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Your Moods Have a Pattern Too, Here’s What Ayurveda Says

Ever had one of those days where you feel completely calm and clear-headed, like nothing can shake you? And then there are days where you feel restless, edgy, almost itching to argue with someone over nothing? And then, of course, there are the days where you don’t want to do anything at all. Not work, not talk, not even get off the couch. If you’ve felt all three of these at different points in your life, you already understand the Trigunas, even if you’ve never heard the word before. We talk a lot about Doshas when it comes to Ayurveda, Vata, Pitta, Kapha. But those three govern the body. What most people don’t know is that Ayurveda had a separate set of three for the mind. These are called the Trigunas: Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. And honestly, I think this is one of the more underrated ideas in the whole system. Let’s break it down simply. Sattva is that calm, clear state of mind. Sharp focus, a settled heart, the kind of headspace where good decisions just come naturally. Rajas is the restless one, driven, ambitious, a little impatient, always chasing the next thing. Tamas is the heavy one, sluggish, foggy, the mental version of hitting snooze five times in a row. Here’s the part I find genuinely interesting. Ayurveda didn’t treat these as personality types you’re stuck with. Unlike your Dosha, which is largely fixed from birth, your Guna shifts, sometimes within the same day. You could wake up Sattvic, turn Rajasic by 3pm after back-to-back meetings, and end the night fully Tamasic on the couch, scrolling your phone with zero motivation to move. Same person, three different mental states, all in twelve hours. That alone tells you something important. Ayurveda wasn’t describing who you are, it was describing where your mind happens to be, right now. And that’s a much more useful way to think about your own moods, isn’t it? We tend to label ourselves. “I’m just a lazy person.” “I’m always anxious.” “I’m just wired this way.” Ayurveda would gently push back on that. It would say, you’re not permanently anything. This is honestly a bit of a relief when you sit with it. Ayurveda also didn’t leave you to just observe your Guna. It gave you actual levers to pull. Food, for one. Ever notice how a heavy, greasy meal makes you want to do absolutely nothing afterward? That’s Tamas showing up through your plate. Ayurveda classified food the same way it classified minds: Sattvic, Rajasic and Tamasic, and it genuinely believed what you eat nudges your mental state, not just your waistline. Sleep, company, the media you consume, even the pace of your day. Ayurveda considered all of it capable of tilting you toward one Guna or another. This is where it gets a little uncomfortable, in a good way. Because it means your 2am doom-scrolling isn’t just a habit. It’s actively feeding a Tamasic state. And that overpacked schedule you’re proud of might be keeping you stuck in Rajas far more than you realise, wired, busy, but never actually at peace. Ayurveda wasn’t saying Rajas or Tamas are bad, by the way. You need Rajas to get out of bed and get things done. You need a bit of Tamas to actually rest. The goal was never to eliminate them. It was to notice which one you’re leaning on too heavily, and gently steer yourself back toward Sattva, the state Ayurveda considered closest to genuine wellbeing. So why doesn’t this concept come up as often as Doshas do? I think it’s because Doshas feel more “medical.” They explain digestion, body type, physical symptoms, things that are easy to point to. Gunas are quieter. They live in your mood, your focus, your patience, things we’re used to blaming on stress or personality instead of actually examining. But if you ask me, understanding your Guna day to day might be more useful than knowing your Dosha. Because most of us aren’t struggling with our body type. We’re struggling with why we feel foggy, restless or completely unmotivated, and not knowing there was ever a name for it, or a way back to balance. If ideas like this interest you, our guided courses on Charaka Samhita and Ashtanga Hridayam explore concepts like the Trigunas straight from the original texts.

