Diet Tips for a Balanced Life - the Ayurveda way.
Maharishi Ayurveda^TM

Before implementing these diet suggestions it is important to know your body-type (see Ayurveda self-evaluation questionaire).

General tips for balance:

• In Ayurveda there are six tastes or rasas - sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. Generally all meals should include at least a small amount of each taste.
• Eat in in a settled environment when you are calm and relaxed.
• Always sit down to eat.
• Be silent while chewing.
• Minimise ice-cold food and drink.
• It is best to consume fruit (or fruit juice) separately from other foods.
• Enjoy a light nourishing breakfast and make lunch your largest meal of the day, with a smaller meal in the evening (3 - 4 hours before bed).
• Eat only when you are hungry and leave about 25% of your stomach empty as this will aid digestion.
• Wait approximately 4 hours between meals to allow adequate time to digest. This might be less between small meals and more between big meals.

Tips to balance Doshas:

• To balance (decrease) Vata eat foods that are sweet, sour, salty, heavy, oily and hot.
• Pungent, bitter, astingent, light, dry and cold foods aggravate (increase) Vata.
• To balance (decrease) Pitta eat foods that are sweet, bitter, astingent, cold, heavy and dry.
• Pungent, sour, salty, hot, light and oily foods aggravate (increase) Pitta.
• To balance (decrease) Kapha eat foods that are pungent, bitter, astringent, light, dry and hot.
• Sweet, sour, salty, heavy, oily and cold foods aggravate (increase) Kapha.