The foremost principle of Ayurvedic diet is that all food items are classified into categories based upon their taste, general qualities, and how they affect your body and mind. Read more!
What are the 5 Basic Principles of Ayurvedic Diet?
1. Blog 2: Pureherbalayurved
What are the 5 Basic Principles of Ayurvedic Diet?
The main idea behind an Ayurvedic diet is to encourage a more conscious way of living. Ayurveda
embraces food as life-giving energy, and offer a way to understand how your individual nature and
the influences around you determine how your food affects you. Ayurveda explains that your dietary
needs and your digestion are affected by the mood, age, weather, etc. However, there are a few
principles that are great for everyone irrespective of their age, lifestyle, and so on.
Here are a few basic principles of Ayurvedic diet that everyone should know.
• The foremost principle of Ayurvedic diet is that all food items are classified into categories based
upon their taste, general qualities, and how they affect your body and mind. There are six tastes
recognized in Ayurveda that are sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. Each taste has
qualities associated with it that affect your body in a certain way.
• According to Ayurveda, food should appeal to all your senses, including your sense of taste, sight,
smell, touch, and sound. When you use a variety of foods and spices that are flavourful, aromatic,
and visually appealing with an assortment of colours and textures, it enhances your culinary
experience and provides you with a wide range of nutrients that helps in easy digestion.
• Eat loads of fruits and vegetables, not only for their nutritional value, but also because they are
good natural internal cleansers. It is important to eat seasonal fresh fruits to make sure that the
body is receiving the nutrition it requires depending on the season. Ayurveda also promotes regular
Ayurvedic massage to promote blood circulation in the body.
• Spices and condiments not only add flavour and aroma, they also bring therapeutic value to any
meal. Spices help boost immunity and digestion so that the body is able to absorb and assimilate the
nutrients from the meal. Some spices and condiments that are regularly used in cooking in India
such cumin seeds, turmeric, asafoetida, etc. carry a lot of medicinal value.
• Ayurveda is strictly against caffeine, alcohol, and carbonated drinks. Water is essential for the
overall well-being of a person and is an important part of an Ayurvedic lifestyle. Drinking lots of
lukewarm water through the day helps to rehydrate the body and flush toxins out of the digestive
system. Cold water is also not considered good for the health since, according to Ayurveda, it slows
down the digestive fire.