Amla: Everything I Tell My Patients About How To Have It

Someone asked me the other day if I like matcha. No. I have something better. And we Indians have had it forever. It is amla. Our humble Indian gooseberry. Now everybody will tell you amla is good. Amla is good, amla is good. But nobody is telling you how much to have, when to have it, in what form, and what to do if you cannot get it fresh. So that is what I am going to tell you here. Exactly what I tell my patients. First, what amla actually is in Ayurveda In Charaka Samhita, amalaki is placed in the vayasthapana mahakashaya. That is the group of ten drugs classified as age sustaining. Age sustaining. Not anti-ageing. There is a difference, and Ayurveda made that difference two thousand years back. Now here is what most people get wrong. Amla tastes sour. So everybody assumes it is heating. It is not. Amalaki is sheeta virya. Cold in potency. And madhura vipaka. Sweet after digestion. This is what Bhavaprakasha Nighantu tells us. So, both of these are going against what your tongue is telling you. Your tongue says sour, your mind says heating. But that is not what is happening inside. And this is exactly why amla calms pitta, when almost every other sour thing will increase it. And that sweetness you feel in your mouth after eating amla, especially when you drink water on top of it? That is not vipaka. Vipaka is happening hours later, in your tissues. People mix up these two all the time. The best form is the fruit. Always. One amla a day itself is great. That is the whole thing. If fresh amla is naturally available to you, please have it like that. Do not overthink it. Do not go looking for a supplement. The fruit is the best form and nothing beats it. And amla comes in the cold season. That is not by accident. Nature is giving it to you exactly when you need it, so that is when you should be having it. So, when it is in season, eat it. Every day. Your body knows what to do with it. If you cannot get fresh amla, then powder Now most of you reading this are not in India. I know. Half of my patients are in places where amla is only available as a powder in a packet. That is okay. Powder works. But please listen to me about the quality. Get organic. Get good quality. And I mean really check. Because we have no idea where these people are drying it. We have no idea where they are powdering it. We have no idea what it went through before it came into that nice looking jar. So, if you are not sure about the source, better to avoid it. Really. Do not have it at all rather than having something you cannot trace. But if you are sure, if you know where it was dried and how it was powdered and how authentic it is, then go ahead. Find the best quality you can. I know I am dragging on too much about quality. I know. But this is more important than the dose, more important than the timing, more important than anything else in this whole article. A bad powder is not a weaker amla. It is a completely different thing. How much: one teaspoon of powder mixed into your food. That is the easiest way and the safest way, and this is what I tell most of my patients. Amla juice, please read this part carefully You can have amla as a juice. But as a shot. Not as a glass. Never drink a full glass of amla juice. Please. Do not take ten, fifteen amlas and make a big juice out of it and sit and drink it. Do not do it. Instead do this: Crush two or three amlas Add a little water Add pepper, turmeric, dry ginger A little Himalayan pink salt If you do not like the salt, add mishri or rock sugar instead And have it like a shot. Not more than 25 ml. That is it. Every day in the morning. That is enough. Timing and Anupana Morning is good. Have your shot in the morning. If you have a very strong acidic stomach, then have it after food. It works just as well and it is gentler on you. Anupana for amla is always water. Keep it simple. And there is one more way which I love, and most people have not even heard of it. Take amla powder, mix it with a little ghee, and have it with the first morsels of rice at lunch time. Beautiful way to take it. You can do the same at dinner also. Now, amla does not cause acidity I have to correct this one, because I am hearing it constantly. Amla does not cause acidity. It cannot. Once it goes into your stomach it cools down and it turns into sweet taste. It is not going to heat you and it is not going to burn you. It actually reduces acidity. Now if your stomach lining is already raw and inflamed, a concentrated shot on an empty stomach can still feel like too much for you. But that is the concentration doing it, not the amla. And that is exactly why I said have it after food. And see the irony here. People think curd is cooling. It is not. Classically dadhi is ushna virya with amla vipaka, and it is abhishyandi, it blocks your channels. It is doing almost the opposite of… Continue reading Amla: Everything I Tell My Patients About How To Have It

Ojas: The Ayurvedic Concept Modern Medicine Doesn’t Have a Word For

Before we talk about Ojas, let me ask you a question. What keeps you from falling sick? Your answer would probably have been immunity, right?! Ayurveda has a broader concept for this term called immunity, it’s called Ojas. Most people, when talking about Ayurveda, must have heard or come across its fundamental concepts like Doshas and Agni. But very few have heard of Ojas, even though classical texts like the Charaka Samhita treat it as one of the most important substances in the body. So what exactly is it? Ayurveda describes Ojas as the final, most refined product of digestion. Food is broken down and transformed through seven progressive tissue layers, called Dhatus, each one nourishing the next. At the very end of this chain sits Ojas, described as the essence that remains once digestion and tissue formation have been completed properly. In simple terms, Ojas is what your body produces when everything upstream, digestion, absorption, sleep, stress and lifestyle, is working the way it is supposed to. This is very different from how modern medicine defines immunity. Modern immunology has largely been about defence. It studies how white blood cells recognise a threat, how antibodies respond to an infection, how inflammation rises and eventually settles down. So much of the field is built around one fundamental question: what does the body do to fight disease once the disease has already appeared? Ayurveda asked a slightly different question. Instead of only asking how the body fights disease once it appears, it asked what keeps a person resilient enough that disease struggles to take hold in the first place. This is where Ojas becomes more than just another word for immunity. It points to the body’s underlying capacity to remain nourished and resilient. Ayurveda describes Ojas as responsible not only for physical resistance to illness, but also for mental steadiness, emotional stability and general vitality. A person with strong Ojas is described as calm and capable of recovering quickly from physical or emotional strain. A person with depleted Ojas is described as fatigued, anxious and repeatedly falling ill. Sounds familiar? This is remarkably close to a field in modern medicine called psychoneuroimmunology, the study of how the mind and the immune system influence each other. Research in this space has repeatedly shown that chronic stress suppresses immune function, lowers the activity of certain immune cells, and disrupts hormonal balance over time. Ayurveda arrived at a this conclusion, though earlier and through a completely different method. According to Ayurvedic texts, Ojas exists in two forms. Para Ojas, a small, fixed reserve said to be located in the heart, considered essential to life itself. And Apara Ojas, a larger, circulating form that fluctuates based on how a person lives. Apara Ojas is what rises with good digestion, adequate sleep, emotional balance and a stable routine. It is also what depletes with poor diet, chronic stress, overexertion and disrupted sleep. This is an important detail, because it means Ayurveda never treated immunity as fixed. It treated it as something built daily, and something that can just as easily be worn down daily. That idea alone reframes a lot of modern health conversations. We tend to think of immunity reactively. Ayurveda asked people to think of it proactively, as something to be cultivated through Ahara, or diet, Nidra, or sleep, and Brahmacharya, a disciplined, balanced lifestyle. Rasayana, the branch of Ayurveda focused on rejuvenation, exists almost entirely around this idea. Its routines and therapies are not designed to treat a specific illness but to strengthen Ojas itself, on the belief that a body with strong Ojas is naturally less susceptible to disease in the first place. This is a meaningfully different starting point from most of modern healthcare, where treatment typically begins after a diagnosis. None of this means Ayurveda and modern immunology are describing identical things. Ojas is a broader, more integrated concept, tying together digestion, sleep, emotional health and physical resilience in a way modern immunology usually studies as separate systems. But the overlap is close enough that researchers today are actively exploring where classical descriptions of Ojas align with measurable biomarkers of immune and stress response. Which brings us back to the original question. If Ayurveda already had a framework for resilience that considered the body and mind as one system, why did it stay this unfamiliar to most people? Likely for the same reason so much of Ayurveda’s deeper philosophy gets overlooked. Concepts like Ojas require explanation, context and patience to be understood. But this is also exactly why concepts like Ojas are worth understanding properly, and not just referencing in passing. Because long before immunity became a trending word, Ayurveda had already built an entire framework around what it actually takes for a body to stay resilient, not just after illness, but before it ever begins. If topics like this interest you, our courses on Charaka Samhita and Ashtanga Hridayam explore concepts like Ojas in far greater depth, straight from the original texts.

