Spices · Classically cited

Garlic

Lashuna·लशुन

Also called: lehsun, knoblauch, raw garlic

Strongly warming and penetrating — settles Vata and cuts Kapha.

How Garlic affects your doshas

In Ayurveda a food's effect depends on your constitution. This is the lens the app uses to suggest what to favour and ease off.

Effect of Garlic on each dosha
DoshaSuitabilityNotes
Vata Balancing Calms Vata — favour it when Vata runs high.
Pitta Use sparingly Can raise Pitta — go easy when Pitta runs high.
Kapha Balancing Calms Kapha — favour it when Kapha runs high.

Taste: Pungent  ·  Potency: Heating (uṣṇa)  ·  Post-digestive: Pungent  ·  Qualities: Heavy, Oily, Sharp, Penetrating

When to go easy

Markedly heating; it aggravates Pitta more than most spices.

Best time to eat it

Season: Winter

In the classical texts

Garlic is attested in the Charaka Saṃhitā (Sutrasthana 27) — Lashuna is classical and its heating, Vata-pacifying, Kapha-reducing character is consensus. The sattvic/yogic objection is a separate tradition from Charaka and is recorded as a pattern exclusion, not a classical property..

Classically cited. Directly attested in the classical Ayurvedic corpus.

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