Summer

Seasonal Period: Mid-May to Mid-July

Key Features

• Pungent taste dominance
• Vata accumulation, Kapha pacification
• Heightened sweating and thirst
• Diminished digestive fire (agni)

Dietary Focus:

• Favor sweet tastes 
• Choose light, cold, and oily foods
• Avoid sour, salty, astringent tastes

Seasonal Overview

• Months in India: Mid-May to Mid-July
• Naturally prominent taste during this weather: Pungent
• Link with Doshas: Season of Vata accumulation and Kapha pacification
• Rejuvenating herbs recommended: Myrobalan (harad) powder with equal amount of jaggery

Physiological Changes During Summer

Body Transformations

• Increased dryness and bodily dullness
• Weakening of all bodily tissues (dhatus)
• Reduction in overall strength
• Heightened sweating and thirst
• Diminished digestive fire (Agni)

Dietary Guidance

Recommended Tastes

• Favorable: Sweet¹
• Unfavorable¹: Sour, Salty, Astringent (all three are considered heat-increasing)

Food Qualities to Embrace

• Oily
• Light
• Cold
• Liquid

Food Qualities to Avoid

• Hot
• Dry¹
• Heavy

Special Water Recommendation

• Arogyambu: Water boiled and reduced to 1/4th of its original quantity

Recommended Foods

Dairy Products

• Ghee
• Milk
• Boiled milk with sugar (especially at night)¹
• Buffalo's Milk
• Buttermilk with sugar or salt and roasted cumin (in the morning or the afternoon)
• Yogurt with vegetables
• Ice cream

Sweet Foods

• Gooseberry succade

Pulses

• Green Gram
• Pigeon Pea
• Various lentils (brown, black, red etc.)

Grains

• Old barley
• Diluted coarse barley and gram flour (sattu)

Fruits

• Watermelon
• Musk melon
• Sweet mangoes
• Oranges
• Grapes
• Snake cucumber
• Mulberry
• Phalasa
• Pomegranates

Vegetables

• Red leaved spinach
• Bitter gourd
• Chenopodium
• Pointed gourd
• Ripe tomatoes
• Unpeeled potatoes
• Unripe banana fruit curry
• Drumstick
• Onion
• Ash gourd
• Mint
• Lemon

Dry Fruits

• Raisins
• Soaked almonds
• Figs
• Currants
• Calumpang nut

Recommended Drinks

• Sweet fresh lime juice
• Green unripe mango juice
• Sweet diluted yogurt (lassi)
• Various sherbets (Bengal quince, sandalwood, rose, vetiver)
• Sugarcane juice
• Apple and sweet orange juice
• Coconut Water
• Water cooled in moonlight
• Thandai

General Health Guidelines

Lifestyle Recommendations

• Use boiled water cooled in earthen pots
• Reduce diet quantity and chew food thoroughly
• Consume only freshly cooked, warm food
• Avoid direct sun exposure
• Ensure bedroom has moonlight and fresh air
• Wear light-colored or white cotton clothes
• Apply sandalwood paste on skin¹
• Drink cool water if staying up late to balance Vata and Kapha
• Have an early dinner

Foods to Avoid

• Minimize hot, sour, dry, salty, and astringent tastes
• Completely avoid:
  • Heavy, fried, hot, spicy, and stale foods
  • Black Gram
  • Garlic
  • Mustard
  • Brinjals
  • Stale and sour yogurt
  • Honey (except as medicine)
  • Ice and icy items
  • Dried milk sweets

Activities to Avoid

• Sudden temperature changes
• Alcoholic drinks
• Excessive water intake
• Staying awake late
• Going out without head protection
• Over-exercising¹
• Suppressing hunger or thirst
• Sexual activity

References

Primary Source: Acharya Balkrishna - A Practical Approach to The Science of Ayurveda - A Comprehensive Guide for Healthy Living - Chapter 5 Health Horizons

1. English Translation of the Sushruta Samhita (Volume 3) Uttara Tantra - Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna - Pg 396-400