AYURVEDIC PERSPECTIVE ON PUNGENT
Pungency is characterized by irritation, or sharp, spicy foods that irritate the mouth such as black pepper.
Pungent foods are sharp and spicy.They stimulate the body by irritating the mouth, the lining of the digestive tract, and other membranes.
Pungent taste is what makes these spicy foods hot. Made of the fire element, it is sharp and concentrated, fast acting and intense, spreading quickly to all tissues.
Used with care, pungent foods help with everything from impaired digestion and low metabolism, to slow circulation and cloudiness of mind. In excess, however, they can wreak havoc.
Ayurveda has recommended pungent taste's healing qualities for thousands of years.
Let's see what it has to tell us today.
Pungent: One of Ayurveda's 6 Tastes
Ayurveda recognizes
6 tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent) based on how you experience them.
You will recognize pungent when you encounter a jalapeno pepper, eat foods sprinkled with black pepper, or pizza garnished with red pepper flakes.
The sinus clearing impact of wasabi is another example as are crystallized ginger and mustard greens.
Ayurveda also describes pungent taste by its qualities (gunas) and doshas, which provide clues to its impact on your body.
Bite into a pungent tasting food and you may experience:
- Hot, identified by increased body temperature, metabolism, or inflammation. You may first experience the heat in your mouth, but then notice it spreading throughout your body.
- Dry, identified by lack of moisture, lack of fat, or anything that causes diuresis. Excess pungent heat is drying.
- Light, identified by reduced weight. Pungent stimulates your metabolism promoting weight loss.
Types of Pungents
Penetrating substances, like digestive enzymes, and anything that "penetrates" all tissues (often by improving circulation), can be considered pungent.
Aggressive substances and bodily activities, like the immune system, and intelligent tissues, like the analytical centers of the brain, also have pungency or sharpness.
At Joyful Belly we've lumped together pungent taste and the sharp quality because they share many similarities.
Black pepper and chilis are quintessential pungents, and hard liquor is pungent and burning.
Sour taste, which increases secretions, is sharp but not pungent.
Acrid is a subtype of pungent, used for foods that aren't spicy but have a burning sensation, like tobacco.
Another subtype is aromatic, which is reserved for herbs and spices that have a strong aroma, like peppermint.
Herbal resins like frankincense and myrrh have a distinct pungent taste as well.
Overall, the forceful, constant contact of pungent taste's fire element penetrates, burns, ulcerates, cuts and cauterizes.
Pungent Taste, Circulation & Immunity
Depending on your constitution, pungent taste has many potential benefits, especially for your circulatory system and your immune system (which exists mainly in the blood).
These benefits come from the body's reaction to pungents. The body flushes pungent irritants by
- Thinning your blood.
- Dilating your blood vessels.
- Increasing your heart rate.
The benefits of this flushing action includes
- Improved circulation
- Liquefying, softening, secreting, flushing and breaking up and dissolving thick or hardened masses such as mucus.
- Warming the Liver - Moving blood warms the liver, forcing it to work harder.
Warming the liver is especially helpful if your blood is cold and your liver is stagnant.
However, the surge of blood stimulated by pungent taste can overtax the liver's cleansing capacity if Pitta is already aggravated.
- Stimulates courage and valor because blood flow is movement of prana.
- Improve immunity, as the immune system exists mainly in the blood.Therefore, good circulation (stimulated by ginger, black pepper, and other pungents) helps improve immunity and resolve sore throats.
Pungent Taste & the Doshas
While Ayurveda recommends including all 6 tastes in your daily diet, the amount of each needed to promote balance and health depends on your unique constitution (
dosha).
Pungent & Vata
Vata should be careful with excess use of pungent taste.
While a small amount warms Vata, it should not be used to stimulate deficient organs. This use increases Vata's already high metabolism, which burns fluids (ojas), drying out tissues.
Instead, nourishment is the best way to rebuild organ strength for Vata.
Also, after encouraging secretions (which are beneficial to Vata) excess pungent taste leaves behind thirst and dryness, much as the hot sun dries the desert.
Finally,excess pungent taste can over stimulate a Vata's mind. (Ginger, pippali, guduchi and garlic are exceptions.)
Pungent & Pitta
Excess sharpness and pungent taste aggravate Pitta and could lead to bleeding disorders, bruises, ulcers, inflammation, and rashes.
Pungent & Kapha
For many reasons, pungent is the best taste for Kapha:
- It boosts circulation, increasing heat, metabolism, and agni (digestive strength). This burns off all Kapha issues, creating lightness.
- It helps the body sweat, clearing and flushing all secretions.
- It breaks up and dries mucus in the GI tract and the lungs.
- It wakes up the sleepy Kapha mind and brings focus to mental activity.
How to Treat Excess Pungent Taste
Signs of excessive pungency include flushed, red skin, sweating, loose stools, and irritability.
As pungency creates irritation, excess pungent taste is treated with soothing, cooling and nourishing foods and herbs that offset pungency's sharpness.
Favor foods with a sweet taste that nourish the body. Or try foods with gooey and cold qualities that soothe excess pungency.
Cooling herbal demulcents like licorice ghee and shatavari are also indicated, as are astringents like amalaki and arjuna that cool inflammation.
Experiment with Pungent Tasting Spices
Here are some suggestions to help you experience pungent taste and discover how it affects you.
Start by adding spices to your meals. Notice how culinary spices like turmeric, cayenne, ginger and pepper heat up your digestion.
Or sample some of these recipes:
For a more in depth understanding of pungent taste, journal your experiences with it, noting how it impacts your organs and systems. Then adjust your use of heating foods (like spices) accordingly.
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