The six tastes of Ayurveda workshop
My brilliant and knowledgable yoga teacher Melissa Lomas has been studying Ayurveda, and is currently running a series of informational workshops. They are held monthly on a Thursday evening at The Retreat, and you can attend individual sessions or the whole course (the first two have already taken place).
Ayurveda is the world’s oldest system of healthcare and medicine. The word Ayurveda comes from the Sanskrit words ‘ayus’ meaning life and ‘veda’ meaning knowledge, so it is the science of living.
The Ayurvedic belief is that each person is born with a unique, unchanging combination of the three doshas - Vata, Pitta or Kapha. These are the physical, mental and emotional characteristics that define everything about us. The goal of Ayuveda is to restore balance in the body to keep ourselves in optimum health. (You can do an online quiz to find your dosha. There are loads to choose from, but this Pukka one is very simple with just five questions, or this one by Oneworld is more in-depth).
A balanced diet
Melissa’s six tastes of Ayurveda workshop was fascinating, and excuse the pun, but there was so much to digest. So let’s start with the six tastes:
Sweet
Sour
Salty
Pungent
Bitter
Astringent
Making sure that we get these six tastes in every meal helps us to obtain nutritional breadth and depth. However, you’d have them in varying amounts according to your dosha. For example, people with Vata dosha (*waves excitedly*) need warm, nourishing and hydrating foods whereas Kapha people require light and dry foods. I always knew there was a reason I favoured hearty comfort food. Finally, an excuse for more Yorkshire pudding.
But Ayuveda is more than ‘we are what we eat’ - it’s ‘we are what we digest.’ This is because a healthy diet is only healthy when it reaches the cells, so optimal digestion is crucial. Melissa passed on an Ayurvedic proverb that says: ‘When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. When diet is correct, medicine is of no need.’ In short, our capacity to heal from our diet is profound.
Some quick tips…
In a world of faddy food advice, the Ayurvedic nutritional beliefs are reassuringly sensible and easy to follow. There is a lot of overlap with other practical, science-based beliefs on how to eat well. Here are a few key points I took away with me:
Reconnect with nature by eating seasonally
Focus less on diets/quantitative markers and more on how foods make us feel
Stick to eating in circadian rhythms (apart from occasional cleanse/fasts)
Leave 3-4 hours between meals to aid digestion
Eat mindfully and don’t overeat
Drink herbal teas or warm water to support digestion and detoxification
There is so much to learn on this topic, but this was a fantastic and inspiring starting point. Right, I’m off for my next Yorkshire pud!
Melissa’s next Ayuveda workshop will take place on Thursday 7th November at 6pm and the topic is Winter Wellness
