Ayurvedic Diet 101: Principles, Food Rules & How To Eat For Your Dosha

Here are the true essential principles of the Ayurvedic diet, with foods to eat and avoid and a sample meal plan for each dosha.

The Ayurvedic diet is based on principles rather than prescriptions. It is a set of guidelines that honors the environment of the gut, bio-individuality, circadian rhythms, personal taste preferences, and our capability to extract nutrients from food as humans.

While scientific literature on the diet as a whole is limited, the following benefits have also been supported by research:

If a food is considered high in its nutritional value but can create dysfunction in the gut, it will eventually hurt digestion and, thus, the ability to take the best out of all subsequent foods. After all, you are not what you eat. You are only what you can digest.

Below are some essential principles of the Ayurvedic diet that help to maintain Agni (the digestive fire) as well as nourish the body:

A meal should consist of all six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and astringent.

Beyond that, the taste also tells you how a certain food may act in your body, making you your own health expert.

I don't mean sweet like processed treats, but foods that carry an inherent sweetness and moisture within them, like rice, ghee, milk, etc. These foods can be generally heavy but are essential for the diet since they serve as raw material for new cells in the body. They are building blocks. Example foods include:

Just the thought of something sour can make one salivate. That is exactly what sour foods do; release digestive enzymes and build an appetite. Additionally, sour foods are inherently warming (think of how sour would burn a raw bruise on the skin) and support the breakdown of other foods. Example foods include:

Salt also has the power to support the breakdown of foods (think of how it melts the snow on the roads). It has a scraping effect and prevents foods from sticking to the digestive lining, according to Ayurvedic principles. However, excessive salt can interfere with the body's water content. Ayurveda recommends Himalayan salt as its negative effects are thought to be milder. Example foods include:

By their very taste, pungent foods are warming and should be consumed in small quantities to support the breakdown of other foods, especially sweet-tasting foods. Spices are the most recommended pungent foods. Excessive pungent foods eaten without other balancing tastes can damage the mucosal lining. This is the reason that turmeric is traditionally never consumed by itself. Example foods include:

Taste something bitter, and your mouth will dry up quickly. Digestion can be an aggressive and slimy process. Bitter foods cool everything down and dry up excessive slime, bringing the gut back to equilibrium. Example foods include:

These dry and earthy foods help bind other foods, allowing waste to take its solid form. Certain astringent foods also dry up digestive enzymes and serve as a signal to stop eating. Astringent foods should always be consumed with other tastes to prevent them from drying out the mucosal lining. Example foods include:

While it may not be possible to include all six tastes at every meal, it is essential to incorporate them during your main meals and be generally mindful about using tastes that support each other. 

Everywhere in the universe—whether it is cooking, photosynthesis, or digestion—transformation requires heat. The digestive environment (agni), therefore, is a warm environment that supports the breakdown of foods. Protecting agni is protecting life, and cold foods and liquids can dwindle this agni. To keep the agni active, all foods should be consumed warm.

Ayurveda advocates consuming only cooked foods. Raw foods require a more significant breakdown process, increasing the load on the agni. This is thought to create dysfunction in the gut over the long term. Fruits are an exception to this rule as they are precooked by the sun.

Similarly, refrigeration of cooked foods, especially overnight, is not recommended. In Ayurveda, refrigeration destroys the prana (life force) in food, making it less supportive.

As the sun rises in the morning, so does our agni, making it a good time for a light breakfast. During midday, the sun and the agni both peak, signaling that lunch should be the heaviest meal of the day. As the sun sets in the evening, the agni begins to dwindle rapidly. Dinner is therefore meant to be the simplest and lightest meal of the day.

Agni is not like the dry fire on a matchstick that quickly burns but rather the flame on an oil lamp that uses fuel to regulate itself. To support the agni, each meal should ideally contain a spice (the warmth) and a healthy fat (the fuel). Ayurveda's go-to good fat is ghee, and spices can range from more pungent spices like ginger and black pepper to sweeter ones like fennel, cinnamon, and cardamom.

Similarly, when the focus is on consumption and digestion, digestive enzymes will be released and function at their best.

While the goal is to keep the body and gut environment regulated for optimum health, the body can carry inherent doshic tendencies that take it away from equilibrium. According to Ayurveda, doshas are bodily functions that support the body when they are in balance and destroy homeostasis when not. There are three primary doshas. (This quiz can help you uncover yours.)

General challenges: Sluggishness, weight gain, lethargy

Avoid eating: Too many fruits, smoothies, shakes, or dairy. Avoid cold food and excessive fats.

General challenges: Acidity, intolerance to the sun, rashes, boils, anger

Avoid eating: Spicy, fried, fermented, stale food, and junk foods.

General challenges: Dryness, bloating, gas, anxiety, constipation, sleeplessness

Avoid eating: Raw, very light foods, or diet foods like popcorn. Avoid fasting.

Principle: Warm, light & spiced 

Vata modifications: Chew slowly, and include a moderate quantity of ghee and spices.

Principle: All six tastes

Vata modifications: Sit quietly without distraction. Drink ginger tea with meals.

Options:

Vata modifications: Eat a moderate amount. Sit cross-legged if you can.

Ayurvedic food principles are time-tested and logical. Ayurveda enables one to move away from health-related fear and toward freedom and empowerment. When understood correctly, it is not a way of living that puts you in a box but rather one that sets you free.