Ayurvedic diagnosis of disease is based on the three biological humors; treatment is according to the six tastes. These apply not only to herbs but also to foods and minerals. They are based on the actual taste of the substance when taken in the mouth and reveal an intricate dynamic of herbal properties.
The six tastes are sweet, salty, sour, pungent, bitter and astringent.
Each is made up of two of the five elements. Sweet taste, as in sugars and starches, is composed of earth and water; salty, as in table salt or seaweed, of water and fire; sour, fermented food or acid fruit, of earth and fire;
pungent, hot spices like cayenne or ginger, of fire and air; bitter, bitter herbs like golden seal or gentian, of air and ether; and astringent, as in herbs containing tannins, like alum or witch hazel, of earth and air.
Heating and Cooling Effects
The six tastes are classified as heating or cooling to different degrees.
Hottest generally is pungent, followed by sour and salty. Coldest is bitter, followed by astringent and sweet.
Heavy and Light Properties
They are also classified as heavy and light. Heaviest generally is sweet, followed by salty and astringent. Lightest is bitter, followed by pungent and sour.
Moist and Dry Properties
And they are classified as moist or dry. Wettest generally is sweet, followed by salty and sour. Driest is pungent, followed by bitter and astringent.
Tastes and the Humors
Three tastes increase each of the biological humors and three decrease them. These are general rules. Many combinations and variations exist.
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Vata (air) is most increased by bitter taste, which most resembles it, then astringent and pungent. It is most decreased by salty taste, then sour and sweet.
Pitta (tire) is most increased by sour taste, then pungent and salty. It is most decreased by bitter taste, then astringent and sweet.
Kapha (water) is most increased by sweet taste, then salty and sour.
It is most decreased by pungent taste, then bitter and astringent.
Actions of the Tastes
Each taste has its specific therapeutic actions. Sweet taste is building and strengthening to all body tissues. It harmonizes the mind and promotes a sense of contentment. It is demulcent (soothing to the mucus membranes), expectorant and mildly laxative. It counters burning sensa-tions.
Salty taste is softening, laxative and sedative. In small amounts it stimulates digestion, in moderate amounts it is purgative, and in very large amounts it causes vomiting.
Sour taste is stimulant, carminative (dispels gas), nourishing and thirst relieving. It increases all tissues but the reproductive.
Pungent taste is stimulant, carminative, and diaphoretic (promotes sweating). It improves metabolism and promotes all organic functions. It promotes heat and digestion and counters cold sensations.
Bitter taste is alterative (blood purifying), cleansing and detoxifying.
It reduces all bodily tissues and increases lightness in the mind.
Astringent taste stops bleeding and other excess discharges (such as excess sweating or diarrhea) and promotes healing of the skin and mucus membranes.
Amounts of the Six Tastes Needed
Everyone needs a certain amount of each of the six tastes. The relative proportion differs according to the constitution or humor of the individual.
Too much of any taste can become harmful to any constitutional type, as can too little.
Sweet
• Needed in significant amounts for all humors, as food is predominately sweet in taste. More is required for Pitta (fire), moderate for Vata (air), less for Kapha (water).
• Necessary for maintaining tissue growth and development in all three humors.
The Six Tastes 17
Salty
• Needed in small amounts for all humors, as it is strong in low concentrations. More is needed for Vata (air), moderate for Pitta (fire), less for Kapha (water).
• Necessary for maintaining mineral balance and holding water.
Sour
• Required in moderation for each humor. More is needed for Vata (air), moderate for Kapha (water), less for Pitta (fire).
• Necessary for maintaining acidity and countering thirst.
Pungent
• Needed in moderation for each humor; more for Kapha (water), moderate for Vata (air), less for Pitta (fire).
• Necessary for maintaining metabolism, improving appetite and digestion.
Bitter
• Needed in small quantities for each humor; more for (Pitta) fire, moderate for Kapha (water), less for Vata (air).
• Necessary for detoxification, but also is depleting.
Astringent
• Needed moderate amounts for each humor, as a secondary food taste; more for Pitta (fire), moderate for Kapha (water), less for Vata (air).
• Necessary for maintaining firmness of tissues.
Comparative Nutritive and Medicinal Values of Tastes
In terms of nutrition, sweet is most important generally for everyone, as it possesses the highest nutritive value. Sour is moderately nutritive but tends to deplete the reproductive secretions. Astringent has some nutritive properties, particularly for the minerals; most green vegetables are regarded as astringent. Salt provides minerals and helps hold water but is not very nutritive in itself. Pungent has slight nutritive properties in various spicy vegetables, like onions, but is generally depleting. Bitter is the least nutritive, or tasty, and is often a sign that vegetables are too old to eat.
In terms of medicinal properties, bitter and astringent are the most commonly used. They treat severe fevers, infections and traumatic in-
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juries that are the most immediate threat to life. Pungent is also very useful for stimulating our defensive reactions and breaking stagnation. These three tastes are the most common in plants, have the most immediate action, and are best for destroying pathogens. Sour, salty and sweet have less medicinal value and are more for long term tonification and slower therapies.
