Incompatible Foods ( Viruddha Aahar ) & Ayurveda

All food articles possess their own Rasa (taste), Guna (characteristics), Virya (potency), and Vipaka (post digestion effect). Some food stuffs also possess Prabhava an unexplained effect. The fate of food articles with in our body depends on the state of our digestive fire. When two or more food articles having different taste, energy and post digestion effect are combined the digestive fire can become overloaded, inhibiting enzyme system and result in the production of toxins.

Poor combining can produce indigestion, fermentation, putrefaction and gas formation and, if prolonged, can lead to toxemia, and diseases. For example, eating bananas with milk can diminish digestive fire, change the intestinal flora, produce toxins and cause sinus congestion, cold, cough and allergies. Although both of these foods have a sweet taste, a cooling energy, their post digestion effect is very different – bananas are sour while milk is sweet. This cause confusion in our system and results in toxins, allergies and other imbalances

Some of the incompatible food combinations are:

Don’t Eat	With
Beans	Fruits, Cheese, Eggs, Fish, Milk, Meat, Curd
Eggs	Fruits especially melons, Beans, cheese, fish, milk, meat, curd.
Fruits	As a rule shouldn’t be taken along milk, Curd
Grains	Fruit, tapioca
Honey	With equal amount of Ghee by weight, boiled or cooked honey
Hot drinks	Mangoes, cheese, fish, meat, starch, curd
Lemon	Cucumber, milk, tomato, curd
Melon	Everything especially dairy products, eggs, fried food, grains, starch. Melons more than other fruits should be eaten alone or left alone.
Milk	Bananas, cherries, melons, sour fruits, bread containing yeast, fish, meat, curd
Nightshades e.g. potato, tomato	Melon, cucumber, dairy products
Radishes	Bananas, raisins, milk
Tapioca	Fruit specially banana and mango; beans, raisins, jaggery
Curd	Fruit cheese, eggs, fish, hot drinks, meat, milk, nightshades. More than this curd should never be cooked and should be taken in night, summer, rains and spring season. Curd should always be taken with sugar, soup of green beans, ghee or the Amalaki powder.

It is a very short list. To find which combinations are incompatibles there are some rules and regulations:

• In cold areas and in cold seasons the food articles which are cool in potency and unctuous in character are generally wrong food combination for that area.
• Like wise in warm areas and in hot season the food articles with warm potency and pungent or bitter taste are generally should be avoided.
• When one is having little fire in stomach then taking a heavy meal is wrong combination.
• When a fellow is habitual of taking dry, un-unctuous, warm food articles then the food articles with cold potency and unctuous in character prove to incompatible food combinations.
• Food articles with warm potency mixed with food articles with cold potency
• Eating some thing while holding any of the natural urge as said above
• Milk with Sour fruit or salt
• Food articles which are either over cooed or under cooked or very much time has passed since cooking
• Eating any thing with out willingness.