Whilst yoghurt has been a staple for many for millennia, it has had a surge in popularity with the growing awareness of protein requirements and gut health. Ayurveda has a lot of say about yoghurt and, as a practitioner, it often forms the basis of the most controversial conversations I have with clients. The essence of them is, yoghurt has benefits but needs to be used well.
Benefits of yoghurt
Live yoghurt has the dual benefit of being a good source of complete protein as well as beneficial gut bacteria. This translates to its Ayurvedic properties of being both digestive fire kindling and strengthening.
Yoghurt is useful when someone needs building up. This strengthening action is due to the sweet taste and oily, heavy qualities of yoghurt. It is also an aphrodisiac, helps build quantity and quality of semen, and encourages ovulation. Yoghurt is advised during the fourth month of pregnancy to help strengthen the mother and baby.
Digestively, yoghurt’s sour taste and hot potency means it can stimulate appetite or taste when low. It also helps bind the stool, helping with loose motions.
In addition, yoghurt is useful in urinary problems like UTIs, nasal catarrh and in cardiac arrythmias. It reduces the vata dosha (mobility pattern in the body linked to air and space elements).
Downsides to yoghurt
Sounds brilliant, doesn’t it? It’s not quite so cut and dried. Yoghurt, along with all it’s wonderful benefits, also has the unfortunate quality of being channel blocking. Channel blocking foods are those that block the channels by virtue of being both heavy and slimy and creating excessive secretions in the channels. Other channel blocking foods include milk (but less than yogurt), meat and fish. Plus, add in sourness as a taste, and eating too much yoghurt or eating in ways that heighten these qualities, starts to cause trouble.
Anything that is channel blocking eventually causes undigested residue (ama) which then goes on to create disease. Plus through increasing both kapha (stability pattern: earth and water) and pitta (transformation pattern: fire and water), eating too much yoghurt will cause bleeding diseases, skin problems, liver problems, swelling and giddiness. It also increases the fat tissue in the body which can be beneficial if needed but less beneficial if there is too much already.
This doesn’t meant that we can’t eat yoghurt, it just means we need to employ some moderation and follow a few simple rules.
How to eat yoghurt to get the most benefits and the least downsides
If you follow these guidelines, you can still enjoy the delicious creaminess of yoghurt without causing problems in the body.
| DO NOT HAVE YOGURT: | DO HAVE YOGHURT: |
| Daily | Every other day if vata constitution, two or three times a week if pitta and maximum once a week if kapha. Find your constitution here. |
| At night | At lunch time |
| At hot times of year | At colder times of year, especially autumn and early winter |
| By itself | With added ghee, mung soup, honey or amla (Indian gooseberry) |
| Heated | Uncooked |
| Very cold (straight from the fridge) | At room temperature |
| Combined with fruit (especially banana)* | After eating the fruit With banana, leave 30-60 minutes between the banana and yoghurt |
| Combined with fish and meat | Without fish and meat |
| Combined with milk | Not mixed with milk |
| With high pitta or kapha, bleeding disorders, skin conditions, swelling and inflammation, diabetes or oral diseases | When pitta and kapha are balanced and not suffering from these diseases |
* This is not because fruit and yoghurt have specifically been advised against (like fruit and milk are) but because in general, fruit should be eaten at the beginning of the meal, rather than mixed in with it. You don’t need to wait between eating the fruit and the yoghurt, as long as you eat the fruit first. The exception to this is with banana, which has specifically be singled out as something not to mix with yoghurt so leave a longer gap (at least 30 minutes, ideally an hour).
Did you know? All yoghurt types aren’t equal
Eating goat’s yoghurt can be eaten more often as it is more easily digestible, reduces all three dosha (so doesn’t increase pitta and kapha like cow’s yoghurt) and is less channel blocking. Vegan varieties like coconut yoghurt are probably more similar to goat’s yoghurt than cow’s yoghurt, being lighter (but also less strengthening). Sheep’s yoghurt is the worst choice in the shop, being even more channel blocking than cow’s yoghurt.
Do enjoy your yoghurt, relish the strengthening and digestive effects but remember, any nectar can become poison and any poison nectar if used unwisely. More of good things isn’t always better.
References:
Bhava Prakash Chapter 6 (Dadhi Varga)
Charaka Samhita Sutra Sthana 7/61-62, 13/91, 27/4,225-227
Sushruta Samhita Sutra Sthana 45/65–67,80
Ashtanga Hrdaya Sutra Sthana 5/29–33, Nidana Sthana 14/46, Uttara Sthana 21/1
Astanga Samgraha Sutra Sthana 9/2-5
0 Comments