← The Nourished Nervous System
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Welcome to the Nourished Nervous System, an exploration of stress, the nervous system, and resilience for parents and other humans through the lens of Ayurveda, somatics, herbs, and a whole lot more. I'm your host, Kristen Timchak, an Ayurvedic health counselor, stress and resilience coach, somatic stress release practitioner, and mother of a tiny human. Please join me for information and insights, deep thoughts, and small steps to help you nourish your nervous system. Hello, hello, welcome, and welcome back to the Nourished Nervous System. So grateful that you're here. So today's episode is going to be all about the six tastes in Ayurveda and how these tastes affect the doshas. This is important both with the food that we eat, but also with the herbs we take. I have been studying herbs for a really, really long time, but it wasn't until I started studying them from the Ayurvedic perspective that it really opened up my horizons of how I could taste an herb and figure out some of the ways that it was going to affect my body and my constitution and my imbalances. And so we're going to get into what the tastes are, what elements they're made up of, because everything is made up of the elements and how these tastes affect our bodies, how they affect the different doshas of our bodies. And as I started thinking about this, I got really inspired because it's a lot of information and it can be kind of confusing at first. So I created a chart, a six taste chart. It's like a wheel, and in the center of the wheel are the different tastes and which elements each taste is made up of. And then coming out from the wheel, it shows which doshas that taste affects in what ways. It has a little plus sign for the ones that it accumulates and then a little minus signs for the doshas that it balances. And then I have some examples of foods and herbs around the outer edge of the circle that correspond to each particular taste. So if you are getting my email newsletter, this will be in there next week and if not, I'll have a link to this in the show notes. And if you're not on my email newsletter, consider it. It's been really fun and it's constantly evolving. I just started doing this for you section where I put resources like this, but I also am collaborating with past podcast guests to have some of their resources available to you in this for you section in my newsletter. So it's been really fun. I've got a lot of really cool things that I'm going to be filtering into the newsletter. And I only put it out twice a month, so it's not a huge AM of extra emails in your inbox. So consider signing up. And then before we get into the episode, just my disclaimer that this podcast is purely for entertainment and educational purposes and should not be considered health or mental health advice. Anything said should not be taken as a replacement for medical, clinical, professional advice, diagnosis, or medical intervention. Okie dokie. So let's just get into this so the 6 tastes in Ayurveda are really foundational to Ayurvedic healing. Because such a big part of Ayurvedic healing is what we eat and what we taste. And the different tastes have different effects on our body. So the tastes are sweet, salty, sour, bitter, pungent, and astringent. Certain tastes can accumulate or aggravate certain doshas when they're in excess and bring other doshas back into balance. So let's start with the sweet taste, because I think that's a fan favorite. I know it's one of my favorites. And the sweet taste is made up of earth and water. Its qualities are heavy, cooling and unctuous. And it's absolutely essential for nourishment and balance. It is kapha dosha. Earth and water that's what makes up kapha dosha. So you can probably guess that it is going to increase kapha dosha if in excess, it's going to aggravate kapha, and it's going to help to balance pitta and vata dosha. The sweet taste is anabolic, meaning it's a building taste. Think about little kids when they're growing. They just love the carbohydrates and the sweets. That's because their bodies are growing. They need that sweet taste. And when I talk about sweet taste, I'm not talking about Captain Crunch and Twinkies here. You know, I'm talking about whole grains, root vegetables, winter squash, sweet potatoes, almonds, dates, fruit, honey, maple syrup. Sometimes meat and dairy are considered sweet here. And I'll just say that because sweet taste is so foundational for us because it's a really easy taste. It's a really pleasurable taste. When you eat something sweet, there's a sense of ease and calm and relaxation and joy. And because of that, companies have perverted that sweet taste to make a lot of money off of it. So all of the super processed sugar sweets that are out there that get us so addicted to them, they're capitalizing on this fact that the human brain, the human being, loves the sweet taste. It gives us that dopamine boost, but it's more than that. It's nurturing, it's foundational, except for when that sweet taste is manipulated