Ayurveda Named the Reason We Keep Doing Things We Know Are Bad For Us

Have you ever eaten an extra serving despite being full? Have you ever stayed up scrolling through your phone and lost track of time? Have you ever decided to be a little lazy and skip your workout? Admit it, we’ve all at least done any one of these once in our lives. And here’s the thing, none of us do this because we don’t know better. We know exactly what we’re doing. We just do it anyway. Ayurveda had a word for this, thousands of years before behavioural science made a whole field out of it. It’s called Pragyaparadha. And according to Ayurveda, this one idea sits behind almost every disease we end up bringing on ourselves. The word comes from two Sanskrit roots. Pragya, meaning wisdom or intellect. Aparadha, meaning offence or crime. Put the two together and Pragyaparadha literally means an offence against wisdom. Not a lack of wisdom but an offence against it. That difference matters a lot. Ayurveda wasn’t talking about ignorance here, it was talking about something far more familiar and honestly, a little harder to admit to. Knowing exactly what’s good for you, and choosing the opposite anyway. Ayurvedic texts describe Pragyaparadha as actions of the body, mind or speech, done despite knowing better. Eating something you already know doesn’t suit you. Brushing off clear signs that you’re exhausted. Saying something in anger that you know you’ll regret the second it leaves your mouth. None of this needs ignorance. It just needs one moment where awareness loses to impulse. Ayurveda believed that this pattern, repeated enough times, becomes one of the root causes of disease itself. This is a very different starting point from how most of us think about getting sick. When something goes wrong with our health, we usually look outward first. We look for the virus, the deficiency, the bad gene, the environmental trigger, the food we ate, or sometimes, simply, bad luck. And of course, these things matter. Ayurveda never claimed that everything that happens to the body is a consequence of personal choices. But it also asked us to look somewhere else, somewhere most of us are much less comfortable looking: at the small, repeated choices we make against our own better judgement. Because sometimes, we already know. We know we are tired, but we stay up anyway. We know we are full, but we take another serving because it tastes good. We know that certain foods leave us feeling terrible, yet somehow, they keep finding their way back onto our plates. We know we need to move, rest, slow down, or stop stressing about something, and still find ourselves doing the exact opposite. We think subconsciously that stayiny up one late night is not going to affect our health, one indulgent meal is not going to make us sick. But we forget that we keep repeating these things quietly, so much so that you’ll realise it stopped becoming a choice and started becoming a pattern. The doshas getting disturbed again and again by the same habits. The body constantly having to compensate for the same disruptions. Small imbalances being ignored because they are still small enough to live with. Until, eventually, the body cannot keep correcting itself quite as easily as it once did, and disease gets the room it needs to take hold. And honestly, this sounds a lot like something we are already talking about today. There is an entire area of behavioural science concerned with the distance between what we know and what we actually do. It is often described as the knowledge-behaviour gap, and you do not need a psychology degree to recognise it in your own life. We are not exactly short on information. And yet, somehow, knowing all of this does not guarantee that we will act on it. We can have all the information in the world and still find ourselves repeating the same habits we promised ourselves we were going to change. And this is where I think the concept gets particularly interesting, because Pragyaparadha is not really about not knowing better. It is about knowing better and then, for whatever reason, choosing otherwise. There is something almost painfully human about that. And here is what I particularly like about the Ayurvedic approach to this. It does not seem interested in turning that observation into another reason for us to feel terrible about ourselves. There is already enough guilt attached to health. Every day, we are given another reason to feel like we are failing at taking care of ourselves. Pragyaparadha gives us a slightly different way of looking at the problem. Instead of asking, What is wrong with me that I keep doing this?, perhaps the more useful question is, Why did I act against what I already knew? That question takes us somewhere much more interesting. Ayurveda places importance on cultivating Sattva, a state associated with clarity, steadiness and a balanced mind. The answer, therefore, was not simply to keep collecting more knowledge. It was to develop the mental clarity required to actually live according to the knowledge you already have. Because there is a huge difference between knowing something and being able to act on it. And this is also why practices like Dinacharya, the Ayurvedic approach to daily routine, make more sense when viewed through this lens. They were not simply a collection of rituals designed to give you another checklist to complete every morning. At their best, routines create regularity, and regularity gives you the opportunity to notice yourself. You start noticing when you are actually hungry instead of eating because the clock says it is lunchtime. You notice when your sleep is beginning to deteriorate. You notice when your digestion feels different, when your energy is lower than usual, when… Continue reading Ayurveda Named the Reason We Keep Doing Things We Know Are Bad For Us

