Written by Rhian Hunter
I want to share with you the profound theory behind the 6 tastes.
It starts with the premise that a meal that contains a balance of the six flavours which satisfies all the needs of your body and mind in that moment.
Another way of putting it is the balanced flavours satisfy all your desires, and consequently, your mind gets into its blissful state.
It is helpful to understand that the mind always seeks balance. And if it doesn’t get it, it will seek for something that will bring about balance.
Unfortunately, with the stress of modern lifestyles, if we are often unbalanced to begin with, it can be very challenging to discern what would help us.
As a result, our cravings and desires tend to mislead us, resulting in us consuming something to excess, or missing the mark all together by eating the wrong thing.
So How Can Taste Be So Powerful?
To answer this question, we have to go deeper, and think on a molecular level.
There is actually an ancient scientific theory behind taste, and it starts with the five elements.
According to Ayurveda, all matter is comprised of a fixed combination of five elements that are thought to make up all matter.
(Chinese medicine also recognises the five elements, although they are named slightly differently.)
In Ayurveda, they are earth, water, fire, air, and ether.
Each of the six tastes is dominant in two of these elements. You can see the elements associated with the tastes in my stories.
If you read closely you may also start to understand their qualities (known in Ayurveda as the gunas), for example dark, stagnant, energising, mobile, solid, cool, intense, and so on.
Since both your body, and the food you eat, are made up of elements, this means the food you consume has the ability to alter the relative makeup of the elements within your body.
If you add water and consume sweet and salty tastes, you will add cool, dense, heavy, large, moist, smooth, cloudy, sticky, white, and clear energies to your body. This could manifest as weight gain and congestion.
Can you see the connection between how food impacts your mind and body now?
The idea of bringing about balance through diet and lifestyle practices, is the basis for self healing in Ayurveda.
Obviously, there is so much more traditional wisdom to uncover , but for now let’s stick to the Six Tastes.
If you check out the table in my stories, you can see how each taste impacts the mind and body, as well as foods that contain each of the six tastes.
If you balance your food according to the six tastes not only is incredibly satisfying and tasty, but it also becomes a blissful experience. You only need to experience a truly balanced meal once to validate the power of the six tastes.
We should all be experiencing bliss from our food. Not only is it enjoyable, it is also one of the best things you can do to promote a healthy mind and body.