into being something that's actually not good for us anymore. So in general, the sweet taste needs to be kept in moderation. And something I'll just say here, because this is important, that foods, herbs, everything that exists has all of the elements in it, but certain things have more. So when I talk about these foods and herbs that have the sweet taste or any of the taste, it doesn't mean that they don't have the other tastes as well. It just means that the sweet taste is the most predominant taste. The same way that a person who might have a lot of kapha dosha in their constitution, they're not just kapha. They have all the other doshas as well. They have all the other elements, but the kapha dosha is predominant. And so some herbs that have the sweet taste, they tend to be strengthening to kapha dosha. They can aggravate kapha in excess, and they're balancing to pitta and vata. These herbs are often nourishing and tonifying. They help to build tissues. And some of them have a mucilaginous quality, that unctuous quality of kapha. They can help to strengthen and repair the mucus linings in the body. And so a few examples of these are licorice, slippery elm, marshmallow, shatavari, psyllium, fennel, comfrey root. Many of these, as you notice, are roots. They grow in the ground. They are heavy, and grounding they, even in their beans, they embody the kapha dosha. And the other way that we use the sweet taste medicinally in Ayurveda is something called an Anupan. And an anupan is a carrier for some other type of herb or medicine. And so it can often be something like honey or ghee or jaggery, which is a type of unprocessed sugar. And other herbs are mixed into this anupan. And this helps to bring those herbs deeper into the tissues. So think about when you eat something that's deliciously sweet, not, you know, not the Twinkie, but a perfectly ripe peach or mango. And that feeling that you get in your body after you eat that, there's that feeling of relaxation and contentment and joy and openness. Your body opens to that flavor. So when your body opens to it, it can sneak some of those other more bitter not as tasty herbs in and help to get their medicine deeper into your body. Like Mary Poppins, right? Spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. Mary Poppins was an Ayurvedic doctor. I'm joking, but that is the concept, right? A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. A spoonful of honey helps the bitter herbs go down. And so then we can go to the polar opposite of the sweet taste, the bitter taste. Bitter is made up of air and ether. It's cooling. Its qualities are cold, light, and dry. And it's the most cooling of all the tastes. It's deeply cleansing. It clears heat, it purifies the blood, it supports the liver, and it drains excess moisture from the body. So it helps to tone muscles and skin. And it can help to kindle the agni, meaning it can be used as a digestive tonic. So the practice of sipping herbal bitters or digestive bitters before or after a meal, that's something that was really, really common in the past and is still common in a lot of other countries. But it's something that we don't do as much anymore. So the bitter taste can be strengthening to vata, but in excess, it can aggravate vata. So vata would get a plus sign in, and it's balancing tapitta and kapha, so pitta and kapha would get a minus sign. It helps the pitta and kapha to go down. It balances them. And just in general, I think one of the reasons that with all of the options that we now have for food, that we don't choose the bitter as much is that bitter is a challenging taste. It's challenging. It's not agreeable the way sweet taste is. And so think about how your body feels after eating something very bitter. There can be this initial closing or tensing or almost rejecting it. And I think one of the reasons for this is because in nature, sometimes the bitter taste can indicate something that is poisonous to us. So our body is really careful with bitter, which is probably one of the reasons that now that we don't necessarily have to eat the bitter taste because there's so much other stuff available that we tend to avoid it. It's challenging. It's that friend that's always disagreeing with you just a little bit. You know, they're disagreeing with you. But what they have to say is pure wisdom, because I think that's the beauty of bitter. It's challenging. But what it has to offer our bodies, especially if you have that excess pitta and kapha is so valuable. It's so valuable for our digestive system, for cleansing our body, for our livers. And so that's one of the reasons that we use that sweet taste, the anupan, to help to get the bitter herbs into the body and into the tissues. And even some herbal bitter formulas that I've seen have some sweeter herbs, some licorice or anise or something like that in them. That helps to balance out some of the more bitter herbs. And as I said, bitter used to be a much more prevalent taste for us. Now it's not, but it's something that we can build capacity for. You can start small and incorporate