Vata-Pitta Dietary Guidelines and Food Chart

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• NOVEMBER 17, 2019
• 5 COMMENTS
• BLOG, HEALTHY EATING, MOST RECENT, PITTA DOSHA, VATA DOSHA

By knowing your specific Ayurvedic

constitution (i.e. Vata, Pitta, Kapha) you can discover the best diet and lifestyle
practices that will keep you healthy and in-balance. However, this is not always a black
or white situation. In fact, there are countless grey areas that come up, making it much
more difficult to decipher which recommendations to follow. If you have found that you
reside with a predominance of both Vata and Pitta. . . or you are a Vata type with a Pitta
imbalance. . . or a Pitta type with a Vata imbalance, keep reading to discover some of
the foods and dietary guidelines that will help to bring balance to both “opposing”
doshas.
Take our Discover Your Dosha Quiz here!
When looking to bring balance to both Vata and Pitta, there are many foods that will
work to pacify both doshas. Since Vata and Pitta are both light and mobile (pitta is
actually “spreading”), many foods, drinks, and spices that are considered heavy and
grounding will be healing for both dosha types. Pitta and Vata are calmed by the sweet
taste, so welcoming healthy sweets in the diet will also be of benefit. Since Vata is cold
by nature and Pitta hot, avoiding excessively cold or heating foods will be necessary
while favoring more neutral or warming options instead.
Vata-Pitta Dietary Guidelines
Dietary Do’s
 In general, you will want to follow a stricter Pitta-reducing diet in the hotter
months of the late spring, summer, and early fall and a stricter Vata-reducing
diet in cool-cold months of fall and winter.
 Eat on a healthy meal schedule: 6-8am – nourishing breakfast upon
awakening; 11am-1pm – hearty, healthy lunch; 6-7pm – small to medium-
size dinner, light but fulfilling.
 Take a small, simple, healthy snack in between meals (e.g. piece of fruit; cup
of plain yogurt with maple syrup; small wholegrain muffin) – read more on
healthy snacking here!
  Favor sweet, juicy fruits such as ripe mango, ripe peaches, soaked raisins,
dates, avocados, coconut, fresh figs, pears, ripe apricots, watermelon, and
sweet plums.
 Favor well-cooked or steamed veggies such as beets (in fall or winter),
carrots, okra, zucchini, yellow squash, winter squash (in fall or winter), sweet
potatoes, asparagus, and sweet peas. Raw cucumber is alright in the
summertime.
 Favor whole grains such as basmati rice, red rice, quinoa, buckwheat, whole
wheat, spelt, and oats.
 Favor digestive spices that are not heating such as fresh ginger, turmeric,
fennel, coriander, cilantro, parsley, cardamom, and cumin.
 Favor lime over lemon, avoid all other citrus.
 The best oils will be ghee, olive oil, sunflower oil, avocado oil, and coconut
oil.
 Fermented foods should be limited to homemade kefir or yogurt.
 When all else fails, find tridoshic foods, spices, drinks, and recipes for fool-
proof options!
Dietary Don’ts
 Avoid all raw and cold foods (may be acceptable in the summer season in
small amounts).
 Avoid dry, rough, old, and stale foods.
 Avoid hot, spicy foods.
 Avoid heating spices such as cayenne pepper, dry ginger, and chili
powder. Black pepper is alright in small amounts.
 Avoid highly acidic and inflammatory foods.
 Avoid nightshades such as tomatoes, white potatoes, peppers, and eggplant.
 Avoid fermented foods except homemade kefir or yogurt.
 Avoid refined sugar, refined grains, processed food, additives, dyes,
caffeine, alcohol, and tobacco.
 Avoid improper food combinations (read more here).
 Avoid skipping meals or waiting too long to eat.
While adopting some of these beneficial dietary guidelines, you should also become
familiar with the best foods to consume and which foods to limit or avoid. Please
remember however, that these food charts are not all set in stone. If you love a food on
the no-no list, you can likely enjoy it on occasion, especially if you are feeling in-
balance. You can often “cheat” (with awareness and moderation) depending on the
season and the context as well. For example, raw salad is said to be forbidden,
however, if you are craving a cold, raw salad on a 90 degree summer day and you are
not suffering from a severe Vata imbalance (insomnia, panic attacks, severe anxiety,
sever gas and bloating, etc), then eating a salad dressed with olive oil, avocado, and
lime juice would be totally acceptable. This same salad in the fall or wintertime,
however, should definitely be avoided. Therefore, use this chart as a guide and learn
where you are able to intelligently play around on occasion.
 Vata-Pitta Diet Chart

