Vata Balancing Toolkit
The main qualities of vata are dry, light, cool, rough, subtle, and mobile. Having a vata-predominant constitution means that these qualities express themselves generously throughout your mental, emotional, and physical make up. In excess, the following issues may manifest themselves:
Dry and rough qualities may manifest themselves as dry or brittle skin, lips, hair, nails, or bones (e.g. osteoporosis), as constipation, or as feeling “dry” emotionally.
The “light” quality may manifest itself as giving you a lanky physique but excess lightness may manifest as being underweight, having muscle wasting, light bones, insomnia, or feeling “spacey” or insecure.
The cold quality of vata may lead you to feel cold more easily than others around you, have cold hands and feet, and crave warmth.
The subtle quality may express itself as being introverted, creative, and having an active fantasy life.
The mobile quality may lead to a healthy ability to “multi-task” or, in excess, to scattered attention, a fidgety tendency, tremors, and nervousness. It may manifest as extremes; as in being very tall or very short or being drastically different weights at different times in your life.
Opposites as Medicine
A basic tenet of Ayurveda is “like increases like.” Therefore, increasing the inherent qualities of vata will increase vata in your body, mind, and spirit. For example, because vata is inherently cool—cool weather, cool foods, the cool seasons and times of day, and even cool emotions can increase vata. Likewise, dry seasons, foods, environments, or emotions will increase the dry quality and thereby increase vata.
Ayurveda teaches us that if a dosha increases beyond its original, natural proportion for us, it fosters an environment where disease can flourish. It is common for our predominant dosha (vata, pitta, or kapha) to increase more quickly than other doshas because we tend to perpetuate what we know best. For example, if your dominant dosha is vata, you will naturally incline towards a life filled with activity, due to the mobile quality of vata. However, if you are too active, you are likely to eventually aggravate vata and thereby exhaust the nervous system.
If a dosha increases in our bodies, Ayurveda suggests that we will want to decrease it in order to regain a healthy balance in our constitution. Medicines are substances that decrease the excess dosha by providing the opposite qualities to it. For example, if vata has increased due to excess activity, a quiet, calm environment can be a medicine. If it has increased due to excess dryness, wetness can be the medicine. Too much cold? Use heat.
One of the wonderfully practical aspects of Ayurveda is that anything can be used as a medicine because everything that exists has a quality. This includes but is not limited to: herbs, foods, colors, drinks, environments, smells, and lifestyles.
Qualities opposite to vata are moist, grounding, warming, smooth, oily, and stabilizing. It is therefore best for vata individuals to seek out physical and emotional environments, routines, and foods that possess these opposite qualities.
Diet as Medicine
A vata individual does well to have warming, freshly cooked, nourishing, mushy foods, like soups, stews, and one-pot-meals. Because of the inherent “light” quality in vata, you may think that heavy foods would nicely balance that quality but actually too much heavy food—or just too much food at a sitting—is too heavy for the lightness of the vata digestive system.
Because the sweet, sour, and salty tastes decrease vata, these tastes should be predominant in your diet. Below, you will find a list of recommended ingredients to seek out in order to balance a vata constitution:
Fruits:
Fruits that pacify vata will generally be sweet and nourishing. While some raw fruit is appropriate, cooked or stewed fruits are easier to digest and offer additional warmth, moisture, and sweetness—which makes them even more beneficial for vata. Fruits to avoid are those that are exceptionally cooling, astringent (drying), or rough, which includes most dried fruit (unless it has been soaked or cooked to rehydrate).
AVOID:
Apples (raw)
Bananas (green)
Cranberries
Dates (dry)
Dried Fruit, in general
Figs (dry)
Pears
Persimmons
Pomegranate
Prunes (dry)
Raisins (dry)
Watermelon
FAVOR:
Apples (cooked)
Apricots
Berries
Cherries
Coconut
Dates (fresh, cooked or soaked)
Figs (fresh, cooked or soaked)
Grapefruit
Kiwi
Lime
Mango
Oranges
Papaya
Peaches
Pineapple
Plums
Prunes (cooked or soaked)
Raisins (cooked or soaked)
Tamarind
Vegetables:
Vegetables that pacify vata will generally be sweet, moist, and cooked. Root vegetables are especially beneficial because they grow underground, and are therefore supremely grounding and stabilizing for vata. Avoid exceptionally dry, rough, and cold vegetables, including most raw vegetables. If you must have raw veggies, a salad, or any of the vata-aggravating vegetables, keep the quantities small and eat them at mid-day, when digestive strength is at its peak. A really thorough cooking or a well-spiced, oily dressing will help to offset some of the dry, rough qualities of these foods.
AVOID:
Artichokes
Beet Greens
Bell Peppers
Bitter Melon
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Burdock Root
Cabbage
Carrots, Raw
Cauliflower
Celery
Chilies (in excess)
Corn, Fresh
Dandelion Greens
Eggplant
Jerusalem Artichokes
Kale
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mushrooms
Olives, Green
Onion, Raw or Cooked
Peas, Raw
Peppers, Hot
Potatoes, White
Radishes
Spinach, Raw
Sprouts
Tomatoes
Turnips
FAVOR:
Asparagus
Avocado
Beets
Carrots, Cooked
Chilies (in very small quantities)
Cilantro
Cucumber
Green Beans
Green Chilies
Leeks
Mustard Greens
Okra
Olives (black)
Parsnip
Peas, Cooked
Pumpkin
Rutabega
Spinach, Cooked
Squash, Summer
Squash, Winter
Sweet Potatoes
Watercress
Zucchini
Grains:
Grains that pacify vata are generally sweet, nourishing, easily digested, and well cooked. Mushy grains and puddings (things like oatmeal, cream of wheat and rice pudding) exemplify the smooth quality and, when sweetened and spiced, are often delicious comfort foods. Avoid grains that are exceptionally light, dry, or rough, or especially dense and heavy. It is one or more of these qualities that gives the grains in the “avoid” column below, their capacity to disturb vata.
