Eating For Pitta or For Summer

The following suggestions should be followed if a) you have a Pitta imbalance, or b) you are eating seasonally for summer. In Ayurveda, we eat with the seasons when balanced, or eat to pacify the aggravated Dosha(s) when imbalanced.

Pitta Rhythms

The pitta within is naturally pacified in the late fall/winter months, when the cold and dry environment counters pitta’s summery hot and humid (slightly oily) nature. 

Pitta begins to accumulate in the spring, when the warmer weather and humidity begin to build.  The shift from spring to summer aggravates pitta—around the last week of June to the first week of July. Pitta will continue to be susceptible to aggravation throughout the summer until about October, finally becoming pacified with the arrival of late fall’s cooler and drier weather. 

Pitta or Summer-Pacifying Foods

Summer naturally provides a pitta-pacifying diet– a light and cooling fruit and vegetable harvest all season. These fruits and vegetables are primarily sweet, bitter, and astringent, and full of fiber to loosen bowel movements and scrape the intestinal wall clean. It is easy to eat a colorful diet in the summer, with fruits and vegetables full of flavonoids that act as anti-inflammatory agents. In summer, the digestive fire (agni) is considered to be at its high point according to Ayurveda, and cool, raw foods can be more easily digested.

In the early fall one should continue to aim to rid of heat even though the cool season is beginning to move in. If not, accumulated heat will spread when the summer yields to cold, windy, and dry weather. This results in weakened immunity, and thus creating a favorable environment for colds and flus to set in in the wintertime.

Take it Further…