional state. On the other hand, food that is balanced or sattvic leaves you feeling pure, clean, bright and alert with even energy. This is especially true if you know in your heart that you have practiced Ahimsa, or non-violence through choosing vegan, fair trade and organic foods and other products.
A sattvic diet includes fresh seasonal foods in moderate amounts combined in such a way that there is a balance of the 6 tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, astringent and pungent. When these tastes are perfectly balanced, we feel satisfied and free from cravings. After eating in this way for a little while, you will be able to tune into how your body is feeling and instinctively know what you need in order to feel at your best. The days on the neurotransmitter roller coaster will be a thing of the past.
In Ayurveda the saying is: Like attracts like and the opposites bring balance. In other words, the more you do to create balance in your eating, the more you will want to choose sattvic foods because it will feel so much better. Conversely, if you keep choosing foods that are extreme in taste or effect, you will want more and more of them and you will end up feeling way (weigh) out of balance.
So how do you balance your food?
Introducing the 6 Tastes
Instead of getting really bogged down in the micro details of everything you eat, or turning meal times into some kind science experiment, there is an easy way to learn how to balance your food. Ayurveda can seem very complicated when you first learn about it, and this can really put people off before they even get started. But just learning how to use and balance the six tastes in each meal can be an easy and enjoyable way of discovering how great it feels to give your body what it truly wants. Also the food is so delicious too!
The Sweet Taste
The sweet taste grounds vata and pitta and it is nourishing and calming. The sweet taste is associated with love, comfort and happy times but also with greed and attachment. So we need some, but too much of it, and especially the wrong kind, increase your kapha and send you on a mission hunting down ice cream or cookies. Long term over indulgence in those kind of foods can create all kinds of health problems. But sweet in Ayurvedic terms is not referring to processed sugars, but naturally occurring sweetness in foods. In moderation they are seen as very necessary for excellent health.
The sweet taste can be found in foods like:
Bananas, melons, dates, figs, mangos, root vegetables, cucumbers and courgettes, olives, grains, legumes, chick peas, rice, lentils, tofu, nuts and seeds, all sweeteners, basil, bay leaf, caraway, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, fennel, mint, nutmeg, saffron, tarragon, and vanilla.
The Sour Taste
Lemons are probably the most iconic sour food and most people will have a reaction in their mouths just thinking about lemons or seeing a picture of them. Sour food in excess will aggravate pitta and kapha but it will help balance excess vata. A little bit of sour helps us to appreciate things, but too much can result in critical, judgemental, selfish and jealous feelings. It can be used in Ayurveda to stimulate metabolism before a meal.
The sour taste can be found in:
Citrus fruit, pickles, tamarind, sourdough bread, vinegars, fermented food, garlic, and alcohol.
The Salty Taste
The salty taste is well, salty and comes from salt mostly! It aggravates pitta and kapha in excess and it helps to balance vata. It is associated wit courage and confidence, but too much can create cravings and indulgence. Excessive salt intake will overpower all the other tastes, desensitise the taste buds and create addictions, greed and irritability.
The best sources of salt are:
Mineral rock salt and sea vegetables. Sea salt should be avoided because it can cause swellings and hypertension.
The Pungent Taste
The pungent taste is the hot and peppery kick found in spicy food. In excess it aggravates vata and pitta, but it balances cold kapha. It has a dry heat and can be great for stimulating appetite and clearing sinuses, but in excess it can cause negative reactions in the digestive and nervous systems and lead to anger, violence, aggression and competitiveness.
Pungent food can be found in:
Black pepper, mustard seeds, ginger, chilli pepper, radishes, arugula, spicy greens, garlic, leeks, onions, kohlrabi, mustard greens, radishes, turnips, cardamom, cayenne, cloves, ginger, hing, paprika.
The Bitter Taste
Dr. Vasant Lad is fond of saying that bitter is better especially for kaphas and pittas. It is probably the taste that is avoided more than any other though. It’s very cleansing and clearing and is a really necessary part of our diet if we want good health. However, too much of it is not good for vata and it can give rise to loneliness, spiritual isolation and cynicism.
Bitter foods can be found in:
Coffee, neem, bitter melon, burdock root, leafy greens, aubergine, artichokes, sesame oil, dark chocolate, cumin, turmeric, fenugreek, saffron, dill and aloe vera.
The Astringent Taste
The astringent taste is cleansing and drawing an creates a dry feeling in the mouth. In moderation, it can help bring focus to the mind. However in excess, it can have the opposite effect, creating disorganisation, fear, anxiety and depression. it balances pitta and kapha, but aggravates vata if taken in excess.
The bitter taste can be found in:
Spinach, pomegranate, chickpeas, unripe banana, uncooked apples, cranberries, split peas, okra, turmeric, alfalfa sprouts, avocado, broccoli, most raw vegetables, basil, bay leaf, caraway seeds, coriander, dill, fennel, marjoram, nutmeg, oregano, parsley, poppy seeds, rosemary, saffron, turmeric, vanilla.
Striving to create a nice balance of these six tastes in your meals will help you in so many ways. First of all, it is a delicious way of eating. You will enjoy it so much. it leaves you feeling really satisfied and helps to reduce the dissatisfaction and cravings that eating too much of any taste leaves you with. It will bring balance to your mind and health to your body. The trick is to tune in to how you are feeling and ask yourself which flavours would help you feel in balance today. It is a bit of an art, but once you get in the swing of it, you will find it a wonderful way to cook and eat.