Food Rituals:

For Kapha types, breakfast is not essential. This is often a relief as often Kapha types don’t have much of an appetite in the early morning. It is OK to skip breakfast or to eat a piece of warm stewed seasonal fruit: you can cook the fruit in a pan with a little water and add cinnamon, cloves, ginger to warm and stimulate the metabolism.  

Please make lunch the main meal of the day, and eat between 12 noon – 2pm Eat in a quiet, relaxed manner. Avoid eating and working at the same time. Opt for local and seasonal foods as far as possible. If local produce is restricted, opt for foods from you climatic region. Avoid/reduce cold or frozen foods, iced or carbonated drinks, and heavy, oily foods. Also avoid/reduce raw foods and salads, and congesting foods such as glutionus foods, processed and baked white flour goods and dairy products, white sugar, and caffeine. .

Eat salads in the summer preferably at lunch time only, and eat them at the end of your meal. They should make up a maximum of 20% of your food intake.

If you eat animal products, please favour lighter meats and fish, and make these only 20% of  your dietary intake. That means you have these products maybe only 2-3 times/week, or you take smaller amounts with each meal. Animal products, including eggs and cheeses are very dense and so tax the digestion which we want to avoid.

 Include lots of bitter and pungent foods in your diet such as dark leafy greens, kale, onions, leeks, and add pungent spices such as ginger, mustard seeds, chillis and cayenne in your foods. whole grains such as barley, buckwheat, corn, rice, oats, wheat, quinoa, amaranth, wheat. 

Include legumes in your diet, and lentils. It is good for Kapha types to favour a 1:2 ratio of legumes to grains.

Add small amounts of fermented foods to meals, especially in the Early Winter months.

Spice foods with ginger (dried and fresh), cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, fenugreek, black pepper, mustard seeds, garlic.

Avoid snacking in between meals. .

During the afternoon tea break, give yourself to complete rest for just 5 or 10 minutes, take a few deep inhales through the nose and feel your whole rib cage fill with energising, refreshing breath. With more gentle inhales, savour the warming and stimulating fragrances of your tea. Favour herb teas over caffeinated drinks: fresh ginger tea with a little honey would be a lovely Kapha pacifying afternoon tea: you can also add a little turmeric, some cloves and/or cardamom to your tea.

Take a light supper in the early evening, before sunset if possible. A warming soup, fragranced with some digestion-enhancing spices followed by a herbal tea and a few pieces of dried fruit for example, is a perfect evening meal for Kapha dosha.

Chew foods well, and try to avoid eating in noisy, stressful environments. After eating, take a brisk stroll. This aids digestion.

Before meals, a “deepana” or aperitif  can help digestion: an infusion of cumin seeds, coriander seeds and fennel seeds taken 15 minutes before eating.lutenous