little bits of bitter taste into your life, and eventually you might find that you start to crave it. At first, it might be like, oh, gosh, this is hard. But then eventually, the more that you do it, your body starts to get that benefit from that wisdom of bitter, and your body will start to crave it. Some examples of bitter foods would be leafy greens. All the little greens that come up in the springtime. All the greens, the kale, the collards, dandelion greens, all those things that we eat have the bitter taste. Artichoke, burdock root, sesame seeds have a bitter taste. And then for herbs that are bitter, there's dandelion root. Burdock once again, can be used either as a food or as an herb. Chamomile can be bitter, especially if you steep it a little bit longer. Schisandra has some bitter. Gentian is one of the classic bitters that's used in many herbal bitter formulas. Chicory, which is actually sometimes used as a coffee substitute. Yarrow, turmeric has a bitter flavor. And so these plants are cleansing. They support liver health, they support digestion. So if you think about those first greens that come up in the spring that have that bitter quality, these foods help to stimulate digestion, and they cleanse the liver from that heavy kapha. Increasing winter diet. Nature is giving us exactly what we need at the right seasons. If we eat seasonally, there can also be some bitterness to some of the summer berries and veggies that grow in the summer. That helps to clear that heat of pitta in the summertime. And so next, let's get into the pungent taste, because the pungent taste can also stimulate digestion, but in a really different way. The pungent taste is made up of fire and air. Its qualities are hot, dry, light and sharp. It's penetrating, it's aromatic. It helps to balance kapha Dosha, so kapha minus. And it can, in excess, aggravate pitta and vata, so pitta and vata plus. And so the pungent taste is usually created by the presence of aromatic volatile oils, resins, and mustard glycosids. And the pungent taste is really interesting because it actually occurs by irritating or stimulating the tissues and nerve endings of the mouth with that hot, sharp sensation. So the pungent taste is almost more of a sensation than an actual taste. And this taste kindles agni, which is our digestifier. It stimulates digestion, it increases appetite, it can enhance circulation in the body, so it can be cleansing to the tissues, and it can heighten the senses. So it's an invigorating taste. It can increase clarity and vigor and excitement and enthusiasm. But in excess, it can create irritability and anger and aggressiveness and competitiveness. I remember in one of my herbal classes, way, way, way long ago with William Siff, we were talking about the taste, and we were tasting different herbs, and he passed around a tincture that had the pungent taste, and we all took a drop of it and sat with it and felt it. And then everyone just started chatting. It was like all of a sudden there was this energy in the room of talking and excitement. And it was really interesting to watch how that pungent flavor, it increased that pitta and vata dosha, and it just created a lot more energy in the room. So some examples of the pungent taste are mustard greens, ginger, chili peppers, garlic, onions, radishes. Those all have the pungent taste. Most spices have some element of pungentness to them, but especially black pepper, cardamom, dry ginger is very pungent. Fresh ginger is a little less so because it has that water quality to it. So for somebody who has a lot of pitta or vata, I would go for fresh ginger over dry ginger, because it's less drying, it's less heating. Some other herbs that might have a pungent taste are thyme, oregano, rosemary. They all have those volatile essential oils. Cayenne pepper, clearly. So all of these herbs and foods are going to help to kindle the agni, to heat up your digestive fire. To if you have a lot of kapha dosha, a lot of wet, heavy stagnancy, these are some good foods to eat. These are good foods to incorporate in this kapha time of year, in this springtime, to break up that heaviness and that stagnancy. And for vata, that warmth can be very beneficial, but too much of it is eventually going to dry out vata because it's warm and dry. So it's eventually going to to aggravate vata. If there's excess pitta of any kind, then pungent taste is not recommended, which is so hard for the pitta folks, because the pittas really love that intensity. They're the folks who love to put hot sauce on every single thing they eat and just really have those intense experiences. Same way that for the kapha people who the sweet brings them out of balance. They love their ice cream, they love their pastries. It's just the nature of being in a human body that we're going to crave sometimes the things that bring us out of balance. But then there are also ways to work with this, like with garlic and onions. When they are raw, they're going to have a lot more pungency. And when they're cooked well, they're going to be a lot sweeter. So sometimes