The Sanctuary

Spices · Classically cited

Salt

Lavana

Also called: salt, table salt, common salt, sea salt, namak, salz

A pinch kindles taste and digestion and grounds Vata.

How Salt 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 Salt 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 Use sparingly Can raise Kapha — go easy when Kapha runs high.

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

When to go easy

Heating and water-holding — excess aggravates Pitta and Kapha and unsettles the blood.

Cautions

  • High Sodium

Excess salt is classically and clinically cautioned — a little, not a lot.

In the classical texts

Salt is attested in the Charaka Saṃhitā (Sutrasthana 26) — Lavana rasa is classically attested: salty, heating, grounds Vata, aggravates Pitta and Kapha in excess..

Classically cited. Directly attested in the classical Ayurvedic corpus.

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