Why Ayurveda Built an Entire Science Around Your Daily Routine

School kids daily schedule according to clock. Boy sleeping, taking bath, having breakfast or dinner, walking to school. Vector illustration for daily routine, everyday life concept

Most of us think of routine as something boring. It is often reduced to a mere schedule or a checklist to follow out of discipline, not health. Daily routine or Dinacharya as we call it in Ayurveda, spoke of these things differently. Thousands of years ago, Ayurveda proposed that the time of day you wake up, eat, work, rest and sleep is not aligned to your health but is the major force driving it. Let me take you to understand more about Dinacharya, the Ayurvedic concept of daily routine. Today, modern science is beginning to look at it far more seriously than before. To understand why, we first need to understand what Ayurveda was actually observing. Ayurveda describes the body as a being governed by three functional principles, the Doshas, Vata, Pitta and Kapha. What is less commonly known is that these Doshas do not stay constant throughout the day. According to Ayurveda, each Dosha dominates at particular hours. Kapha in the early morning and early evening. Pitta around midday and midnight. Vata in the late afternoon and the hours before dawn. In other words, Ayurveda mapped the day into biological phases long before anyone had a word for biological clocks. The current healthcare industry has a term for it now, it’s called circadian rhythm. Modern chronobiology tells us that the human body runs on an internal 24-hour clock, coordinated by a region of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. This clock influences when we feel alert, when we digest food efficiently, when hormones rise and fall, and when the body is primed for rest. Researchers have started asking the same question. Several recent reviews in Ayurvedic and integrative medicine journals have explored whether Dosha-based time cycles and circadian biology are describing the same underlying rhythm, just through different frameworks. Both these frameworks, however, come to the same conclusion that the body is not meant to function the same way at every hour. It has natural windows, and working against them comes at a cost. This is why I say Dinacharya is more than just a wellness ritual. Dinacharya includes practices such as waking up before sunrise, tongue scraping, oil massage or Abhyanga, structured mealtimes, and a consistent sleep schedule. On the surface, these can look like common habits unrelated to each other. But Ayurveda designed them as a single system, meant to keep the body’s internal rhythm stable rather than making it constantly disrupted. And disruption, as it turns out, is exactly what modern lifestyle is capable of. Late nights lit by screens, irregular meal timings, sleep that shifts by hours depending on the day of the week and constant mental stimulation with very little downtime built in. Ayurveda would describe this as a body pulled away from its natural Kala, or time-based rhythm. Modern medicine describes it as circadian misalignment, and links it to poor sleep quality, disrupted metabolism, weakened immunity and long-term stress on the body. Though different vocabulary, the meaning and warnings remain the same. This is also why Ayurveda never treated sleep, digestion and mental health as separate categories. In its view, they are all expressions of the same rhythm. Disturb one, and the others eventually follow. So why did something this systematic end up being reduced to a set of morning habits people casually borrow, an oil massage here, an early wake-up there, without the philosophy behind it? Part of it is how wellness content is spreading today, individual practices travel faster than the reasoning behind them. It is easier to share a five-step morning routine than to explain why Ayurveda built time itself into its understanding of disease and health. But the reasoning is where the real value lies. Because Dinacharya was never meant to be a productivity hack or a set of disconnected habits. It was Ayurveda’s answer to a question modern medicine is only now returning to seriously. Not just what should a person do to stay healthy, but when? As more research continues to explore the overlap between Ayurvedic time-based concepts and circadian science, one thing becomes increasingly clear. Ayurveda was not simply describing a lifestyle preference all those centuries ago. It was describing a clock built by your body. But Dinacharya does not work alone. Ayurveda paired it with a wider concept called Ritucharya, or seasonal routine. If Dinacharya governs the 24-hour clock, Ritucharya governs the yearly one. According to Ayurveda, the same Doshas that rise and fall through the day also rise and fall through the seasons. Kapha accumulates through the cold months. Pitta builds through the heat of summer. Vata increases as the season turns dry and windy. Left unaddressed, these seasonal shifts were believed to be behind many recurring illnesses, the cold that returns every winter, the fatigue that shows up every monsoon. This is Ayurveda applying the same logic at a different scale. The day has its rhythm then the year has its rhythm too. And a person who ignores both is, in Ayurvedic terms, working against nature twice over. Modern medicine is only beginning to catch up here. Seasonal patterns in immunity, mood and metabolism are well documented, yet they are rarely built into everyday treatment plans the way Ayurveda built them into everyday living. This is really where Ayurveda’s real strength lies, not in a single remedy, but in a framework. A framework that treats time as a variable in health itself. And once you see that framework, Dinacharya stops looking like a checklist of habits and starts looking like what it always was, a daily practice built on centuries of observation about how the human body actually works. If this made you curious about how deep Ayurveda’s foundational principles really go, our guided courses on Charaka Samhita and Ashtanga Hridayam walk through these concepts directly from the… Continue reading Why Ayurveda Built an Entire Science Around Your Daily Routine

