Simple Ayurvedic Eating

Augmenting & Extractive Foods

Your body needs more augmenting foods than extractive foods to maintain the tissues and balance the doshas. Generally speaking, have 60% augmenting and 40% extractive foods on your plate at a meal. 

Consuming meals in this 60:40 proportion will help maintain a calm, balanced state of body and mind and support agni. When food is thoughtfully prepared with nourishing oils and moderate amounts of spices it will include a proper proportion of the rasa (6 tastes) so that the body is maintained with strength and vitality.

Augmenting foods are those that nourish and ground your body and mind. They build tissue and replenish what is lost. These foods are generally sweeter in taste – things like rice, carrots, pumpkin and avocado. Eating augmenting foods gives us vitality and energy. 

Extractive foods are those that are cleansing in nature. They ask your body to give something up in order to digest them and are essential in breaking down healthy fats. They are often bitter or astringent in taste – foods like kale, collards, legumes and nuts. In order to function at our best levels to fight illness and promote health, we need slightly more augmenting foods than extractive. Many Ayurvedic professionals recommend a 60:40 ratio. This is an easy guideline to follow – just eat slightly more grains and sweeter vegetables than legumes and bitter or astringent vegetables in your bowl to have a meal that will be more easily digested and support the balance of your doshas. 

The 60:40 ratio of augmenting to extractive foods can be a really simple way to begin your Ayurvedic eating journey. As time passes and you become more familiar with your doshic make-up and the ever changing seasons, you can begin to add or remove foods relative to your specific constitution, depending on the time of the year.

There are four base components to a meal based on the 60:40 ratio: grains, legumes, an augmenting vegetable and an extractive vegetable. By rotating through a broad list of Sattvic foods herbs and spices, and including additions such as avocado, buttermilk, chutneys, baking or chapati, there is plenty of variety to keep your senses engaged.

A handy list of Augmenting & Extractive foods to begin your cooking

augmenting foods - 60% of your meal. Choose what’s in season.

grains

• Barley

• Buckwheat

• Farro

• Millet

• Quinoa

• Rice - brown, white, basmati, jasmine

• Rye

• Steel Cut Oats

• Teff

• Udon (fresh)

• Wheat

• Wild rice

vegetables

• Avocados

• Beetroots

• Carrots

• courgettes

• Cucumbers

• Daikon (sweet)

• Fennel root

• Lotus root

• Parsnips

• Summer Squash

• Sweet potatoes

• Turnips (sweet)

• Yams

dairy (organic, fresh, raw is best)

• Buttermilk

• Ghee

• Fresh Goats Cheese

• Fresh Farmer’s Cheese

• Fresh Mozzarella

• Paneer

• Raw or non-homongenised milk

• Fresh Yoghurt

fruits

• Apples

• Apricots

• Bananas

• Cherries

• Cranberries

• Currants

• Dates

• Figs

• Grapefruit

• Grapes (with seeds)

• Kiwis

• Lemons

• Limes

• Lychees

• Mangoes

• Melons

• Nectarines

• Oranges

• Papayas

• Passionfruit

• Peaches

• Pears

• Persimmons

• Plums

• Pineapples

• Pomegranates

• Prunes

• Raisins

• Strawberries

extractive foods - 40% of your meal. choose what’s in season.

legumes

• Adzuki

• Black-eyed

• Chickpeas

• Peas

• Black lentils

• Brown lentils

• Green beans

• Green lentils

• Mung beans

• Split Mung dhal

• Split peas

• Tofu (non GMO)

nuts & seeds

• Almonds (soaked & skinned)

• Brazil

• Cashews

• Fennel seeds

• Flax seeds

• Ginko nuts

• Hazelnuts

• Macadamia nuts

• Pistachios

• Pecans

• Pine nuts

• Sesame seeds

vegetables

• Asparagus

• Bamboo shoot

• Beet greens

• Bitter gourd

• Bok choy

• Broccoli

• Brussels sprouts

• Burdock root

• Cabbage

• Cauliflower

• Celery

• Chinese cabbage

• Daikon (pungent)

• Kale

• Mustard greens

• Okra

• Spinach

• Swiss chard

• Silver beet