Incompatible Food Combinations: Ayurvedic Treatment, Causes & Natural Remedies

Ayurveda teaches that the gastric fire (agni) in the stomach and digestive tract is one of the main gates of the body. Certain food combinations disturb the normal functioning of agni and interfere with the equilibrium of vata, pitta, and kapha. This disturbance may create a toxic substance called ama, which is the root cause of many ailments.

Every food has certain qualities — taste, energy, post-digestive effect, and specific action (prabhav). An individual food may stimulate the digestive fire and be quite digestible, but when two foods with antagonistic qualities are eaten together, they may be toxic to the body, mind, and consciousness.

These incompatible food combinations not only disturb the digestion but also cause confusion in the intelligence of our cells, which can lead to many different diseases.

• Adjust quantities: Changing the quantities of each food in a combination can help significantly. For example, equal quantities of ghee and honey by weight are toxic, but two parts ghee to one part honey is not toxic due to prabhav.
• Strong digestive fire: A strong agni can handle bad food combinations. Chew a bit of fresh ginger before each meal to increase gastric fire.
• Spices and herbs: Added in Ayurvedic cooking to help make foods compatible or ease a powerful effect, such as using the cooling power of cilantro in very spicy food.
• Habituation: If the body has become accustomed to a certain food combination through many years of use, digestion may have adapted to it.
• Antidotes: Cardamom in coffee, or ghee and black pepper with potatoes, can help alleviate negative effects of certain foods.
• Cooking together: Foods with different and possibly aggravating qualities, when cooked together (such as in vegetable soup), tend to neutralize each other.
• Occasional indulgence: Eating a bad combination once in a while usually does not upset the digestion too much.