Salty

Salt in Ayurveda: The Essential Guide

Salt in Ayurvedic medicine carries hot potency and sweet post-digestive properties. It improves digestion, clears channels, and helps with waste excretion. While beneficial in winter and monsoon seasons, excess consumption may lead to hypertension, skin issues, and kidney problems. Balancing salt intake according to your body constitution is key to harnessing its benefits while avoiding potential side effects.

Basic Properties 🧂

Attributes²:

• Is hot, heavy and oily
  • These properties aren't extremely pronounced in salty foods
  • Salty foods are moderately hot, heavy, and oily¹

Elemental Composition¹:

• Water💧
• Fire 🔥

Ayurvedic Classification:

• Potency: Hot Potency (Ushna)¹ 🔆
• Post-Digestive Taste: Sweet Vipaka (Madhura Vipaka)¹ 🍯
• Digestion Category: Vidahi¹ (causes excessive thirst, acidity and heartburn)

Benefits of Salt ✅

Physiological Actions²:

• Promotes salivation
• Carries Vata downward
• Reduces stiffness of organs
• Decreases accumulation of fat and excretory products
• Clears channels and pores
• Improves digestion 💪
• Produces sweat
• Enhances taste 👅
• Penetrates tissues
• Helps in excretion of waste products¹

Mental Effects:

• Sedative 😌
• Calms nerves
• Stops anxiety

Seasonal Recommendations 🌦️

Best consumed during³:

• Pre-winter and winter ❄️
• Monsoon 🌧️

Cautions & Contraindications ⚠️

Excess Consumption Effects:

• Increases blood pressure
• Causes balding and gray hair¹
• Creates wrinkles
• Triggers hyperacidity¹
• Contributes to skin diseases
• May cause herpes
• Weakens body strength
• Delays wound healing¹
• Creates mouth ulcers¹
• Particularly harmful to kidneys ⚠️

Who Should Limit Salt¹:

• Hypertensive patients
• Those suffering from dermatological diseases

Salt & Emotions 🧠

• Each taste in Ayurveda corresponds to an emotion
• The emotion associated with salty taste is greed²
• Salt dominates other tastes and tends to overpower them

References:

1. A Practical Approach To The Science of Ayurveda - Acharya Balakrishna
2. The Ayurvedic Encyclopedia - Natural secrets to healing, prevention and longevity - Swami Sada Shiva Tirtha
3. Bhojanakuthalam - Pg 484