how we prepare a food is going to change the amount of the taste, amount of the pungency that's in it. You can also work with this by herbally creating formulas. So you can create a more balanced herbal formula by adding either some of heating or cooling herbs in it to balance out whatever you're trying to go for. I think about in Ayurveda, we drink a lot of CCF tea. It's the cumin, coriander, fennel tea. And because these are spices that have those volatile oils, there is some pungency to them. But the fennel has more sweetness, the cumin has more bitterness, and so they balance each other out. And so this tea is great for people. Try doshically. The next taste is the sour taste. It's made up of earth and fire. Its qualities are liquid, light, oily and hot. And so it helps to balance vata dosha. But in excess, it can aggravate pitta and kapha. And this sour taste is primarily made up of acids such as citric acid, malic acid, lactic acid, oxalic acid and ascorbic acid. In our foods, when the sour taste enters our mouth, we often have that pucker sensation when we encounter it. And it immediately moistens the mouth and it increases the flow of saliva. So both warming and it creates that moisture, which is balancing for vata. And that's also why it's aggravating for pitta and kapha, because pitta, if you remember, pitta is fire, but it also has that watery oily substance. The sour taste is heating, and it's great for digestion like I said, it gets that saliva flowing, it gets the digestive juices flowing, it kindles the appetite, the salivary secretions, it enhances digestive enzymes, and it can boost your overall metabolism. It can help to move stagnation in the liver, and it also can awaken the mind. But it's definitely another one to be used in moderation, because in excess, it can create more heat in the body and it can irritate conditions like acid reflux and heartburn. So some foods that have the sour taste are citrus fruits, fermented foods like kimchi, yogurt, sauerkraut, sourdough, pickles, vinegar. And so many of those foods are traditionally used almost as garnishes. They're used in small amounts that you might eat with a heavier meal to help to promote digestion. And if you think about things that are fermented, when things are fermenting, they're transforming. There's those bacteria and enzymes and acids that help to break down and change the nature of the ferment. The cabbage turning into sauerkraut, or the bread fermenting and rising, the milk turning into yogurt. These are all transformations. And so when there's transformation, we know that there's pitta dosha there. Pitta dosha rules transformation. So there's going to be some heat in the herbal realm. Herbs that have the sour taste are hibiscus, elderberry, schisandra, amla. And amla is kind of one of those special ones because it does have the sour taste, but it's also cooling. It's actually really beneficial for pitta dosha. So it's one that has a sour taste. It won't throw pitta out of balance. I feel that way with schisandra as well, that because schisandra has so many other tastes in balance, that it can be more balancing for the doshas. And next is salty. So salty is made up of water and fire. Its qualities are heavy, oily and hot. So it's balancing once again for vata dosha. And in excess, it can aggravate pitta and kapha. And salt is another one of those really important tastes for our bodies. It helps us to maintain the electrolyte balance. It supports digestion, absorption and assimilation. It can be energizing and also grounding. It's nutritive, it can be calming for the nervous system, and it helps to also enhance the other flavors in our food. And because of this, because I think it's something our bodies really need, that it's also been manipulated by the food industry. And it's been overdone and overused and intensified. And one of the other qualities of the salty taste is it can create an excess when it's out of balance, can create addiction. And you know this, if you've ever eaten a potato chip, you know that that salty, crunchy thing can create addiction. And so salt, in the right balance, just a bit of it, can be so good for us, it's so healthy for our bodies. We really need it. But too much salt can really throw all of the doshas out of balance, especially pitta dosha. And so in the food world, we find the salty taste in salt. All the different kinds of salt. Ayurveda is particular to the mineral sea salt, because you can get the salty taste, and it's not as aggravating to pitta dosha. But all salts have the salty taste. Tamari, soy sauce, these things all have the salty taste. Celery has a salty taste. And then medicinally, there's not a whole lot of herbs that have the salty taste, but seaweeds, you can use seaweeds medicinally. And those are the thing I can think of that has the salty taste to it. And finally the astringent taste. So this one can be a little bit harder for folks to identify. It's the taste of dryness in the mouth. So it's produced by tannins in the bark, leaves, or rinds of fruit and trees. And it causes the mucous membranes in