Ancient Wisdom – The Six Tastes

I saw an article in the National Post recently (published October 13, 2023) stating that a team of neuroscientists from the University of Southern California and University of Colorado have discovered a potential sixth taste.

This is all very interesting to me, because Ayurveda (the “science of life”), has known of six tatstes for thousands of years. As with various Yoga practices, it seems that modern science is beginning to catch up to ancient wisdom.

Ayurveda is the sister science of Yoga. Ayurveda teaches us lifestyle practices and dietary practices that align with our dosha, or constitution, so we can live a healthy life in accordance with nature.

The six tastes in Ayruveda are sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent. Each taste is made up of the five elements (earth, water, fire, air and ether), with two of the elements being predominant in each taste. Based on its elemental makeup and qualities, each taste will be better suited to some doshas than to others.

It’s recommended that we include all six tastes in our diet, however we try to include more of the tastes that pacify our dosha and less of the tastes that aggravate our dosha. In Ayurveda, like increases like and opposites balance or heal, so we want to limit tastes that are primarily the same elemental make up as our dosha and increase tastes that balance our elemental make up. Each dosha has three aggravating tastes and three pacifying tastes.

For example, the sweet taste is primarily earth and water, Kapha Dosha is earth and water, so sweet tastes will aggravate Kapha and should be limited. By contrast, the sweet taste will balance both Vata (air and ether) and Pitta (fire and water).

Ultimately, the goal of Yoga and Ayurveda is empowering us to work toward optimal health – physically, mentally and spiritually. Many of our modern lifestyles, practices and diets are not Ayurvedic or Yogic and can lead to dis-ease (the opposite of ease) and poor health.

There is so much wisdom in ancient teachings like Yoga and Ayurveda. It has taken a while, but it’s nice to see modern science beginning to come on board with some of these ancient concepts and practices.

If you are interested in practicing Yoga with me and/or in an Ayurvedic consultation, please contact me.