FOOD TYPE FAVOR LIMIT

Most sweet, ripe, juicy fruits;
stewed apples (with ghee and
FRUITS cardamom), applesauce, All dried fruits, all sour
avocado, sweet berries (avoid fruits, unripened fruit, all
sour), coconut, fresh dates, citrus (except lime), raw
fresh figs, red grapes, limes, apples, cranberries, kiwi,
pears, ripe-sweet mangoes tamarind, green mango,
(avoid sour or green), melons, green grapes, dry figs,
! sweet-ripe peaches, sweet-ripe persimmons, dry prunes,
plums, soaked prunes, soaked dry raisins
dates, soaked figs, soaked
raisins

Most well-cooked or steamed All frozen or raw veggies;

veggies; asparagus, beets, raw salads, bitter melon,
cooked broccoli, carrots, raw broccoli, brussel
VEGGIES cilantro, cucumber in sprouts, cabbage, raw
moderation (raw is alright in cauliflower, celery, corn,
summer), cooked cauliflower, raw leafy greens,
fennel, green beans, green kohlrabi, mushrooms,
onion, leeks, okra, sweet or olives; nightshades
yellow onion (cooked), including tomato, white
! parsnip, peas, sweet potato, potato, peppers, and
pumpkin, winter and summer eggplant; radish, turnips,
squash, zucchini, cooked kale wheatgrass, sprouts,
(in moderation), cooked garlic
spinach (in moderation)

Amaranth, buckwheat, cooked All refined grains, all

oats (steel cut oats are best), uncooked or dry grains,
quinoa, brown rice, well- bread with yeast, dry
GRAINS cooked millet (made with cereal, corn, couscous,
ghee, oil, or milk only), crackers, granola, dry
sprouted wheat bread, 100% millet, muesli, oat bran,
whole wheat (in moderation), dry oats, rice cakes, rye,
spelt dry toast, wheat bran
 Organic and whole fat milk Cold milk, powdered
DAIRY (heated and spiced), milk; hard, aged cheese;
buttermilk, cheese in cheese in excess, ice
moderation (soft or cream, sour cream, store
homemade paneer is best), bought yogurt, salted
ghee, unsalted butter, butter
homemade yogurt, homemade
! kefir, lassi (not mango lassi)

Red lentils, mung beans, Adzuki beans, black

mung dal beans, black-eyed peas,
chickpeas, kidney beans,
*All legumes should be soaked brown lentils, lima beans,
LEGUMES overnight to help the digestion miso, navy beans, split
peas, pinto beans,
soybeans, soy flour, soy
powder, tempeh

Raw and unsalted best; Popcorn, peanuts,

almonds (soaked and skins almonds with peel,
NUTS AND SEEDS removed), coconut, soaked cashews, walnuts (alright
chia seed, ground flax seed, in moderation), sesame
pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, seeds (alright in
sunflower seeds moderation), brazil nuts,
hazel nuts; all roasted
! and salted nuts or seeds

Ghee, olive oil, sunflower oil, Sesame oil, peanut oil,

OILS flaxseed oil, coconut oil, sweet vegetable oil, canola oil,
almond oil (in moderation), corn oil, safflower oil,
avocado oil mustard oil
SPICES Cooling to warming spices; Heating spices; cayenne,
cumin, coriander, fennel, cinnamon (in moderation
turmeric, fresh ginger, pippali, alright), oregano, dry
cardamom, cloves, mint, basil, ginger, fenugreek, garlic,
parsley, cilantro mustard seeds, rosemary,
thyme
!
Fruit juice concentrates, Agave, white sugar,
SWEETENERS coconut sugar, date sugar, refined sugars, honey that
dates, honey (raw and in has been heated
moderation), jaggery (in
moderation), maple syrup,
sucanat, turbinado