The Wellness Sense

by Om Swami

  Madhura is good for the throat, skin and hair. With immoderate consumption, it vitiates kapha and promotes obesity, coughing, sinusitis, dyspnoea, lethargy, heaviness, constipation and difficult bowel movements or incomplete bowel evacuation. It can contribute to hardening of the arteries, thereby posing a risk of heart disease too. It dims and even deludes the appetite. In line with modern medical thought, in Ayurveda, a diabetic patient is advised to completely avoid foods with a sweet taste. Even five thousand years ago, Ayurvedic practitioners tested blood sugar levels from urine and called diabetes ‘madhumeha’, which means ‘saccharine urine’.

  Sour

  Sour accentuates the taste of food. It is called amla in Sanskrit. It is derived from the earth and fire elements. It aggravates both pitta and kapha but soothes vata. Amla helps in the formation of saliva and subsequently forms digestive enzymes. It is light, hot and unctuous. It generates heat in the muscles and awakens the sensory organs of the body and faculties of the mind; it energizes and rejuvenates the body. When consumed excessively, it sensitizes the teeth, hardens the vocal cords and causes thirst. It can create pus in wounds, swelling, rashes and dryness in the skin.

  Salty

  Salty is lavana in Sanskrit. The word lavana also means graceful and tasteful. No matter how well cooked, spiced or seasoned food may be, it is tasteless without salt. Hence the meaning tasteful; it adds taste to the food. Lavana is hot and unctuous – it is made of fire and water elements. It fuels the digestive fire, soothes vata and liquefies kapha. Salt is an excellent cleanser – it softens the body tissues and has antibiotic properties. It removes fatigue, stiffness and swelling. When used inordinately, it aggravates pitta, robs the skin of its moisture (thereby causing early wrinkles), weakens the teeth and bones, causes prematurely grey hair and baldness, adversely affects sexual potency, dulls the senses and causes thirst, acidity and eczema. Yogic texts classify salt as rajas; therefore it contributes to restlessness of the mind and depression.

  Pungent

  Pungent is called katu in Sanskrit. It means acrid, stimulating and strongly scented as well. The taste of most peppers and chillies is pungent. It is chiefly derived from the fire and air elements. It promotes glandular, nasal and sweat secretions. It aids the digestive fire and stimulates the senses. Katu pacifies kapha and vitiates both vata and pitta. It has a detoxifying effect on the body. It produces antibodies, maintains the quality of blood, helps in the absorption of food, opens up the body pores (rejuvenating the skin) and adds taste to food. It is light, hot and rough. When consumed excessively, it weakens the glands, causes scrawniness, mental and sexual disorders and loss of thirst. In some cases, it can cause tremors and a burning sensation in the feet and hands.

  Bitter

  Tikta is bitter. Made from ether and air, bitter is an immuno-modulator, meaning it keeps your immune system in balance. It is excellent for the skin and blood. It is a natural cleanser and purifier. It absorbs moisture and burns body fat. It is an antidote, antitoxin, antihistamine and an enzymatic antigen. The ethereal and bitter properties of tikta aid digestion, and it acts as a blood purifier. It easily overpowers the other five tastes.

  Tikta causes dryness in the mouth but often leaves a non-slimy taste. It pacifies pitta and kapha and vitiates vata. Too much tikta is detrimental to all the dhatus: it causes dryness in the skin, excessive thirst and fatigue. It kills appetite and causes incomplete bowel movement. If taken immoderately, it reduces the span of attention. Its immediate effect may make it appear to be a stimulant, but it almost always acts as a depressant. When it comes to taste, coffee fits the description of bitter almost perfectly.

  Astringent

  Made from the elements of earth and air, it is called kasaya in Sanskrit. It is healing; it promotes overall well-being and is calming. It sort of stiffens your mouth and throat, as if your mouth is shrivelled. It dries up your mouth and your tongue feels cold. It slows down the energy flow and checks gastritis. It reduces the production of urine and semen, and causes hard bowels. In people with any prior heart condition, it can also cause heartache. When taken excessively, it causes flatulence, mouth ulcers and spasms – even convulsions. In extreme cases, it can also cause hemiplegia (paralysis of one side of the body).

  The six tastes have a natural tendency to move in a certain way. The tastes predominantly comprising air and fire tend to move up. For example, consumption of pungent and bitter tastes can cause reflux, mostly because air and fire are light and tend to move upwards. The tastes comprised of earth and water move downwards. They can slow down the metabolism and cause heaviness. The other tastes can move both ways. Any taste in excess always vitiates one, two or all three of the doshas. Tastes only support the body when enjoyed moderately. See the table below for the six tastes and their movements.

  The Six Tastes and Their Movements

  Taste

  Property

  Elements

  Movement

  Sweet

  Heavy , unctuous, cold

  Water, earth

  Evenly spread

  Sour

  Hot, light, unctuous

  Earth, fire

  Downwards

  Salty

  Hot, unctuous

  Fire, water

  Downwards

  Pungent

  Light, hot, rough

  Fire, air

  Upwards

  Bitter

  Dry, rough

  Air, ether

  Upwards

  Astringent

  Dry, cold

  Earth, air

  Upwards

  An important thing to know about the classification of the six tastes is that it strictly refers to the natural taste of a substance, and thus the individual classification of a food. If you mix a lot of sweet in a bit of sour and bitter, this may make the ultimate product sweet, but it won’t act as sweet on your body.

