ROLE OF TASTE IN NUTRITION

ROLE OF TASTE IN NUTRITION

 

              Complete nutrition requires that all six tastes be available in our daily diet, indicating that all five bhutas are present in the necessary proportions in our food. Because neer and mann bhutas are found in the greatest proportion in the body, the sweet taste associated with them is required in greater amounts for its strengthening and nourishing qualities.

              To understand how food affects us, we must recognize that all five elements are present in the foods we eat and in the body’s organs and tissues. Governed by the doshas, digestion transforms food into substances suitable to the unique elemental composition of the various tissues and organs of the body. Like increases like. Food that is high in one bhuta increases the dosha which represents that bhuta in the body. For example, if we eat food dominated by mann and neer, it increases kapha and decreases akayam and vayu , or vatha dosha. Food high in thee increases pitta and decreases kapham.

The six basic tastes arise out of the various combination and permutations of the five elements. As a result, certain tastes increases the influence of one dosha and decrease the effects of the other two. Since the elemental make-up of food can aggravate or excite a dosha, food are categorized according to the tastes which pacify or decrease a dosha’s aggravation.

When we know the effect of tastes on the doshas, we can select foods which keep the  doshas balanced and create optimum digestion. All three doshas must be nourished and this is accomplished by taking in all six tastes in the appropriate proportions on a daily basis. A diet habitually unbalanced in taste creates doshic disorders and ama. For instance, if we eat only sweet, sour and salty foods, vathm gets nourished but pitham and kapham do not. This throws off the natural equilibrium that exists among the three of them. such a diet can correct imbalances by pacifying the excessive doshas and strengthening the weak ones.