All about Ayurvedic diet and recipes

In ayurveda, foods are classified into six tastes--sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. Ayurvedic healers recommend that you include all of these six tastes at each main meal you eat. Each taste has a balancing ability, and including some of each minimizes cravings and balances the appetite and digestion. The6 different types of tastes are as follows.

1.Madhura or Sweet
Sweet foods nourish, cools, moistens, oils, and increases weight
Eg- sugar, honey, rice, milk, cream butter

2. Amla or Sour
Sour foods warms
Eg - lemon, tomatoes, cheese, citric fruits, yogurt

3. Lavan or Salty
Salty foods enhances taste of food and increases weight.
Eg- chips, namkeens

4. Katu or Bitter
Bitter foods purify and cool and helpsdecreases weight
Eg- leafy vegetables, bitter gourd, turmeric, cucumber

5. Tikta or pungent
Pungent foods are warm, dry.
Eg- garlic,ginger,onions, raddish, chilipowder

6. Kasaya or Astringent
Astringent foods help to reduce stickiness and are cooling.
Eg- apples, broccoli,cabbage,cauliflower,peas,beans, lentils, potato

According to Ayurveda the meals are complete when all the rasas /tastes are present. These rasas will benefit health and also help in balancing the three dosha.

Vata- is influenced or balanced by sour, salty and sweet taste.
Pitta- is influenced or balanced by bitter, sweet and astringent tastes.
Kapha is influenced or balanced by pungent, bitter and astringent taste.
A fruit-spice chutney or a spice-mix can provide a little of each of the six tastes if you are in a hurry, but it is ideal to choose foods from each category for complete, balanced nutrition. Just in the category of fresh vegetables and herbs, for example, you could choose fennel bulb or carrot for the sweet taste, fresh lemons for sour, arugula or endive for bitter, radish or white daikon or ginger root for pungent and cabbage or broccoli or cilantro for astringent.
The Amalaki Rasayana, made from the Amla fruit, offers five of the six ayurvedic tastes--all except salty.

The diet should be-
40-50%- whole grains ( wheat/ rice/ oats)
10-20%- proteins ( milk, well cooked light dal like moong)
20-30%- cooked vegetables and salad
10%- fruits ( have more banana, grapes, dates- can be had like a dessert with sweet spices)
Little ghee (1-2 tsp/ day) is good to neutralise the dryness and wind in vata dosha.

Vata is a cold, dry dosha .So warm, heavy foods are nourishing. Salty, sweet foods are satisfying and soothing.

Milk (warm), cream, butter, warm soup with cream , vegetables stews with ghee etc are ideal.
Sweet spices like cinnamon (dalchini), cardamom (elaichi), fennel (saunf), cumin (jeera) and ginger. These spices could be added to food and had.
Cooked grains/ cereals like wheat, rice, oats with milk and sugar/ jaggery. E.g. - sweet dalia, rice kheer or oats with milk amd cinnamon.
Nuts like almonds, walnut.
Avoid salted and fried snacks.
All sweet fruits like banana, mango, grapes, and dates.
Lassi is cooling and good for lowering excess vata.
Vegetables like beet, carrots, pumpkin, green beans; okra (bhindi) are recommended
Avoid leafy vegetables, cabbage,cauliflower,broccoli as these vegetables are gas forming. Eat well cooked sprouts as raw sprouts can cause gas.
Have moong dal often. Avoid heavy to digest and gaseous dals like chana (Bengal gram), rajma(kidney beans), urad (black gram) and lobia (cow pea) to name a few.

The diet should be-
40-50%- whole grains (wheat, rice, ragi, barley, oats)
15-20%- proteins (cold milk, buttermilk, dals)
30-40%- vegetables and raw salad( have lots of green salad like as it is cooling)
15%- fresh fruits (apples, peach, pear).
Avoid too much spices, acidic and sour foods as these foods can increase pitta dosha

Pitta represents fire, so people with prominent pitta dosha should eat cool or slightly warm food and not steaming hot food. Bitter, sweet and astringent food is good. Food should less spicy and less oily Have plenty of salads.Also have legumes like lentils, soybeans, moong, and chickpea.