5 Ways Ayurveda Understands Food and Digestion

Most of us consider food in terms of calories, protein, carbs, or whatever the latest diet trend tells us we should be eating. Ayurveda looks at food a little differently. Food is not just fuel in Ayurveda. It can affect digestion, energy levels, mood and general well-being. Ayurveda asks not just, “How much should I eat?” but “What am I eating? When am I eating it? And is it right for me?” And to understand this way of looking at food, we first need to understand how it describes food and its effects on the body. Here are five ways Ayurveda understands food, digestion and eating. Food Is Understood Through Six Tastes, Not Just Flavour In Ayurveda, taste is not only a matter of enjoyment, but is seen as a direct indication of the effect a food has on the body. The shad rasa, or six tastes, are mentioned in the classical texts: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent. Every taste has its effects and qualities. Sweet foods for example have traditionally been seen as building and nourishing. Bitter foods are considered to be lightening and detoxifying. Pungent foods are supposed to stimulate digestion. It is not that any one taste is inherently ‘good’ or ‘bad’, a well-balanced meal or diet should ideally include a variety of tastes, since each one plays a different role in the body’s response to food. Digestion Is Treated as the Centre of Health One of the most fundamental principles of nutrition in Ayurveda is the concept of Agni, or digestive fire. Agni refers to the body’s capacity to process and transform what we take in, not just food, but also experiences and emotions. Even the most nutritious diet cannot be considered useful if the body cannot process it well. That is why it is equally important to pay attention not just to what we eat, but also to our ability to digest it. How do we measure that? Your body is always giving you signals. If you feel sluggish or bloated after having a heavy meal then it might be a sign of slow digestion. If your meals leave you with acidity, and you feel hungry very often, these may be signs that your digestion is not functioning optimally. That is why, Ayurveda emphasizes heavily on eating at regular times, being mindful when eating and avoiding overeating. Food Is Classified by Its Effect on the Body, Not Just Its Content In Ayurveda, food is not understood only by what it contains like the carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins or minerals. It is also understood through its qualities and the way it affects the body after we eat it. Foods are described as heavy or light, hot or cold, dry or oily, among other qualities. These qualities help us understand how a particular food may influence digestion and the body. For example, some foods may be nutritious but still feel heavy or difficult to digest. This is why Ayurveda pays attention not just to the food itself, but also to how it is prepared, what it is combined with, and how it is eaten. Cooking, using spices and choosing the right combinations are not simply about making food more flavourful but are also considered ways of making food easier for the body to digest and use. So, in Ayurveda, eating healthy is not only about choosing the food with the best nutritional profile. It is also about understanding how that food interacts with your body. Seasons and Individual Constitution Shape What “Balanced” Means Ayurveda does not believe that there is one perfect diet that works for everyone. It looks at each person differently through the concept of the three doshas: Vata, Pitta and Kapha. These are understood as different combinations of qualities that influence how our body and mind function. This is why the same food may not affect everyone in exactly the same way. What feels light and comfortable for one person may feel heavy or unsuitable for another. Ayurveda also considers the season and environment when deciding what is appropriate to eat. Our needs can change with shifts in weather, temperature and routine. For example, the foods and habits that may feel appropriate during a hot summer can be very different from what suits the body during a cold or dry season. So, Ayurvedic nutrition is not about following a fixed list of “good” and “bad” foods. It is about understanding what your body needs at a particular time and in a particular situation. Food and Lifestyle Are Never Completely Separate Ayurveda does not look at food as something separate from the rest of our daily life. Sleep, stress, exercise, daily routine and even the time at which we eat can influence how our body handles food. Think about eating the same meal on two different days. One day, you may sit down calmly and eat without distractions. On another day, you may eat the same meal while rushing, working or feeling stressed. The food may be the same, but the way you experience the meal can be very different. This is why Ayurveda places importance not only on what we eat, but also on how, when and in what state we eat it. The idea is simple. Food is one part of our health, but our daily habits, routines and environment play a role too. Whether you’re simply curious about Ayurveda or want to study it seriously, understanding the classical texts is the best place to begin. You can check out my courses on Charaka Samhita and Ashtanga Hridayam and start learning Ayurveda beyond social media and simplified wellness advice.