the mouth to contract, to move inward, and it results in this immediate kind of dry, chalky, sometimes a bit of a puckering sensation in the mouth. And so the astringent taste is made up of air and earth. Its qualities are dry, cold, and heavy. So it helps to balance pitta and kapha. And in excess, it's aggravating to vata. The estrogen flavor is drying. It helps to dry up the mud of kapha dosha. It dries up the oil of pitta dosha. I remember being a teenager and having that oily pitta skin in that pitta time of life. And putting the astringent cleanser on my skin to help to dry it out. If you ever put witch hazel on your skin, witch hazel is extremely astringent. It dries things out. It absorbs the excess moisture. It cleanses the mucous membranes, and it has this tendency to draw inward, so it has this cohesive quality and tonifying quality. It helps to tonify the tissues and organs. It can also help to tonify the digestive system bringing that cohesiveness to waste products, if you catch my drift. And so some foods that are astringent are pomegranates, apples, broccoli, green bananas. Have you ever had a really green banana and your mouth just dries out? It feels like you just had a sponge that just sucked everything out of your mouth. Most beans are actually astringent. And some of the herbs with an astringent taste are raspberry leaf, yarrow, witch hazel, which we use topically, plantain, turmeric, and parsley. And as I said before, all of these things have other tastes in them as well. But these are ones that also have that astringent taste, or that astringent taste might be more pronounced. Something that's great to think about is, is trying throughout the day to get all of these tastes either in with your food or with herbs. I would say that the bitter and astringent ones can be challenging, but I will just chop up some fresh parsley and put it on my food, and there you've got astringent. Have you ever eaten, like, really good Indian food? Have you gone out for really good Indian food where they have the. The chutneys and all the little garnishes that you can put on those are there to give you all the taste? A really good Indian meal is going to have all of the different tastes in that meal. And there's something so satisfying for the body, mind, and spirit, I'm going to say, when we get all of those tastes. So trying to incorporate the taste more, I think we can really have this tendency in our society to go towards those sweet, salty, and sour tastes a lot. Those are pretty, pretty common, pretty easy to get. But trying to incorporate those other tastes can help to bring in more balance and help your digestion. And there's also this emotional level to the taste. If they're affecting the doshas, they're affecting us mind, body and spirit. So everything's connected. And so get my Ayurvedic 6 taste chart, download it, print it out, put it on your fridge, and then you can just reference it. And clearly there is only space for so many herbs and foods for each thing. But it gives you the idea. And you can also look it up online if you want some more ideas of different herbs or foods that have the different tastes and just start to incorporate more into your food. So your small step for this week is just to take note of the tastes that you already are eating and see if in the course of a day, which taste you're getting the most of. And then a bonus level of this is whatever season it is at the time of listening to this, right now, at the time of recording. We're in kapha season in spring, but we whatever season it is for you, notice what dosha is most present in that season and see if you can start to add in some tastes that are going to help to balance that dosha. And it can just be small, tiny, tiny things. Right? We don't want to go overboard but just incorporating right now in this season, incorporating a little bit more pungent, a little bit more bitter and astringent foods into your diet and just notice, notice how it affects you, how it feels. Okay, my friend, I hope that there's some little nuggets in there for you. I love talking about this stuff. I feel like it's so empowering to have this knowledge because I feel like once it becomes more ingrained, it becomes another way of listening to your body and being able to respond and keep yourself in balance. Like listening to the body. Okay, I've got this heat coming up in my body. I know now that that bitter taste is cooling. Maybe I'll have a little bit of some bitter taste to help to counteract this heat I'm feeling. It just brings more empowerment into the day to day balancing of the doshas. Okay, I'm gonna really stop talking now. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you. Talk soon. Hey there. Thanks for listening. I really appreciate you. If you weren't listening, I'd be sitting in this room talking to myself and that could get kind of weird. So I really, really do appreciate you. If you can think of anybody else that might enjoy listening, please share and if you share on social media, please tag me. NourishedNeverVasySTEM. Have a beautiful, beautiful day.