A Short Journey into the Salty Taste

A Short Journey into the Salty Taste

Salty tastes are formed from fire and water and are useful in small quantities by all types to help cleanse bodily tissues and activate digestion. Food of the salty taste often tends to be slightly moist and heavy (discount the salt we sprinkle too liberally on our food) and is somewhere between sweet and sour in this regard.

Fire Element

The fire element gives salt it's heating quality which helps digestion when consumed in moderation. It is good for Vata types because of this, less good for Pitta for the same reason and tends to create weight gain through water retention in Kapha types.

Emotional Awareness

The salty taste has marked emotional characteristics; it can lead to rigid mental strictures and contraction in some and to a desire for instant gratification in others. Sometimes this creates a person who “has to be right all the time”. Its use in packaged foods creates that urge to carry on eating more and more of the same stuff.

Helps with Digestion

Salty tastes stimulate water retention but do not increase our capacity for weight gain as much as sweet tastes. In moderation salty tastes enhance digestion. In excess, they cause water-logging, irritation and exhaustion, with inflammation of the stomach.

Salty foods

They are hot tastes – salt, sauces, salted products, seaweeds, juicy veg and tomatoes.

Mike Dhallwal talks about the salty taste