Fasting in Ayurveda: Beyond Intermittent Fasting and Weight Loss

Fasting has become one of the biggest health trends in recent years. You have probably heard of intermittent fasting, time-restricted eating, or 16:8 fasting. Researchers have spent years studying these patterns, and studies suggest that giving your body regular breaks from food can improve metabolism and support overall health. But before fasting even became popular, Ayurveda had already recognized its value. More than 2,000 years ago, Ayurveda described this approach as Langhana. Rather than viewing fasting simply as a way to lose weight, Ayurveda viewed it as a method to help the digestive system recover and function better. In the Charaka Samhita, one of Ayurveda’s oldest and most fundamental texts, there are two approaches to treatment. One is Brimhana, which means nourishing and strengthening the body. The other is Langhana, which is to make the body lighter. Langhana includes fasting, eating less, or taking lighter meals over a period of time to give your digestive system a chance to improve. Both approaches are used for different situations. Someone who is weak and recovering from illness may need Brimhana to rebuild their strength, while someone who feels sluggish, heavy, and has poor digestion will benefit from Langhana. There’s one important distinction we need to understand here. Langhana and fasting are not the same thing. In Ayurveda, Langhana is the broader therapeutic principle of lightening the body and reducing the burden on digestion and metabolism. It is one of the two fundamental approaches to Chikitsa. Fasting, or Upavasa, is simply one of the methods used to achieve Langhana. In the Charaka Samhita, Langhana is described through Dashavidha Langhana, or ten methods of producing the lightening effect in the body. Upavasa (fasting) is one of them. Others include Atapa Sevana, therapeutic exposure to sunlight; Pipasa, controlled restriction of water intake in carefully selected situations; Vyayama, exercise; and Deepana-Pachana, therapies that stimulate digestion and help clear accumulated Ama. The approach always depends on the person’s Agni, strength, disease, and overall constitution. This is an important difference in how fasting should be discussed today. Ayurveda never treated fasting as something everyone should be doing. It was only recommended when the body needed it. Digestion Comes First In Ayurveda, digestion is the centre of health. When Agni works well, food is broken down properly, nutrients are absorbed, and waste is eliminated. That is when the body stays healthy. But if digestion is weak, it may result in the formation of Ama, leaving you with signs like bloating, sluggishness, and heaviness. The underlying problem is very simple. A digestive system that is constantly overloaded with food might not work efficiently. Sometimes, instead of adding more food, you can benefit by consuming less or having less to process. That is why the approach of Langhana exists. It gives the digestive system time to soothe, recover, and catch up, because your body also needs rest. Where Modern Science Meets Ayurveda While modern science and Ayurveda explain the body differently, they have arrived at similar conclusions about fasting. In 2016, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi for his work on the mechanisms of autophagy. Autophagy is the process where cells internally break down and recycle damaged components. His subsequent research showed that fasting can activate autophagy, essentially giving cells the chance to clear out accumulated waste that has been building up from continuous eating. This is the cell’s self-cleaning process. At a conceptual level, this may appear similar to the Ayurvedic idea of clearing Ama, although the two come from very different frameworks. There was also research led by neuroscientist Mark Mattson, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which described what is now called the metabolic switch. You might have heard of this phrase. It is the shift that occurs roughly 12 hours or more into a fast, when your body moves from burning readily available glucose to burning stored fat and producing ketones. This switch has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity, reduce inflammatory markers, and improve stress resistance at the cellular level. Separately, there was also research led by biologist Satchin Panda, who focused on time-restricted eating. His studies commonly examined eating within an 8 to 12 hour window rather than eating across 14 to 16 hours. Trials in this area have linked consistent eating windows with improvements in blood sugar regulation, blood pressure, and body composition. He also proposed that the digestive system and metabolic organs like the liver, pancreas, and gut all operate on their own daily rhythms. Giving them a predictable time to rest each day allows them to function more efficiently rather than processing food unpredictably around the clock. This is interesting when viewed alongside the Ayurvedic concept of Dinacharya, which has long emphasized regularity and consistent meal timings. The emphasis Ayurveda has always placed on regular timing and regular intervals of food, combined with Langhana. Ayurveda has never separated these pieces of advice. They were always treated as part of the same principle for supporting the digestive system. The Real Takeaway The point I’m trying to make is not that Ayurveda has been proven right by science. No. The more accurate and useful point is that two very different systems, despite being separated by thousands of years and built on completely different ways of understanding the body, have independently arrived at the same core insight. Our digestive system needs structured, deliberate breaks to recover and function well. And this is not the same thing as simply eating less overall. These few simple principles behind Langhana are worth holding on to. Consistent meal timings matter just as much as what your meal contains. Leaving real gaps between meals is important because it gives the digestive system a chance to do its job. Not everyone needs the same… Continue reading Fasting in Ayurveda: Beyond Intermittent Fasting and Weight Loss

Why Two Healthy Foods Don’t Always Belong Together?

