All the dietary articles, according to Ayurveda are of three kinds.
- Those which pacify or alleviate the aggravated dosha.
- Those which provoke the dosha
- Those which are good for a normal and healthy.
Oil, ghee and honey are examples of the pacifying group of materials. Oil acts and brings to order the provoked Vata. The properties of oil, its unctuousness, heat and heaviness are opposed to the properties of Vata such as coldness, lightness and dryness. In the same way, the properties of ghee like sweetness, coldness, lightness and slowness act against Pitta and pacify it. It has properties of dryness and acuteness and is an astringent. All of them are opposite to the properties of Kapha.
The provocative dietary articles are those substances that aggravate the dosha, the Dhatu and the waste products of the body. Poor varieties of rice, black gram and other cereals, fish, under cooked or overcooked food, mixture of foods with opposite properties like milk with fish and curd prepared form recently fermented milk are some of the examples of provocative dietary articles.
The dietary articles that neither increase nor decrease the Dosha and at the same time do not upset the equilibrium of the Dosha and at the same time do not upset the equilibrium of the Dosha are good for the normal healthy person. There is a required proportion of Dosha, Dhatu and Mala which should not be decreased or increased in number. Some dietary articles which are otherwise good for a healthy person may prove to be harmful if taken in excess or in too small a quantity in a healthy person and at the same time prove to be ineffective. Red rice, Shastika rice (two different varieties of rice), Indian barley, wheat, flesh of wild animal, Jivanti (Vegetable), pure rain water etc. can be taken at any time as they are neither provocative to nor weakening of one's strength.
Food and drink help bring about the transformation of one tissue to another as long as the process continues smoothly in accordance with the actual need of the system. As soon as this need is fulfilled and satisfied, a slight excess of food and drink would not only curtail upon the transformational process itself, but would also set confusion and that may lead to ailments or diseases. Upon this is based the Ayurvedic advice to forbid, as a routine, the intake of a meal unless the one taken earlier has been digested fully and assimilated. Indeed, the firm conviction of Ayurveda is that a patient can be freed of ailments even without application of drugs, if one regularly takes a wholesome diet. But one who does not take diet at regular intervals, cannot escape from the attack of disease even with the treatment planned with best herbs, drugs and their combinations.
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