The Six Tastes of Ayurveda

In ayurveda, foods are classified into six tastes (rasas)--sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. Many foods have more than one taste--Amla, the Indian Gooseberry, for example, contains five of these six tastes: all except salty, and turmeric contains three--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 provides complete nutrition, minimizes cravings and balances the appetite and digestion. The general North American diet tends to have too much of the sweet, sour and salty tastes, and not enough of the bitter, pungent and astringent tastes.

Within the broad principle of including all six tastes, you can customize your food choices to the doshas you are trying to balance at a given time. If you are trying to keep Pitta dosha in balance, for instance, you would choose more foods that are sweet, bitter and astringent and fewer foods that are salty, pungent or sour. To keep Vata balanced, choose more from salty, sour or sweet foods and fewer bitter, pungent or astringent foods. To keep Kapha in balance, eat more bitter, pungent or astringent foods and fewer salty, sour or sweet foods.

Choose health-giving foods in each taste group over foods that offer less nourishment or balance--fresh seasonal fruits are better choices for the sweet taste than cake made with refined flour and white sugar. Pick foods within groups that match your digestive fire and taste: smaller lentils (part of the astringent taste group) are easier to digest than large beans, and daikon radish, black pepper and ginger are gentler pungent foods than cayenne or chili peppers. With the wide variety of wholesome foods of every kind available, you can mix and match as much as you like.

Here is a sampling of foods in each of the taste groups:

Sweet (madhura): Milk, butter, sweet cream, wheat, ghee (clarified butter), rice, honey, raw sugar, ripe fruits of many kinds
Sour (amla): Limes and lemons, citrus fruits, many kinds of immature fruits, yogurt, mango powder, pomegranate seeds, tamarind
Salty (lavana): Salt (ayurveda recommends rock salt), salty pretzels or pickles
Bitter (katu): Bitter gourd, greens of many kinds, turmeric, fenugreek
Pungent (tikta): Chili peppers, ginger, black pepper, clove, mustard, radish, white daikon
Astringent (kashaya): Beans, lentils (dhals), turmeric, cruciferous vegetables such as cauliflower and cabbage, cilantro

When you are in a hurry, a simple fruit-spice chutney or a well-chosen spice-mixture can deliver at least a little of each of the six tastes.

Here are some suggested spice mixes to help balance each of the three doshas. Mix the dry spices well and store them in clean airtight jars. To use, sauté spices in a little ghee or olive oil and pour over cooked dishes. Or add to dishes such as dhals and soups as they are simmering.

Vata-balancing Six Taste Spice Mix: 3 parts fennel, 1 part turmeric, 1 part cumin, 1 part dried ginger, 1 part black pepper, 1 part cardamom, 1 part salt, 1 part turbinado sugar, 1 part fenugreek, 1 part dried mango powder (all powdered)

Pitta-balancing Six Taste Spice Mix: 6 parts fennel, 2 parts coriander, 2 parts cumin, 1 part turmeric, 1 part salt, 1 part turbinado sugar, 1 part dried mango powder (all powdered)

Kapha-balancing Six Taste Spice Mix: 2 parts dried ginger, 2 parts black pepper, 2 parts turmeric, 1 part coriander, 1 part cumin, 1 part sweet paprika, 1 part salt, 1 part turbinado sugar, 1 part dried mango powder (all powdered)