Changing tastes with the seasons: Autumn
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Along with dinacharya, daily routines, ritucharya or seasonal routines are key components of Ayurvedic selfcare. In both daily and seasonal routines, the Ayurvedic texts advise proper use of the six tastes. (If you’re new to Ayurveda, and not familiar with the six tastes, please watch our video Ayurveda Basics 2: The Six Tastes )
In dinacharya, we make use of the tastes most appropriate for our prakriti or body type, while in ritucharya, we adjust the tastes in our diet for the changing seasons.
Whereas we are accustomed to a four seasons model, the Ayurvedic texts consider six seasons, each made up of two lunar months. Since there are six seasons on this model, each one of them relates to one of the six tastes.
We’re now just entering sharad, the beautiful autumn season. At this time, the salty taste is predominant. All summer long, we’ve been experiencing heat. Now autumn is here, it’s time to clear out the pitta that has built up all summer long. It’s this heat buildup that makes the Indian summer weather so uncomfortable. (An Indian summer is a period of unseasonably warm, dry weather that sometimes occurs in autumn in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, typically after the killing frost).
So during the autumn, we need to make use of the pitta-soothing tastes, bitter, sweet and astringent. Ask your Ayurvedic doctor about getting some Tikta Ghee, a medicinal ghee with bitter herbs that is recommended at this season. Enjoy bitter gourds at this season. Try eggplant sabji with bitter melon for a seasonal recipe.
Enjoy our liver cleanse sabji , combining the seasonal sweetness of carrots and beets with bitter greens.
Winter squash bring a wonderful combination of sweet and astringent tastes. Enjoy squash yam sabji, a fall recipe that soothes both vata and pitta, or sunchoke butternut mash .
Sweet potatoes are another vegetable that soothe vata and pitta with their sweetness, so enjoy them baked or in sweet potato puree .
Relish the sweet taste in the fruits of autumn—apples, pears and plums.
Eat well in this season of abundant harvest and cool your pitta down!
Alakananda Ma M.B., B.S. (Lond.) is an Ayurvedic Doctor (NAMA) and graduate of a top London medical school. She is co-founder of Alandi Ayurveda Clinic and Alandi Ayurveda Gurukula in Boulder Colorado, as well as a spiritual mother, teacher, flower essence maker and storyteller. Alakananda is a well known and highly respected practitioner in the Ayurveda community both nationally and internationally
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