Salty Taste
The salty taste is almost singularly derived from salt and is readily identified in our diets.
The Salty Taste—at a Glance
| Balances: | Vata |
| Aggravates: | Pitta and Kapha |
| Primary Elements: | Water and Fire |
| Virya (temperature): | Heating (though the mildest of the heating tastes) |
| Vipaka (post-digestive effect): | Sweet |
| Gunas (associated qualities): | Heavy, oily, hot |
| Associated Positive Emotions: | Courage, confidence, enthusiasm, interest |
| Emotions of Excess: | Temptation, addiction, attachment, greed, possessiveness, irritability |
| Location on the Tongue: | Rear edges of the tongue |
| Affinity for Organs: | Kidneys |
| Most Affected Tissues: | Plasma, blood, muscle, fat, and nervous tissue |
| Direction of Movement: | Downward (activates apana vayu) |
| Additional Actions: | Appetizer, expectorant, moistening |
Examples—Substances that Illustrate the Salty Taste
| Vegetables | Celery, seaweed |
| Dairy | Cottage cheese |
| Meat & Fish | Tuna |
| Spices & Flavorings | Table salt, sea salt, rock salt, gamasio, soy sauce, tamari |
Benefits
The salty taste increases salivation and supports digestion, absorption, assimilation, and elimination. It promotes growth, supports muscle strength, moistens the body, and helps maintain the water-electrolyte balance.
It is also energizing, nutritive, demulcent, grounding, and soothing to the nervous system. The salty taste nourishes the plasma (rasa dhatu), clears the channels of the body, prevents stiffness, and enhances the spirit.
As an enhancing agent, it helps combat dullness, sadness, and a lack of creativity in our lives.2
In Excess
A little bit of salt enhances the flavor of other foods, but being as intense (and addictive) as it is, salt can also easily overshadow other flavors entirely, so it is important to strike a balance by using salt in small quantities.
If overused, the salty taste can disturb all of the doshas. It tends to cause sodium and/or water retention, which can lead to thick and viscous blood, thickening and narrowing of the blood vessels, and excess thirst, among other things.1
Excess salt also aggravates skin imbalances and may cause uncomfortable feelings of excess heat in the body.3 4
Contraindications
The salty taste can exacerbate the situation in the case of high pitta, or if there are imbalances in the blood.
Exceptions
Natural Mineral Salt or rock salt is cooling rather than heating and is far more balancing for pitta than other forms of salt. Its mildness and diverse mineral content help minimize the potential hazards of excess salt. This type of salt is very highly regarded in the Ayurvedic tradition and is considered a superior salt.
When used externally, all types of salt help draw moisture and natural toxins out of the body.5
More for You
Pitta and the Six Tastes
Pitta is primarily composed of the fire and water elements, which make pitta light, sharp, hot, oily, liquid, spreading, and subtle. Because of these characteristics, pitta is balanced by the sweet, bitter, and astringent tastes and aggravated by the sour, salty, and pungent tastes.
Vata and the Six Tastes
Vata is primarily composed of the air and ether elements, which make vata light, cold, dry, rough, mobile, subtle, and clear. Because of these characteristics, vata is balanced by the sweet, sour and salty tastes and aggravated by the pungent, bitter and astringent tastes.
