The Pillar of life - the properties of food in an ayurvedic retreat

The key to health does not lie in the application of chemicals or special therapies but in the elements our life is based on. The most important one in an ayurvedic retreat is food. Ayurvedic food is easy to digest and it does not aggrave the ayurveda doshas.

To understand wholesome food in consideration for the doshas we have to know the properties and qualities of food.

Properties of Food All food is composed of three factors:

• The five elements of earth, water, fire, air and ether
• The six tastes - sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent
• the twenty attributes - slow, cold, heavy, wet, sticky, dense, soft, firm, subtle, clear and their opposites.

The combination of two elements in ayurveda producing a taste as follows:

• Sweet = Earth + Water
• Sour = Fire + Earth
• Salty = Fire + Water
• Pungent = Fire + Air
• Bitter = Ether + Air
• Astringent = Earth + Air

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In an ayurvedic retreat food vitalizes the body and it comes to an agreement on Pita, Kapha and Vata.

The relation of the tastes to the Doshas

According to the elements of the tastes they increase or decrease the ayurveda doshas in the body as follows:

Taste Decrease

• Sweet, Sour, Salty - Vata
• Astringent, Bitter, Sweet - Pitta
• Bitter, Pungent, Astringent - Kapha

Taste Increase

• Sweet, Sour, Salty - Kapha
• Pungent, Sour, Salty - Pitta
• Bitter, Pungent, Astringent - Vata

For example a sweet taste contains earth and water. Kapha will increase its character - Vata will decrease it. Wholesome ayurvedic food promotes the well balanced state of all doshas in the body.