Sometimes I believe we look at food in a very simple way, in the sense that we don’t question it. We look at two foods that are healthy, like for example, a fruit is healthy, milk is healthy, and yogurt is healthy. Then we think, okay, if we mix these two healthy foods, the result will also be healthy. But that is not always true. More than 2,000 years ago, the Charaka Samhita introduced a concept called Viruddha Ahara, which means incompatible food combinations. The idea behind this is that a food is not only judged by what it is, but also by how it is eaten, how it is prepared, what it is eaten with, and who is eating it. Taking all these factors into account is important because two foods can be good on their own, but when combined, may not result in a good combination when eaten together. This is a very different way of thinking about food and nutrition. Normally, the questions that pop into our mind when we think about food are: Is it high in protein? Does it contain any vitamins? Is it low in sugar? Or is it natural or processed? But we should ask different questions. What is this food being combined with? How is it being prepared? Is the right amount being consumed? Is it the right season to eat it? Can my digestion handle it? Now, instead of looking at foods one by one, Ayurveda looks at the relationship between foods. According to the Charaka Samhita, there’s not just one kind of food incompatibility. There are 18 different ways in which food can become unsuitable when combined. Keep in mind that food is affected by where, when, how, how much, and with what it is eaten. Let us look into some of the most important types of Viruddha Ahara. First is Desha Viruddha, which means some foods are better suited to certain climates than others. A food that might work well in a cold region might not be the best choice to be eaten in a hot or humid place. Kala Viruddha refers to, as the name signifies, the season and time of the day. Eating heavy and oily foods during summer, or eating meals that are difficult to digest at night, might not suit the body and is not suggested. Agni Viruddha means digestive strength. Not everyone can digest food in the same way. A meal that might feel light for one person may feel heavy and uncomfortable for someone with weaker digestion. Matra Viruddha means quantity. Even healthy food becomes unhealthy when taken in excess amount. It is important to keep in mind that the right amount of food is as important as the right food. Then there is Samskara Viruddha. The way food is cooked, stored, and processed also changes how it affects the body. The same ingredients may have different effects depending on how they are prepared. Virya Viruddha refers to the inherent qualities of food. Some foods have warming qualities, while others have cooling qualities. Combining foods with opposite properties might not always be a good choice. Samyoga Viruddha refers to foods that do not work well together, even when each of them is healthy on its own. One of the best-known examples of Samyoga Viruddha is milk with sour fruits. According to Ayurveda, milk has a cooling nature, while sour fruits are heating and acidic. The classical texts explain that this combination can disturb digestion, increase heaviness, and create discomfort. Many people may have experienced this without realizing, like after consuming certain fruit-and-milk combinations, such as a smoothie or milkshake, they may feel bloated, heavy, or simply feel that the meal “didn’t sit well.” Now, Viruddha Ahara is not just a small idea presented in Ayurveda. It is an important concept because it is considered one of the major causes of disease. In the Charaka Samhita, incompatible food combinations are described as a major reason for several health problems, especially those related to the skin. They are also linked with inflammation, poor digestion, and, in some cases, even disturbances of the mind. Vagbhata has also described incompatible food combinations as being poison-like. This doesn’t mean they act like a poison after every single meal. It means that when these combinations are consumed repeatedly over months, they might gradually affect your health. The effects may show up as bloating, discomfort, inflammation, and other digestive issues. So, the next time you are trying to consume something healthy, ask yourself if that combination of foods or ingredients is actually healthy for your body. Did this article change the way you think about food? Share it with someone who might find it interesting, and let us know in the comments if you’ve ever noticed certain food combinations affecting your digestion or how you feel. As next, we’ll explore some of the most well-known incompatible food combinations described in Ayurveda.

Why “More Nutrition” Isn’t Always Better

Overnutrition has become a distinctly modern problem due to the abundance and easy availability of convenient foods. The belief that “more nutrition is always good” has also become increasingly widespread. Now, let us talk about this according to Ayurveda. More than 2,000 years ago, one of Ayurveda’s fundamental texts, the Charaka Samhita, dedicated an entire chapter to diseases caused by overeating and overnourishment. It is called the Santarpaniya Adhyaya (Sutrasthana 23). The Charaka Samhita did not describe the foods that we eat today. Instead, it described an entire pattern of eating. It observed the pattern and the diseases that arose because of it. In the text, Charaka states that not everyone needs more nourishment. He describes two broad causes of disease. One is Santarpana, where disease is caused by overnourishment. The other is Atarpana, where disease is caused due to undernourishment. When we look at today’s medical advice, the focus is mostly on deficiency. If someone is not getting enough protein, they are advised to increase protein intake. If they are low in iron, they are told to take more iron. If they have low energy, they are encouraged to build it up through supplements. Ayurveda always had a broader view. It recognized that too much can be just as harmful as too little. The goal has always been to maintain balance. When we look at what causes overnourishment, Charaka lists several foods, patterns, and habits that contribute to disease when taken in excess. These include foods that are Madhura (sweet), Snigdha (oily), Guru (heavy in constitution), and Picchila (slimy), along with new grains, milk and milk-based foods such as Payasam, and various meats, particularly from aquatic animals. All of these, when consumed in excess (Atimatrasaha) and combined with a sedentary lifestyle and excessive daytime sleeping, may contribute to disease. When you read that paragraph again, many modern foods might come to mind. But Charaka was not describing any of them. He was describing a pattern of eating that looks remarkably similar. According to Ayurveda, repeatedly eating this way and living such a lifestyle can disturb Kapha and Meda Dhatu (the fat tissue), eventually leading to Srotorodha, or blockage of the body’s channels. Ayurveda does not simply advocate eating less. It has always been about choosing the right approach. The chapter immediately before this one, Sutrasthana 22, explains how to manage nutrition properly. It is the Langhana Brimhana Adhyaya, which describes two complementary therapeutic approaches. One is Langhana, which means lightening the body through fasting or reducing food. The other is Brimhana, which nourishes and rebuilds the body. The right approach depends on the individual and their internal constitution. Someone recovering from an illness may need nourishment, while someone who is overloaded or overnourished may benefit from reduction. These approaches should always be assessed by a qualified Ayurvedic doctor. The answer does not always have to be another medicine, another supplement, or eating more. Sometimes, doing less is exactly what the body needs. Interestingly, a research study published in Nature Metabolism in 2024 found that consuming more than about 25 grams of protein in a single meal may reduce a process called autophagy, the body’s natural way of clearing damaged cells. The idea that the quantity consumed in a single meal matters sounds remarkably similar to Charaka’s emphasis on Matra, or eating the right quantity of food. Nutrition was never simply about eating more. It was always about eating the right amount, for the right person, at the right time. Over the years, if you look at the conversations around food, they have almost always been about one nutrient at a time. First it was carbs, then it was sugar, and now it’s protein. Each time, the same pattern repeats: one nutrient is singled out while everything else in the meal is ignored. You cannot isolate a single nutrient and consume it in excessive amounts. Santarpana was never about one nutrient going wrong. It was always about your entire way of living and eating going out of balance. That is probably the most significant shift for us to make today. Instead of asking whether I am eating a certain amount of protein or a certain amount of carbs, or simply trying to make it a balanced diet, we need to ask whether this food is suited for me in this season, at this stage of my life, and in the living conditions I am going through. Because what nourishes your body depends as much on you as it does on the food itself. Only when both are in sync can your body stay healthy. When we look at Santarpana and Atarpana, they are simply two ends of the same imbalance. Too much and too little may sound like one is good and the other is bad, but they are just two different problems arising from the same root. That is where the idea of Agni, the digestive fire, becomes important again. A person with weak Agni can develop Santarpana-type diseases even while eating a completely normal diet. Because it has never been solely about the quantity of food; it has always been about how much the body can process. Two people can eat the exact same meal and have completely different outcomes because their Agni is different. So, it is never about following the same routine for everyone. You should understand your relationship with food. If you would like to understand more about Ayurvedic concepts that are relevant to today’s modern health problems, you can explore our 3-Month Agni Awakening Program, where we help you understand your relationship with food, digestion, and your own body more deeply.

