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What are the Basic Principles of Ayurveda?
Ayurveda is based on the premise that the universe is made up of five elements: air, fire, water, earth and ether. These elements are represented in humans by three "doshas", or energies: Vata, Pitta and Kapha. When any of the doshas accumulate in the body beyond the desirable limit, the body loses its balance. Every individual has a distinct balance, and our health and well-being depend on getting a right balance of the three doshas ("tridoshas"). Ayurveda suggests specific lifestyle and nutritional guidelines to help individuals reduce the excess dosha.
A healthy person, as defined in Sushrut Samhita, one of the primary works on Ayurveda, is "he whose doshas are in balance, appetite is good, all tissues of the body and all natural urges are functioning properly, and whose mind, body and spirit are cheerful..." to Ayurveda, food is not only a mixture of all the basic ingredients like proteins, vitamins, fats and carbohydrates, but it is also something, which serves as a source of energy for the mind and the soul as well.
After digestion, food is either converted into Ojas or Ama, depending whether the food consumed is pro-Ayurvedic or ante-Ayurvedic. Ojas is the most refined product of the digestive process - the biochemical essence that sustains life and health. Ama is the toxin formed from improper metabolism of the food.
Therefore, the food chosen, cooked and consumed in accordance with the Ayurvedic principles is finally converted to Ojas which provides vigour, strength, and vitality to all tissues (dhatus).
What to Eat
Ayurveda classifies different varieties of food according to the characteristics such as taste, physical attributes, effect on the non-physical aspects of the physiology, etc. People desiring to follow an Ayurvedic lifestyle should include some elements from each of these categories.
The Six Tastes
In Ayurveda, food is classified into six tastes - sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. Ayurveda recommends that you include all the six tastes at each main meal you eat. Each taste has a balancing capacity in addition to the ability to aid digestion and minimise craving. The general trend in our diet tends to have too much of the sweet, sour and salty aspects of taste but not enough of the bitter, pungent and astringent tastes.
A fruit-spice chutney or a spice-mix can provide a little of each of the six tastes if you are in a hurry, but it is ideal to choose food items from each category for a complete and balanced nutrition. In the category of fresh vegetables and herbs, for example, you can choose fennel bulb or carrot for the sweet taste, fresh lemons for sour, arugula or endive for bitter, radish, white daikon or ginger root for pungent and cabbage, broccoli or cilantro for astringent tastes.
The Amalaki Rasayana, made from the Amla (gooseberries) fruit, offers five of the six Ayurvedic tastes - all but salty.