Aggravation of Humors by the Six Tastes Excess of the Tastes
Each taste in excess causes certain damage, first to the humor it aggravates, then even to the humor it alleviates (if in too large amounts).
For example, too much salt will initially aggravate Kapha (water) by holding more water in the tissues. An excess, however, can even aggravate Vata (air), which it alleviates in normal amounts. This causes thirst, wrinkling of the skin and falling of the hair.
Each taste differs in its power to aggravate humors. Bitter is the most aggravating in small amounts, as it is most depleting; then salty, sour, pungent, astringent and sweet.
The stronger pure forms of each taste are more likely to aggravate the humors. The complex forms are less likely to, as they require assimilation.
They do not have so one-sided an action, nor are they as likely to cause autoimmune derangement.
The pure forms of the six tastes are sugar (not only white sugar but any pure sugar), salt, hot spices, alcohol, pure astringents, pure bitters.
The first two are those most commonly taken in our culture. They are most responsible for the aggravation of the humors, even those they usually alleviate.
Pure versus Complex Forms of the Six Tastes
Taste Pure Complex
1. Sweet Sugar Complex carbohydrates 2. Salty Table salt Seaweed
3. Pungent Hot peppers Mild spices (cayenne) (cardamom, fennel) 4. Sour Alcohol Sour food (yogurt,
sour fruit) 5. Bitter Pure bitters Mild bitters
(aloe gel) (golden seal) 6. Astringent Pure astringents Mild astringents
(strong tannins) (alfalfa, red raspberry)
The Six Tastes 19 Pure forms of the six tastes are more likely to aggravate the humors when taken regularly, as in food or with food. Yet they also can possess strong medicinal properties for temporary conditions. Pure forms of the six tastes should be used with care or used therapeutically.
Deficiency of the Tastes
A lack of each taste will also aggravate humors — first those they alleviate, then, if the lack is greater, even those they aggravate. For example, too little sugar will first aggravate Vata (air) and Pitta (fire). But if the deficiency is to the point of malnutrition, it can even weaken a person with Kapha (watery) constitution.
Usually in our culture bitter taste is used too little, then pungent and astringent. The lack of bitter taste causes us to accumulate toxins inter-nally. Hence, most of us can use more of these tastes. We usually have sweet and salty in excess, even if we are Vata (air) types.
Tastes and Organs
Too much sweet damages the spleen (pancreas), too much salty damages the kidneys, too much pungent damages and dries the lungs, too much sour damages the liver, too much bitter damages the heart, too much astringent damages the colon. But too much of any taste, as we have seen, will generally damage the body as a whole. Sweet builds toxins, salty causes looseness, sour causes acidity, pungent causes burning, bitter causes cold and astringent causes contractions.
Tastes and Emotions
The six tastes are also the "flavors'' of our various emotions. These can affect us in the same way as diet and herbs, and can increase the therapeutic or disease-causing effects of the tastes that correspond to them.
Sweet Love, attachment.
Salty Greed.
Sour Envy.
Pungent Hatred.
Bitter Grief.
Astringent Fear.
Emotions have the same effect as food or herbs of the same energetic quality. Psychological factors, generally speaking, will outweigh physical factors. Anger can damage the liver as much as alcoholism. So herbs and diet are not enough if the taste of the mind has not changed.
20 Ayurvedic Healing Hot Emotions Anger, hatred, envy.
Cold Emotions Fear, grief, sorrow.
Relationships Between the Six Tastes
These six tastes can be combined for various therapeutic actions. For example, pungent and bitter combine well for their drying and cleansing action (like the Western herbal combination of cayenne and golden seal).
Pungent, sour and salty combine well for their mutual action of stimulat-ing digestion. Generally, tastes will further the action which they share in common, while reducing those they do not.
Some tastes tend to balance or complement each other. For example, pungent aids in the digestion of sweet, as in the use of spices with sweets.
Sweet helps alleviate the burning sensation of pungent taste, as in taking sugar with cloves. Pungent promotes sweating, while astringent stops it.
Bitter counters the craving for sweet.
Six Tastes Pills
In India various herbal formulas are made combining all six tastes.
Such pills are given, particularly to children, to insure that adequate amounts of all six tastes are received daily. These pills help educate our sense of taste and harmonize its function.
A simple Ayurvedic version of the six tastes pill is made with equal parts shatavari (sweet), amalaki (sour), rock salt, ginger (pungent), bar-berry (bitter) and haritaki (astringent). Or we can modify this formula according to the three humors. Vata (air) can take twice the amount proportionally of the sweet, sour and salty herbs, concentrating on the tastes that reduce it. Kapha (water) can take twice the amount of the pungent, bitter and astringent herbs. Pitta can take twice the amount of the sweet, bitter and astringent.
A good Western version can be made with licorice (sweet), hawthorne berries (sour), sea salt, ginger (pungent), barberry (bitter) and red raspber-ry (astringent).
Dosage is one gram or two 500 mg. tablets every morning.
While not mentioned specifically in the disease treatment section, six tastes pills are useful generally for strengthening digestion and improving absorption, for chronic digestive system disorders and as an intestinal corrective. They are particularly good for those with chronic low appetite and anorexia.