This post is for those who are Kapha dominant body type. As you already know, Ayurveda is an ancient science of life and recognizes three types of physiologies- Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Here are some of the Kapha diet tips that you can follow.

Follow these Dos in your diet

1.Consuming bitter foods will help like kale, dandelion greens, collard greens, etc., and is also found in bitter melon, Jerusalem artichokes, burdock root, eggplant, dark chocolate, and in kapha-pacifying spices like cumin, neem leaves, saffron, and turmeric. The bitter foods benefit Kapha, but it is also cooling, so it’s important to add some warming spices to bitter foods. It cleanses the pallet and improves the sense of taste. They offer multiple benefits such as toning the skin and muscles, improving appetite, supporting digestion, and help to absorb moisture, lymph, muscle fat, adipose tissue, and sweat.

2.Pungent is a spicy, hot flavour found in chillies, radishes, turnips, raw onions, and most spices. In fact, most spices are tremendously Kapha pacifying so that you can use them while cooking.

You can also use spices such as like cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, cumin, ginger, garlic, paprika, and turmeric. These foods cleanse the mouth and clarify the senses. It stimulates digestion, liquefies secretions, clears the channels of the body, encourages sweating, and acts as blood thinners.

3.The astringent tasting foods are basically of dry and chalky taste that dries the mouth and may cause it to shrink a bit. 

Foods such as legumes like adzuki beans, black-eyed peas, chickpeas, kidney beans, lentils, pinto beans, and soybeans are of astringent taste and very Kapha-balancing. Some fruits, vegetables, grains, baked goods, and spices are also astringent in taste for example apples, cranberries, cauliflower, lettuce, popcorn, pomegranate, artichokes, broccoli, rice cakes, crackers, basil, coriander, dill, fennel, parsley, and turmeric.

Here are  Don’ts that you need to avoid for balancing Kapha

1.Avoid taking sweets as they are cold, heavy, moist, oily, and Kapha-provoking. Also, have them in minimum quantities and avoid having them in access. Sweet foods tend to aggravate kapha’s tendency toward heaviness, obesity, lethargy, and excess sleep. They can also cause excessive mucus, aggravate colds and coughs, and depress the appetite in an unhealthy way.

2.You should avoid taking sour foods like vinegar, cheese, sour cream, green grapes, oranges, pineapple, and grapefruit. The moistening and oily qualities of the sour taste aggravate Kapha. The sour foods can increase thirst, create heaviness in the eyes, cause laxity in the body, and aggravate water retention or swelling. The best way is to take an occasional squeeze of lemon or lime juice is the best way for Kapha to ingest the sour taste.

3.Much like the sour taste, it is salt’s moist and oily nature that aggravates Kapha. In excess, the salty taste can cause water retention, high blood pressure, intestinal inflammation, grey hair, wrinkles, excess thirst, and it can impede the sense organs. Further, it tends to spark a sharp desire for stronger flavours and can similarly trigger insatiability and greed.

As most people with kapha digestion know, kapha’s love of food and tendency toward emotional eating can easily lead to overindulgence. For this reason, kapha does well to stick to three square meals each day, and sometimes, just two meals are sufficient. Eating at consistent times from one day to the next also helps to strengthen the digestive fire while regulating the appetite. You can further counteract sluggish digestion by chewing a slice of fresh ginger (about the size of a nickel) with a pinch of sea salt, a few drops of lime juice, and about 1/4 teaspoon honey about 30 minutes before both lunch and dinner. This helps to prepare the digestive system to receive food and to process it effectively.