Ayurveda Is An Alternative Medicine. Alternative To WHAT!?

Ayurveda is often called “alternative medicine”. But alternative to what? The word “alternative” suggests that Ayurveda came later, as another option after modern medicine. That is simply not true. Ayurveda is one of the oldest systems of medicine in the world. It has been helping people understand health, disease, and the human body for thousands of years. It did not begin as an alternative. It existed long before modern medicine as we know it today. What Ayurveda Actually Does Ayu means life, and Veda means knowledge. Together, Ayurveda is commonly understood as “the science of life.” Ayurveda is not just about treating disease. At its core, Ayurveda looks at both the outer world and our inner world. It teaches us that good health comes from understanding ourselves and living in harmony with nature. It is about understanding how the body functions, what keeps it healthy, and what causes it to lose balance. Instead of looking at one symptom on its own, Ayurveda looks at the whole person. It asks simple questions. Why did this problem develop? What changed in the person’s lifestyle? How can balance be restored naturally? The goal is not only to help someone feel better today but also to support long-term health. This is one of the biggest differences in the way Ayurveda approaches healthcare. Rather than waiting for illness to develop, Ayurveda encourages us to recognize subtle changes in the body before they progress into larger problems. It teaches that health is something we care for every day, not something we think about only when we are sick. That is why Ayurveda places so much importance on daily habits, food, sleep, movement, mental wellbeing, and living according to the seasons. These are not isolated aspects of health. They all influence one another. When one area is out of balance, it often affects the others as well. The Importance of Daily Living One of the most beautiful ideas in Ayurveda is that health is created through our everyday choices. The way we wake up. The food we eat. The time we sleep. How we manage stress. How we move our bodies. These may seem like ordinary parts of life, but Ayurveda considers them the foundation of good health. This is why Ayurveda places great importance on Dinacharya, or a healthy daily routine, and Ritucharya, living according to the changing seasons. These are not complicated rules. They are practical ways of helping the body function in harmony with nature. Is Ayurveda Against Modern Medicine? Not at all. Modern medicine has transformed healthcare. It is essential for emergencies, surgeries, infections, and life-threatening conditions. It has saved countless lives, and it continues to save lives every single day. Nobody serious about health denies this. But Ayurveda was never trying to do that job. It was never built for emergency intervention. It was built to place particular emphasis on understanding why health declines in the first place, often before disease becomes advanced or requires emergency care. Ayurveda was never intended to compete with modern medicine, nor was it meant to serve merely as a backup option. It is one of the oldest and most complete systems for understanding the human body, built on the simple idea that health is something we build every single day, not something we only think about once it is already gone. Perhaps it is time to stop asking whether Ayurveda is an alternative. Instead, ask a different question. What is Ayurveda trying to achieve? Its purpose has always been clear. To help us understand the body. To maintain balance. To support health through daily living. To recognize imbalance early. And to help people live healthier, more fulfilling lives. The goals have remained the same for thousands of years. The world around us has changed dramatically. The way we live, work, eat, and interact with our environment is very different from how our ancestors lived. Medical science has advanced in extraordinary ways, and our understanding of disease continues to evolve. Yet the basic needs of the human body have remained remarkably consistent. We still need nourishing food, regular sleep, movement, emotional balance, and a lifestyle that supports our physical and mental wellbeing. These are not modern discoveries. This is why Ayurveda is often described as a way of life rather than simply a system of medicine. Its teachings extend beyond treating illness. Ayurveda is far more than the labels often attached to it today. If you want to understand Ayurveda as it was originally taught, explore our courses and learn directly from the timeless wisdom of the Charaka Samhita and Ashtanga Hridayam.