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[[File:Ajurweda EN.png|thumb|left|upright|Elements, ''doshas'' and tastes. It's actually more complicated than that, but I'd have to make this infographic at least in 3D to avoid all of the excessive simplification.]]
Water bounded by earth produces a ''dosha'' called ''kapha'' (pronounced ''{{small|KAP}}-hah''). ''Kapha'' is heavy, cold and moist; in the human body, it's responsible for holding everything together and, when in excess, it manifests itself in the form of phlegm. Fire bound by water is ''pitta'', which is hot, light and… not dry. Wait, what? Well, it's not dry, because it contains water, but it isn't moist either, because the moisture is evaporated by the fire. So what do you call something that's neither dry nor moist? Consider food: if it's too dry, then what you do is baste it with some oil, butter or gravy, right? And this is what ''pitta'' is like – fatty, oily, unctuous. In your organism, it keeps digestion running and the associated "humour" is bile. And then there's the third ''dosha'', called ''vata'', which is a combination of air and void. It's dry, light and cold. In your body, it's responsible for breathing and motion , and its excess shows as… not a fluid this time, but something rather gaseous. What you get by combining air and void is wind, and this is exactly what builds up in your colon when you've got too much ''vata''.
Just like in humoral theory, the domination of any one ''dosha'' in your organism determines your physique and your temperament. A ''vata''-type person is usually thin and bony, dark-skinned with thin, dry hair, an elongated and wrinkled face, and is quick-tempered, impatient and wavering. If you're a ''kapha''-type person, then you might be heavily built with pale skin, thick, oily hair and a round, soft face, slow, but persistent. And you can tell someone is a ''pitta''-type person by their muscular figure, ruddy complexion, soft hair with a tendency for early greyness and baldness, a face with sharp contours, as well as their high impulsiveness and motivation. But that's not all, for there are also people whose bodies are dominated by not one, but two ''doshas'' (''vata-pitta, vata-kapha'' and ''pitta-kapha'' types), as well as those who have all three ''doshas'' in balance (the ''vata-pitta-kapha'' type). This way, there are only three ''doshas'', but as many as seven different temperaments.
If you've read my post about humoral dietetics, they you might have guessed by now that the goal of Ayurvedic diet is to keep the ''doshas'' in balance. For example, a ''kapha''-type person should eat foods that decrease ''kapha'', while a dual ''vata-pitta'' type should consume things that increase ''kapha''. But how can you tell what which foods increase or decrease which ''doshas''? Well , of course, by taste! There are six tastes, each combining the qualities of two different elements. Sweet is combines earth and water, which means it increases ''kapha''; it's the heaviest and moistest, as well as the most widespread of all six tastes. Salty is a marriage of water and fire, so it increases ''pitta''. Sour is fire and earth, and thus decreases ''vata''. Pungent is a combination of fire and air, which makes it the hottest and driest taste, decreasing ''kapha''. Bitter is air plus aether, it's the lightest and coldest of tastes, and it increases ''vata''. And, last but not least, the astringent taste, which combines earth and air, and therefore decreases ''pitta''.
[[File:Butterschmalz-3.jpg|thumb|upright|Ghee, the traditional Indian butter, clarified and slightly caramelized, is perfect for balancing the excess of bile (''pitta'') and wind (''vata'').]]
But it's not as simple as that. The amount of each ''dosha'' in your body depends on daily and seasonal cycles. Let's take a look at the seasonal one as an example. The Indian climate has not four, but six seasons. Winter is cold and damp, and people tend to be listless and sluggish, so their organisms develop an excess of ''kapha'', which is evident by the build-up of thick phlegm. Cold winds blow at the same time, which makes the air filled with bitterness. When the spring comes, the air becomes astringent, while the phlegm melts down and spreads throughout your body, causing the aggravation of ''kapha''. Aggravation of any ''dosha'' is dangerous, so it needs to be mitigated with an appropriate diet to stem the onset of disease. In the summertime it's dry and windy, everything tastes sharper than usually and your body begins to accumulate ''vata''. Then comes the rainy season, which brings strong monsoon winds, heavy rains, slightly lower temperatures and a sour taste permeating the air. In these circumstances, ''vata'' has absolutely no idea what's going on and gets aggravated. What's more, ''pitta'' begins to build up. Autumn, which is dry, warm and salty, pacifies ''vata'', but aggravates ''pitta''. It's only in the sweet early winter that ''pitta'' becomes pacified, but this is also when ''kapha'' is slowly starting to accumulated. And so on and so forth.
Therefore, your diet should not only match your own ''dosha'' constitution, but also to the current season. For example, a ''kapha''-type person in winter should avoid the build-up of phlegm, which is natural for them anyway, by eating foods that are astringent and pungent, warm and slightly unctuous, and – in lesser quantities – sour, bitter, salty and dry. In any case, they shouldn't eat anything sweet, maybe except honey, which is not only sweet, but also astringent and drying. By contrast, a ''vata''-type person, in the same season, should eat things which are sour, salty and oily, and – to a lesser extent – sweet (for example, lots of sesame oil and ghee).
And let's leave it here, because the more I try to fathom this topic, the less sense I make out of it. The Greeks , at least, kept it simple: four earthly elements, four qualities, four humours, four temperaments, four basic tastes and four seasons. Whereas in Ayurveda, there are five elements, twenty qualities, three ''doshas'', seven temperaments, six tastes and six seasons! LetSo let's leave India alone, then, and see what the Chinese came up with on the theme of healthy eating.
== <big>中醫</big> ==
