Surprising Food Combinations You Should Always Avoid According To Ayurveda

19 Jun 2020

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It’s no secret that eating the right kind of food at the right time helps us attain and maintain good health. However, most of the time we end up eating whatever we like and whenever we please. We also combine food items to enhance the taste without giving a second thought of how the foods may react together and impact the body.

Different types of foods need different digestive environments. Meaning, they should be eaten separately and in a specific manner, or else you could end up suffering from bloating, nausea, gas, and other serious digestive problems.

Ayurveda says that every food has its own Rasa (taste), Virya (heating or cooling capacity), and Vipaka (post digestion effect). It also suggests that foods with contradicting nature mustn’t be consumed together. Therefore, we must be a little more careful of what food we combine together and how we consume it. This is something people with digestive problems and stomach issues must be extra careful about.

To give you a brief idea, we’ve compiled a list of food combinations that Ayurveda recommends to avoid.

The Ayurveda Diet: Food Combinations To Avoid

Liquids And Solids

Liquids tend to pass through the digestive tract immediately, taking away most of the digestive enzymes. This results in inhibition of the digestive process and leads to incomplete digestion of solid food. Therefore, solid and liquid must not be taken together. Liquids should be consumed at least 20 minutes prior or 30 minutes post proper, solid meal .

Meat And Dairy Products

Meat and dairy can be a toxic combination and should never be eaten together. Meat has a heating capacity whereas milk has a cooling capacity, this contradictory nature can produce toxins in the body that upset the digestive system .

Bananas And Milk

This combination is quite popular and is very commonly eaten. However, digesting them together can be challenging for your body. Further, bananas become sour as they break down, and you know what happens when milk meets anything that’s sour. When milk curdles up inside the body, it irritates the digestive tract and causes discomfort .

Fresh Food And Leftovers

Fresh food is full of nutrients, but they start to diminish slowly, soon after it’s cooked. By the next day, food properties change – it becomes heavy for the body to digest and loses its nutritional value considerably. Mixing fresh food with leftovers can diminish the nutritive values of fresh food as well. Therefore, avoid food that’s been cooked for more than 24 hours as much as possible .

Fruits With Anything Else

As compared to other foods, fruits are easily digested. When consumed with more complex foods, fruits’ speed of passing through the digestive tract is slowed down that can cause fermentation which leads to gas and bloating .

Multiple Proteins Sources

Different types of proteins require different types of digestive environment and enzymes. Therefore it is suggested that different protein forms – such as nuts, meat, eggs, cheese, etc should not be eaten together, and neither should two types of animal protein .

Yogurt With Fruits

Mixing any sour fruit with dairy has the potential of producing toxins in the body. It can also lead to sinus congestion, cold, cough, and allergies. A healthier alternative could be natural, unflavored yogurt mixed with some honey, cinnamon, and raisins instead of sour berries and fruits .

Milk With Anything Else

Milk never combines well with any other food. It needs a full digestive process since it’s a complete and concentrated food by itself. It does not digest in the stomach but in the duodenum of the small intestine. Therefore, if you consume anything with milk, it will disrupt the digestive process of that food as the stomach doesn’t secrete required enzymes in the presence of milk .

Heating Or Cooking With Honey

Honey when cooked becomes toxic. It takes longer to digest and its molecules tend to stick to the mucous membrane locking fine channels and producing poison that can cause digestive problems and distress. Therefore, heated or cooked honey should be avoided at any cost .

Elizabeth Bangera

Armed with an MSc. in Food, Nutrition, and Dietetics, Elizabeth wears many hats and is skilled in everything from weight loss to diabetes and cardiac care management.