  For example, you can put honey in a cup of tea to make it sweet. But the tea can’t be classified as sweet now, because this is not the natural sweetness of the tea. Therefore, you can’t have tea and expect to gain the same results that come from consuming natural and wholesome honey.

  Just as the colours red and yellow combine to make orange, and just as you cannot get the red and the yellow colours back from orange, two tastes mixed don’t act individually on the body; their combination may have an entirely different effect than if the two were consumed separately.

  Why do we crave certain foods over others? It’s not just because of the taste. There are many foods that taste awful but still we consume them. What taste does beer or alcohol have? What about the sickly sweet maple syrup? Or the unique Vegemite? How a food tastes is only one aspect of its influence. What matters much more is how it acts on the body and the experience it triggers in our minds. It is this experience that makes us want to have certain foods more than others.

  A food may be sour, and therefore hot and light, but its effect on the body may be sweet and soothing. In other words, the effect of a food on your body may be quite different from its taste. For example, if you drink a sugary beverage like cola, it may taste sweet, but its effect on the body is not sweet but astringent. It will not quench your thirst – it will make you even thirstier and may cause reflux.

  THE FOUR STAGES OF FOOD

  When a food is consumed, it goes through various stages during its processing
, before its residue is expelled from the body. Imagine eating a chocolate-vanilla cake after a spicy meal. The cake will feel sweet while you are eating it. It will be gratifying. While in the stomach, it’ll soothe at first. As your body starts to process it, its taste will change from sweet to sour. It will make you feel a bit thirsty and a bit restless. Post-digestion, it will have an influence on your physical and mental health. It may boost your sugar levels and make you feel hyper.

  What is sweet in taste may not necessarily be sweet in action. What is acidic in nature may not work as such on the body. For example, lemons are sour in taste. Their taste has acidic properties, but their effect is alkaline on the body. To aid a better understanding of these properties, Ayurveda notes four stages of consumption. And at each stage, the food we consume has an impact on our physical and mental health.

  Taste

  Taste is the joy you get when food first touches your tongue. As you start to savour the various ingredients, they tickle your taste buds. There is a certain bliss. The sublime scent of basil, the piquancy of fresh mozzarella, the tanginess of the tomato sauce in your pasta, the aroma of freshly baked bread – they all enhance your sense of taste. When you bite into a juicy mango, or a sumptuous strawberry, or a sweetmeat like the gulab jamun, you are not eating food: you are experiencing it. Ayurveda uses the word rasa to indicate that taste, that joy. Rasa can evoke emotions, memories, feelings and reactions. It forms the primary basis of our food preferences.

  No matter how nutritious a food may be, if you are not well disposed to its taste, you can’t receive all of its benefits. In this context, taste is the predigestion stage; you are chewing the food and the saliva is infusing it with digestive enzymes. The food has not reached your stomach yet.

  The chief effect at this stage is on your mental and emotional states. For example, most narcotics don’t need to reach your stomach to achieve the desired result. Through their inhalation or aroma alone, they can trigger a whole range of thoughts and emotions within moments of their consumption. The taste, regardless of whether you snort it, lick it or suck it, is a significant factor. No matter how subtle its influence, rasa of a food is a vital factor. In the case of most intoxicants the effect is visible immediately, whereas with normal foods the effects build up over time.

  It is for this reason that a healthy diet is supposed to have an agreeable taste. All sensory organs are capable of perceiving taste. It is not just the food itself that may taste delectable. An agreeable sound, a comforting touch, a delightful aroma and a delicious meal with an attractive form are also aspects of rasa, taste. These are the tastes for the various cognitive organs in your body.

  The more that these tastes or sensory experiences are in harmony, the more positive is the effect of the food on you. That is why flavour, aroma, taste, presentation and ambience all make a difference to how your body accepts the food you eat.

  For example, do a takeaway from your favourite restaurant. You’ll notice eating that meal at home hasn’t given you the same fulfilment as eating it in the restaurant. This is largely because at home you can’t recreate the same experience or ambience. If it were just about the physical aspect of food, it wouldn’t have mattered one bit where you ate it. But the truth is, where and how you eat your food has a bearing on the three subsequent stages of the food’s influence on your body.

  Potency

  Once the food is past the taste buds, it ends up in the stomach. It leads to the second stage of the food’s processing by the body. Whatever we can taste has a certain potency. It is called virya, also meaning strength or efficacy. Although this potency may be experienced by any of the five sensory organs, my present focus is on food being digested by the stomach. Potency of any food is realized during digestion. Virya specifically refers to the nature of food during the process of assimilation or digestion in the stomach.

