Why the Six Tastes of Ayurveda Are the Key to Overall Health and Even Weight Loss
Ayurveda works differently from the Western diet.
I want to state from the outset that Ayurveda is not an instrument for weight loss. It is a system of healing and a way of life that emphasizes right living. Ayurveda can cure imbalances in your body and bring your body and mind to a state of harmony.
We all use the word “taste” now and then. More often than not what we’re really referring to is if our palette enjoys a particular food item. If that cheese on the pizza is yummy enough, if the mushrooms are fresh and have that complex, umami texture you enjoy.
Here, the role of your brain in recognizing if something is “enjoyable” shouldn’t be taken for granted. Your brain sends signals to your taste buds to tell them—based on your complex biological history—what foods you like.
But what we often don’t think about is what happens to the food that tastes good in the mouth. Does it serve the same, fulfilling role, the same lively, pleasure-giving life that it had for a few seconds when it was inside the mouth?
I am not going to give a sermon on how pizza tastes good but isn’t good for your body. You’ve heard that one before.
THE SIX SENSES OF TASTE
What I am interested in is how, if you pay attention to your sense of taste—listed as six in Ayurveda—can you not only eat healthily but also lose weight.
The five tastes that we know of are sweet, sour, salt, bitter, and savory. In Ayurveda, there are six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. According you Ayurveda, if each of your meal has all the six tastes, your food will be more fulfilling, healthy, and satisfying. That’s when you are less likely to reach out for that huge scoop of ice cream after the meal is over.
The reason why you want dessert after your salty and pungent meal is because there were no sweet-tasting ingredients in your food. Another great example of cravings for tastes we lack is the coffee consumption.
WHY SO MANY PEOPLE ARE ADDICTED TO COFFEE
One of the reasons people in the West are addicted to coffee is because there are no natural bitter foods in the western diet. Relying on a stimulant has its own pitfalls, something I talk about in another article.
Coffee addiction aside, the point I was trying to make was that if an effort is made to include all six tastes in our meals, not only is there a chance that you’d have a balanced meal, it would also make your taste buds reach satiety, that is essential to a satisfying meal.
Here, I want to reiterate that when I say taste, I don’t mean flavor, I mean the six tastes as listed in Ayurveda.
THE AYURVEDA DIET
In Ayurveda, you eat food according to your doshas, or body type. If we can recognize and pay attention to the tastes of foods, it can help us eat according to our doshas. Tastes, just like our doshas, come from the five elements: air, ether, water, fire, earth. Our bodies are also made of these five elements and the distribution of these elements in our bodies dictates why we intuitively favor certain foods over others.
SELF-KNOWLEDGE IS KEY IN AYURVEDA
However, this intuitive understanding of food isn’t always accurate, which is why, with knowledge, we need to choose foods that are good for us. For instance, someone with a Pitta constitution maybe drawn to red hot chilli peppers, but actually needs to eat cooling foods and spices such as dark leafy greens and fennel.
I love spicy food, but it doesn’t do me a lot of good. This is where self-knowledge, comes to the rescue and helps us choose foods that are good for our dosha-type.
I am a Vata-Pitta and sweet foods that are said to be earthy and moist in nature are good for me. Grains, jaggery, milk and foods that ground the airy Vata in me work well. Bitter foods like fenugreek, turmeric and bitter gourd that are pitta balancing are also good for me.
HOW AYURVEDA DEFINES TASTES
One needs to understand that when we say “sweet” in Ayurveda, it doesn’t necessarily mean a slice of apple pie. There are certain foods like milk, coconut, and grains like brown rice, white rice, farrow, millet that are naturally sweet.
KHICHADI RECIPE: HOW TO ADD ALL SIX TASTES
I would like to demonstrate how we can add different tastes in a meal. I love the wholesome Ayurvedic meal of khichadi and have a quick recipe here. But I want to go ahead and elaborate in my recipe the basic nature of all the ingredients and how choosing one over another can really make a difference to how the meal is processed by your body.
Just to recapitulate, the six tastes that we are aiming at are: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent.
QUICK KHICHADI RECIPE
Ingredients:
½ cup basmati rice (sweet)
½ cup split moong beans (most lentils are astringent)
1/ inch ginger (pungent)
¼ teaspoon red chilli powder (pungent)
¼ teaspoon fenugreek (bitter)
1 teaspoon chopped cilantro leaves (sweet)
1 tablespoon ghee (sweet)
Salt to taste (salty)
½ a lemon (sour)
(I chose to add fenugreek instead of cumin because fenugreek is bitter and cumin pungent, and we already have chilli powder and ginger to make the khichadi pungent. Once you know the basic taste of food, you can add or remove them according to their constitution.)
Directions:
Wash lentils and rice and add salt and turmeric. Pressure cook them. For tempering: heat some ghee, put fenugreek and let it get fragrant. Add some grated ginger and red chilli powder. After adding the red chilli powder, don’t cook the tempering for more than 15 seconds. Add tempering to the cooked rice and lentils. Mix. Garnish with cilantro and lemon.
This was just one example or recipe of how you can make food that involves all six tastes of Ayurveda. This can lead to more satisfying meals and overall, less cravings.