Six Tastes For Health - Shadrasa Aahar

There is a phrase saying, “A way to one’s heart is through the stomach”, which means good food can make anyone happy. Ayurveda emphasized on the concept of complete aahar and describe how it deeply affects the health of our body and mind. 
But what is meant by good food? There are numerous definitions of good food when it comes to the point of health for e.g. oil free foods, fibre-rich foods & many more. But when it comes to the point of satisfaction & contentment, whatever the food is made up of, if its tastes well, we tend to eat food in large quantity.
The taste, good or bad in the food articles comes from the “Rasa” of the ingredients present in that food.
In Sanskrit “Rasana” is the word for tongue which means the organ which creates sense of taste or Rasa’s. Ayurveda has described this concept of Rasa along with their functions and ill effects on body & mind if they are taken beyond a certain limit.
Ayurveda also mentions the various food articles which contains the specific Rasa. So let’s see the details about Rasa.



Ayurveda tells this unique concept of Shadrasa (shad-six & rasa-tastes) as shown in image below

 Importance Of ShadarasaAahar should ideally consist of these shadrasa all put together. As part of aahar, shadrasa participates in healthy constitution of body & mind and thus affects our wellness. Hence intake in appropriate quantity is considered good and excess harmfull.
Also another importance of these shadrasa is in therapeutic aspects.
According to ayurveda all the things are panchabhautik, so as shadrasa.

 

This panchabhautik constitution of shadrasa is used in treatments like panchakarma. for example Katu(pungent) rasa is made up of Agni & Vaayu mahabhuta, which is used for panchakarma like Vamana (expelling toxins & imbalanced dosha through vommittings). The reason of this is Vaayu is light so has a nature to go upward also when we light Agni the flame goes in upward direction, these qualities are used in drugs of Katu rasa for treatment.Another example is constitution of Lawana & Kashaya rasa has dominance of Jala & Prithvi mahabhuta where water has natural tendency to flow and both has to be downward in nature. These features can use in the treatments like Virechana (expelling toxins & imbalanced dosha through motions by giving laxatives).

Now we see the six tastes in detail

Here we learned about the shadrasa (6 tastes) of food. We should try to maintain equilibrium of our body & mind and prevent our body from creating inner toxins and that’s the reason why our ancestors have said that kitchen is the first clinic.
Food is the essential component for living, but shadrasa are the soul of  our food. So keep your food with its soul, & enjoy every bite of it.
Add tastes to your food and to your life.