Tick the foods on your plate, including spices, relishes and the drink, and this tool shows which of Ayurveda’s six tastes the meal carries: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent. It names the tastes that are missing and lists everyday foods that carry each of them. Each food is placed under the taste this site’s six tastes page gives it.
It is a reminder of variety, not a diet and not nutrition advice.
How it works
The six tastes, rasa, and their effect on the doshas follow the Ashtanga Hridayam, Sutrasthana 1.14 to 16. Sweet, sour and salty calm vata. Bitter, pungent and astringent calm kapha. Astringent, bitter and sweet calm pitta. The others increase them. The elements behind each taste follow the Ashtanga Hridayam, Sutrasthana 10.1: sweet is earth and water, sour is fire and earth, salty is water and fire, bitter is space and air, pungent is fire and air, and astringent is earth and air.
The 39 foods you can tick are taken from the six tastes page, and each carries the taste that page gives it. A dal or other lentil dish carries two tastes, sweet and astringent, as the page says in its example of a balanced meal. The 23 foods that have a matching entry in the food and dosha checker carry the same tastes there. Dal is not one of them: that checker lists plain lentils as astringent, as the astringent section of the six tastes page does, so a cooked dal here and lentils there can show different tastes. The tool then lists which of the six tastes your ticks cover, and for each missing one it lists the foods on the page that carry it.
Reading the result
The heading says how many of the six tastes are on your plate. The table shows, for each taste, the foods on your plate that carry it, its elements and what the tradition says it does to the doshas. If tastes are missing, the list below the heading gives foods that carry them.
The tool does not weigh anything. Teachers give sweet, meaning staple foods such as grains, milk and ghee, the largest share of a meal, and the sharper tastes smaller shares, as the six tastes page explains, so a pinch of a missing taste is enough. The Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 26.43, gives the reason they lean on: it calls sweet the taste most suited to the body, one that builds all the tissues, and says that sweet taken alone and in excess leads to kapha disorders. It does not set the shares of a meal, and we have not found a verse that does. The Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 25.40, names the habitual use of all the tastes as foremost among things that build strength, and the habitual use of only one taste as foremost among things that weaken. That is about meals over time, not every snack.
Where traditions differ
The texts agree on the six tastes, but not on every detail. The Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 26.40, says sweet arises from water above all, where the Ashtanga Hridayam, Sutrasthana 10.1, says earth and water; this tool follows the Ashtanga Hridayam, as the six tastes page does. Teachers also place some foods differently. A spiced vegetable dish is shown here as pungent, and the six tastes page adds that it is often bitter too: if yours has greens, fenugreek leaves or turmeric, tick them as well. Pickle is shown as salty, as on the six tastes page and in the food and dosha checker, though its sourness is plain to anyone who tastes it; add lemon or another sour food if your pickle is a sour one.
The order in which the tastes are eaten is also taught differently by different teachers, and this tool does not judge it.
What it does not do
It does not measure nutrition, calories, salt or sugar, and it does not tell you what to eat. The six tastes are a traditional framework and the dosha effects have not been tested in trials. If you have diabetes, kidney disease, high blood pressure, an allergy or an intolerance, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or have, or suspect, an eating disorder, follow the advice of your doctor or dietitian and do not change your diet on the strength of this tool. Please read the medical disclaimer.
Frequently asked questions
↳ What are the six tastes in Ayurveda?
Sweet (madhura), sour (amla), salty (lavana), pungent (katu), bitter (tikta) and astringent (kashaya). The Ashtanga Hridayam names them in Sutrasthana 1.14.
↳ Does every meal need all six tastes?
The tradition praises a main meal with all six, in sensible proportion, and the Charaka Samhita names the habitual use of all tastes as a source of strength. It does not ask for all six in every snack.
↳ Which taste is most often missing?
The six tastes page notes that bitter is the least used taste in many modern diets. Leafy greens, fenugreek leaves, bitter gourd or turmeric bring it. For astringent, dal, chickpeas, beans or pomegranate are everyday choices.
↳ Why is sweet given the largest share?
Because in the tradition sweet means the staple foods that build the body, such as rice, wheat, milk and ghee, not sugar. The Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 26.43, calls it the taste most suited to the body and says it builds the tissues, but warns against too much of it alone. The shares are a teaching, not a measure from a text.
↳ Where do the food lists come from?
From this site's six tastes page, and nothing else. A food that is not on the list is not covered, and the tool does not guess its taste.