Cooling it all down – Ayurvedic practices and diet for heat, anger and irritability
Pitta Qualities
Imbalanced Pitta characteristics include oily skin, heartburn, hyperacidity, impatience, overheating, irritability, anger and ulcers, among others.
Pittas are naturally hot, oily, sharp, and pungent in energy so they need foods that contain the opposite qualities. That means more cool, juicy, sweet, and dry foods.
Eat your way to balance: Pitta
Cooling foods
Pitta dominant /imbalanced people require foods of a cooling quality, such as coconut and coconut products, aloe vera, milk, root vegetables, mung, mint, coriander, sweet fruits and salad leaves.
Organic dairy such as ghee, milk and soft cheese can be nourishing and cooling for pitta, with the exception of salty cheese, sour cream and curds.
Consider the benefits of takra (buttermilk), which is a great neutralising drink for pitta.
Have cooling drinks such as coconut water, aloe vera juice and pomegranate.
Favour sweet juicy fruits such as melons, pears, apples, grapes and plums minimise citrus strawberries, peaches and sour tasting fruit.
Root vegetables, most grains, milk and ghee are also sweet and nourishing for pitta.
Bitter foods
Bitter foods can be balancing for pitta, as they provide a cooling and drying effect. Examples include ingredients such as cumin, turmeric, bitter melon and dark chocolate.
Bitter, sweet and cooling vegetables are also great choice for pitta balancing.
Astringent
The astringent taste is also balancing for pitta due to its drying and cooling nature. Legumes are astringent, as are apples, broccoli and pomegranate.
Other ways to balance Pitta
Chill out your nervous system by avoiding TV computer and telephone after 9 pm. Turn your lights out by 10 pm.
Eat at regular times each day. Eat lunch by 12.30pm and dinner by 7 pm.
Make lunch your main meal.
Sit down and eat in a peaceful and relaxing environment, take the time to focus on your food and switch off from working.
Drink plenty of plain pure water every day; room temperature not cold is best.
Pitta types need a healthy dose of protein to stabilise and ground their hunger, but most meats are too heating or too fatty. Due to their heating, oily nature, meats should be limited in pitta diets. Red meats, egg yolks and saltwater fish in particular should be reduced.
Most legumes are a great source of protein; pre-soaked and with spices in cooking to making them easy on the digestion.
Grains are generally balancing and grounding if they are cooling in nature–for example, rice, quinoa and wheat. Corn, millet and rye are some of the grains that have a mild heating effect on the body.
Pitta do not need a lot of oils for as pitta is naturally oily. Light cooling oils are the best choice, especially ghee, coconut and olive oil.
To pacify pitta, add the following to your meals:
Ghee (in moderate quantities).
Fresh herbs that are bitter and cooling, such as coriander and mint.
Green cardamom in moderation – it is cooling but also pungent.
Rosewater, which is cooling.
Coconut milk or oil, for their cooling effects.
Avoid
Avoid hot spicy foods, sour or acidic tastes including vinegar containing foods, salad dressings and condiments and pickle foods refined sugar and greasy or refined foods. Sour-tasting foods such as vinegars, citrus fruits and fermented produce aggravate the liquid part of pitta due to their hot, penetrating and sharp qualities.
Excessive consumption of sour foods, which can also include fried and processed foods, may result in excessive thirst, inflammatory conditions and burning sensations in the chest for pitta types. Equally avoid sour, citrus or unripe fruits can be unbalancing.
Avoid foods that are pungent such as radishes, raw onions and chillies. These can be too heating for the pitta person due to their hot and light qualities.
The salty taste is the third taste pitta types need to limit as, like the sour taste, it is hot and light, as well as unctuous in nature, and it can intensify inflammation.
Avoid alcohol and caffeine.
Avoid refined sugar.
Honey has a heating and drying quality, so it’s always best taken in moderation by pitta types.
Most nuts are too oily and heating to balance pitta, so pitta types should limit themselves to blanched and soaked almonds, as well as coconuts and sunflower seeds.