  It could be cold, hot, heavy, light, unctuous or rough. Broadly, it is classified as either hot or cold. Cold food will vitiate kapha and hot food will vitiate pitta. Whether it pacifies or deranges vata depends on your constitution and the time you consume such food. For example, milk is cold and heavy. It aggravates kapha and is heavy on digestion. If you take it in the morning, it does not vitiate vata, but if you drink milk after sunset it deranges vata and causes gas.

  Virya refers to the essence of the substance. It is the influence of any food from the moment it reaches your stomach till the time the food is completely digested. In other words, it is the effect of a substance on your mind and body during the phase of digestion. For example, cabbage is cold and light in rasa but rough and hot in virya. It causes gas during the process of digestion no matter what time of the day it is consumed.

  Maturity

  If you notice carefully, after a food has been digested, some foods leave you feeling lethargic, whereas some make you feel energetic; some make you feel light and many make you feel heavy. This post-digestion effect is called the maturity of the food. After the food has been digested, but the residue has not been excreted, the food you have consumed is in the third stage called vipaka. It means ripening or maturing. It is the post-digestive state.

  At this stage, both the food and its residue are in your system and are having an impact on your health. The residue in the stomach is producing toxins and the nutrients absorbed have not yet been fully transported throughout your body. Processed foods leave more residue in your body. Eating a cheese-and-tomato sandwich on white bread is not the same as eating a green salad with tomatoes, cheese and croutons in it. The latter will digest better, absorb better and leave you feeling better.

  Foods that are sweet, salty or sour in vipaka are good at eliminating wind and help excretion of urine and stools. Foods with pungent, bitter and astringent vipaka aggravate vata and can cause irregular bowel movements and reproductive disorders.

  All acidic foods, with the exception of citrus fruits, have pungent or bitter vipaka and should be avoided as much as possible. Naturally, citrus foods have sweet or sour vipaka and are really good for the body. Most dry fruits, for example, have hot vipaka and aggravate pitta.

  Effect

  This is the fourth and the final stage of the food’s processing by the body. It is also known as the specific or net potency. The Sanskrit word is prabhava. Its literal meaning is effect. The food has been digested, the residue has been excreted, and the rest has been fully absorbed by your body. The food you consumed has shown its complete and net effect. Let’s take the example of milk again – cow’s milk in this case. Its taste is sweet and light, its potency is heavy and sweet, its maturity is unctuous and heavy, and its effect is acidic and light. So milk may help wash down spices after a meal, but its net effect is acidic and it vitiates vata.

  Knowing all about food is not enough; we must know what, when and how to eat. I have known numerous patients who ate according to their constitution, who were strict vegetarians, who followed the rules of diet, yet were not in the best of health. Just like we can’t transfer the contents of a full one litre bottle to another that is half its size, we can’t absorb the living energy of our food if we don’t align ourselves to that energy. I’m not referring to any esoteric aspects of food consumption. Instead, I wish to share with you simple and practical principles of eating our food, that will make all the difference between feeling healthy and feeling ill; between looking lustrous and looking listless.

  8

  The Eating Sense

  Isha, a woman in her mid-thirties, was depressed. Her feelings were not unreasonable. She was overweight by twenty pounds and, despite all her efforts, couldn’t lose weight. She’d tried all sorts of diet programmes. Every time she lost a few pounds, she gained them back quicker than she’d lost them. She’d tried fasting and supplements, she’d even become a vegetarian, but there was no improvement. Isha was happily married with no kids. The intriguing thing was that she was eating the right food in the right amounts, yet she was
unable to lose weight. She asked me why God was so unkind to her.

  ‘What’s God got to do with your body weight?’ I asked. She felt some negative forces in the universe were preventing her from permanently shedding weight. She told me that her dream was to be able to fit into certain dresses. She said she wanted to look beautiful in the mirror. I told her that she was beautiful but she wouldn’t believe it. Her inability to lose weight had deeply affected her self- belief, self-confidence and self-esteem. She saw herself as a failure. She wasn’t aiming to become a supermodel: all she wanted was to shed twenty pounds, she said. She asked me how it could be that no diet programme worked for her. She tried eating less, she tried eating more, she tried eating certain foods and she tried salad-only diets, but every time she lost weight, she put it back on.

  She had been a non-vegetarian all her life, but in the past five years, she had even become a vegetarian, she said. She tried exercising but she could not find any method to permanently shed her excess weight. ‘Please tell me the truth, Swami,’ she said. ‘Can you help me?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘You see, Isha, exercising or diet programmes are never a permanent way of losing weight. Your weight has little to do with what or how much you are eating. And God can’t help you in losing weight.’

  ‘Then?’

  ‘You need to know the art of eating. There’s no problem with your selection of foods. Diet is not the problem, just the eating sense.’

  I shared with her the long-forgotten eating sense: the art of choosing what, when, how and how much you put in your stomach. She seemed somewhat, but not fully, convinced. Nevertheless, she followed my method of eating food properly over the next three months and came back to report that she had lost twelve pounds. She said she felt happier and fitter because she was not torturing herself, and in spite of eating everything, she was still losing weight. Another four months later, she reported losing another ten pounds. She exceeded her target of losing twenty pounds. It’s been more than a year and she hasn’t regained any weight.