Cool, refreshing foods with less salt, oil and spices (garlic, hot peppers, tomatoes, raddish, onions) are good, as also cold soups, salads, and sprouts.. A cold cereal (oats, wheat flakes with cold milk) with cinnamom for breakfast is a good option.
Have cooked vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, leafy vegetables, potato should be had.
Pickles, sour foods, sour yogurt, cheese and fermented food should be avoided by people with strong pitta dosha.
Red meat should be avoided as it is heaty, also should eat less of non-vegetarian food with less spices.
Fried, oily salty food like namkeens, chips and processed foods should be avoided.
Avoid sour fruits grapes, oranges, pineapple, papaya, grapefruits and lemon.
Skim milk and buttermilk are good
Pitta dominant people should consume lots of liquids in the form of plain water (not ice cold but room temperature), coconut water, vegetable juices, cold soups, cold skim milk, and buttermilk. Too much of lemon water will aggravate pitta.

The diet should be-
30-40%-whole grains (bajra/ jowar/ ragi)
20%- proteins (dal, sprouts)
30-40%- cooked vegetables and raw salad (beans, leafy vegetables)
10-20%- fresh fruits (apples, peach, pear, pomegranate, guava)
The diet should be light and low in fat.

Kapha is a slow dosha and will be in imbalance by eating oily, fried and sweet food. For kapha dominant people the food should be light with minimum butter/ oil/ fat /sugar and food should be warm. Pungent, and astringent taste will help pacify kapha.

Have warm food and avoid cold foods. The food should be well cooked using healhty cooking methods like grilling, baking, roasting, steaming or boiling food. Avoid deep fried foods.
Cold juices, cold cereals with milk tend to create congestion. Milk should be avoided.
Raw foods like salads, sprouts are very good.
All vegetables are good for kapha which are cooked in less oil/ fat.
Fruits are good except for sweet fruits like mango, chickoo and banana (especially should be avoided by kapha dosha people). Very juicy sweet fruits like musk melon/ cantaloupe/ pineapple should be eaten in less quantity.
Avoid rice, wheat, instead eat other cereals like jowar bajra, ragi.
Have thin buttermilk but other dairy products like curd, paneer and milk should be avoided or eaten in very small quantities.
Ginger tea/ ginger water is good for kapha

6 am to 10 am- kapha
10 am- 2 pm- pitta
2 pm to 6 pm- vata
6pm- 10pm- kapha
10pm to 2 am- pitta
2 am to 6 am- vata
This tells us which dosha is dominant during which time (kaal) of the day. This gives us a guideline to eat foods which are favourable to a particular dosha at a given time of day. Eg- 9am (b'fast) - fruits (it is kapha time so avoid heavy food and milk). Similarly it is best to have a early lunch by 12 noon as it is pitta time and food will be digested properly.

Lemon- it is purifying, nourishing and stimulates digestion.
Ghee- it is recommended for rejuvenation and longevity. It aids digestion and helps calms nerves. But ghee is high in calories and thus should be had in moderation, 1 tsp a day.
Almonds-it is nourishing and has high nutrient value.
Moong dal- best legume with excellent digestibility and health promoting qualities.
Ginger- it promotes digestion .
Cumin seeds (jeera)- it helps in digestion and reduces ama.
Leafy vegetables- nutritive and purifying.

Instead of normal salt use "senda namak" this salt has more minerals than normal table salt.
Do not store water for more than 1 day. You should fill fresh water daily. Keep the water in sunlight for 2-3 hours. This water has solar energy in it and is very good for health.
To avoid congestion/kapha, add pipramul to milk and boil. In this way the kapha aggravating properties of milk will be neutralized.
To reduce acidity, have tulsi (basil) juice.
Have ginger water to improve digestion. Ginger water+ lemon is also good.
Have thin buttermilk (not sour) any time of the day it is refreshing and reduces acidity.

Baked Fennel Seeds
Tomato Onion Raita
Apple Chutney
Spicy Buttermilk
Peas Upama
Cauliflower Upama
Yogurt Onion Raita
Apple Onion Chutney
Cabbage Salad
Rainbow Salad
Fresh Tomato Soup
Green Pea Soup
Vegetarian Noodle Soup
Lassi and Date Milk Shake
Detoxifying Tea
Cornbread
Pan Bread
Sugar-Free Fruit Bread
Lemon-Yogurt Cheesecake for Jerry