Health and Taste: For Your Mental and Physical Well-being

Highlight

• Combining rasas helps in maintaining the balance in Doshas.

• Every food item contains varying proportions of six rasas (tastes)- madhura, amla, lavana, katu, tikta, and kasaya, just as Ayurveda recommends.

• Maintaining the correct proportion of rasas is important to maintain a healthy state of mind and body.

According to Ayurveda, every food contains varying proportions of the six rasas (tastes) - madhura (sweet), amla (sour), lavana (salty), katu (pungent), tikta (bitter), and kasaya (astringent), providing a unique identity to everything we eat.

Just to clarify, when we classify a food under a particular rasa, we’re only talking about the dominant taste. For example, when we identify a food as ‘sweet’, it means that it has all six rasas, but the madhura rasa is the dominant one.

Once you determine the nature of the food, it can help you to balance the doshas, dhatus, and malas. The rasas that share the common element with a dosha tends to aggravate it, while those rasas contrasting with the elemental nature of the dosha alleviate it. Therefore, a balanced intake of all six rasas is necessary for the proper functioning of organs and organ system. Also, this provides the required nutrients to dhatus, doshas, and other body constituents.

• Combining rasas in the right constitution prevents any negative impact on the doshas and your body. For example, amla rasa aggravates pitta dosha. If tikta rasa is included in your diet, it balances the negative effect on pitta.

• However, if the dosha is aggravated due to external reasons such as heat, pollution, unhealthy lifestyle, adjusting rasa intake won’t be sufficient. You’ll have to look for additional remedies, and in case of severe discomfort, you will definitely have to consult a doctor.

For more lifestyle and dietary tips consult a Jiva doctor today, you can dial 0129-4040404 from your mobile phone or click on ‘Speak to a Doctor’ under the CONNECT tab in the Jiva Health App.