AVOID:
Barley
Buckwheat
Cereals (cold, dry, or puffed)
Corn
Couscous
Crackers
Granola
Millet
Muesli
Oat Bran
Oats, Dry
Pasta, Wheat
Rice Cakes
Rye
Spelt
Tapioca
Wheat Bran
Yeasted Bread
FAVOR:
Amaranth
Durham Flour
Oats, Cooked
Pancakes
Quinoa
Rice (all types)
Seitan
Sprouted Wheat Bread
Wheat
Legumes:
Vata can enjoy a narrow selection of legumes, provided they are well-cooked and well-spiced. The beans that work best for vata are a little less dense, rough, and dry, than other legumes. They tend to cook relatively quickly, are easily digested, and offer a grounding, nourishing quality. Many other beans are simply too dry, rough, and hard for vata’s delicate digestion.
AVOID:
Adzuki Beans
Black Beans
Black-Eyed Peas
Garbanzo Beans (Chickpeas)
Kidney Beans
Lentils, Brown
Lima Beans
Navy Beans
Pinto Beans
Soy Beans
Soy Flour
Soy Meats
Soy Milk
Soy Powder
Soy Sauce
Split Peas
Tempeh
Tofu
White Beans
FAVOR:
Lentils, Red
Mung Beans
Mung Dal, Split
Toor Dal
Urad Dal
Dairy:
Dairy products are generally quite balancing for vata, but it’s good to avoid highly processed preparations (like powdered milk), and especially cold dairy products. For example, boiled cow’s milk (ideally a non-homogenized variety) spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, sweetened if desired, and served hot, is a tonic for vata, whereas cold cow’s milk may be too difficult for many to digest. As a rule, dairy milks (cow’s milk, goat’s milk, sheep’s milk, etc.) should be taken at least one hour before or after any other food. For this reason, avoid drinking milk with meals. Almond and rice milks are good substitutes, if you need to combine milk with other foods, or if you don’t digest dairy milks well.
AVOID:
Frozen Yogurt
Powdered Milk
FAVOR:
Butter
Buttermilk
Cheese
Cottage Cheese
Cow’s milk
Goat’s Milk
Ice Cream (in moderation)
Sour Cream (in moderation)
Yogurt (fresh)
Nuts & Seeds:
In moderation, all nuts and most seeds are pacifying to vata. They are oily, nutritious, and they offer a power-packed combination of proteins and fats that’s highly beneficial to vata. That said, nuts and seeds are quite heavy and should be eaten in small quantities so as not to overwhelm vata’s fickle digestive capacity.
AVOID:
Popcorn
FAVOR:
Almonds
Brazil Nuts
Cashews
Coconut
Hazelnuts
Macadamia Nuts
Peanuts
Pecans
Pine Nuts
Pistachios
Pumpkin Seeds
Sesame Seeds
Sunflower Seeds
Walnuts
Oils:
Because toxins tend to concentrate in fats, buying organic oils may be more important than buying organic fruits and vegetables. Most oils are beneficial for vata, provided they are high quality oils. Sesame oil, almond oil, coconut oil, olive oil, and ghee are among the best choices. Less favorable oils are either too light and dry, too difficult to digest, or too highly processed/altered for vata.
AVOID:
Canola Oil
Corn Oil
Flax Seed Oil
Soy Oil
FAVOR:
Almond Oil
Avocado Oil
Castor Oil
Coconut Oil
Ghee
Mustard Oil
Olive Oil
Peanut Oil
Safflower Oil
Sesame Oil
Sunflower Oil
Sweeteners:
Most sweeteners are good for vata, but it’s generally best to avoid large quantities of refined sugar. Favor sweeteners in their most natural state over anything highly processed. For example, if you normally sweeten a cup of spiced milk with white sugar, try tossing your milk into the blender with a few soaked dates instead. Beyond that, sweeteners with a warming energetic like honey, jaggary, and molasses, are especially helpful in offsetting vata’s tendency to be cold. But, honey is also quite scraping and can be depleting, if overused. When it comes to finding the specific choices that work best for you, it’s often helpful to experiment with a variety of options in order to sort out your body’s unique preferences.
AVOID:
Artificial Sweeteners
White Sugar
Honey (heated or cooked)
FAVOR:
Barley Malt
Coconut Sugar
Date Sugar
Honey (raw)
Jaggary
Maple Syrup (in moderation)
Molasses
Rice Syrup
Sucanat
Turbinado
Spices as medicine
Most spices are wonderful for vata, provided that none of your dishes are fiery hot (due to excessive use of cayenne pepper, chili peppers, and the like). Experimenting with a wide variety of new and exotic spices is generally great for vata, and can help to kindle overall digestive strength.
AVOID:
Cayenne Pepper
Chili Powder
Fenugreek
Garlic
Horseradish
Neem Leaves
FAVOR:
Ajwan
Allspice
Anise
Basil
Bay Leaf
Black Pepper
Caraway
Cardamom
Cinnamon
Cloves
Coriander (seeds or powder)
Cumin (seeds or powder)
Dill
Fennel
Ginger (fresh or dried)
Hing (Asafoetida)
Mace
Marjoram
Mint
Mustard Seeds
Nutmeg
Oregano
Paprika
Parsley
Peppermint
Pippali
Poppy Seeds
Rosemary
Saffron
Salt
Savory
Tarragon
Thyme
Turmeric
Vanilla