Meat products (fish, meat, etc.,) and Milk products (curd, ghee, etc.,) don't go together.
Lentils and curd or curd products don't go together (Source: see note below with*)
(Your Note: Perhaps, all milk products and lentils don't go together since lentils are proteins like meat, even sweets like minapa-sunnunda, boorelu etc., Overall, looks like milk products don't go well with many other foods.)
The side affects are severe - leading to loss of hearing, voice, eye-sight and even death.
Fish & many other foods like seasame seeds (perhaps, better to avoid cooking fish in sesame oil)
Though some food articles are quite safe, Ayurveda explains that combination of two particular safe foods may not be ideal for health. It depends upon the quantity of each food stuff, time of taking food, processing of food and a lot of other factors. Let’s have a look at the list.
Principles involved:Opposing duel qualities: If two qualities are strongly exhibited in two items and their combination would lead to a bad quality match, then they are rendered incompatible. Usually hot potency and cold potency is considered. But this does not always hold good. For example, in some cases, in some hot potency herbs, they are treated with milk (cold potency) to lower its hotness. Example:
Garlic Milk Remedy, Bhallataka (hot) – processed with milk etc.
Similar qualities: If two foods have many similarities with them, to such an extent that the combination would increase a particular Dosha to a very high extent, then they are said incompatible.
Example: Fish with radish.
Opposing multiple qualities: If two foods have multiple opposing qualities, their combination is usually declared incompatible. For example – honey and ghee in equal quantities.
Processing: If processing of food leads to alteration / destruction of original quality of the food, then it is not recommended. Such as heating of curds and heating of honey.
Time of intake: We learnt in
basic principles of Ayurveda that, the day and night can be divided into three parts, From morning to evening, in one third part, Kapha, Pitta and Vata are active. If taking some food aggravates Dosha due to its similarity in qualities with the timing of Dosha, then that food at that particular time is defined as incompatible. Example:
Taking curds at night. Or taking
excess sweets at night.
Enough of logics and theories. Let us dive into actual list of bad Ayurveda food combination.
Wrong Food Combinations As Per Ayurveda:Pork, Buffalo meat, Swan meat, goose, crab, fish, tortoise, should not not be taken along with black gram, honey, milk and germinated grains.
Radish is incompatible with fish.
Fish with milk is incompatible. Both fish and milk of them have sweet taste, but due to the contradiction in their potency (fish is hot and milk is cold) they vitiate the blood and obstruct the channels of circulation.
Anupa Mamsa – Meat of Yak, buffalo, cow, deer, elephant,
Audaka / Varishaya – fish, whale, pearl oyster, conch snail, cat fish, crocodile,
These meat / fishes should not be taken together with honey, sesame seeds, sugar candy, milk, black gram (Masha), radish, lotus stalk or germinated grains (Viruda dhanya). By doing so, one gets afflicted with deafness, blindness, trembling, loss of intelligence loss of voice and nasal voice, it may even cause death.
meat of Kapota (dove) fried in mustard oil together with honey and milk, for this obstructs channels of circulation and causes dilatation of blood vessels,
epilepsy, Shankhaka (a disease of the head characterized by acute pain in temporal region), Galaganda (Scrofula) or even death.
Milk should not be taken after the intake of radish, garlic, Keshnagandha (
Moringa oleifera Lam.) Arjaka ( Ocimum gratissimum Linn), Sumukha Surasa (Tulsi – Holy basil), etc. this may cause skin diseases. Though garlic and milk are heated and used together in many medicines, cold milk should not be consumed immediately after garlic, radish, holy basil consumption.
Holy basil with milk – If you are taking holy basil capsule or tablet for any respiratory or viral infection condition, then better to avoid having milk soon after this. Maintain a gap of at least 30 minutes between the two.
Milk with sour fruits – All sour substances, sour fruits such as sour mango, sour pomegranate, etc are incompatible with milk
Horse gram with milk is a bad combination.
After consuming green leafy vegetables and radish, drinking milk should be avoided
Spinach with sesame seed – Indian spinach (Basella rubra) processed along with sesame seed paste. It causes diarrhoea.
Pork should not be taken along with porcupine meet.
Honey should not be heated. Honey should not be consumed by person suffering with excess heat. As it causes Pitta increase.
Honey and ghee or honey and rain water, both in water both in equal quantity,
Radish along with black gram is forbidden.
Curds along with palm date
Black pepper along with fish or during digestion of fish
Banana along with butter milk is not recommended
Chicken and Spotted deer should not be taken along with curds
Uncooked meat along with bile of animals is bad.
Sheep meat along with leaves of Kusumba herb
Germinated grains along with lotus stalk
Lakucha Phala (wild jack) along with black gram soup.
Kakamachi (Black night shade) along with jaggery
Pippali – Long pepper fruit, prepared with fish fat and Kakamachi (Black nightshade – Solanum nigrum), mixed with honey causes death.
Pippali (long pepper) processed with the oil in which fish is fried should be rejected.
Ghee kept in bronze vessel for more than 10 days should not be taken.
Hot substances or hot procedures (like sun bath) is not recommended along with Bhallataka (Semecarpus anacardium)
Mixing of milk, beer and Krishara (rice – green gram dish)
Mixing of equal quantities of any 2, 3 or all of the following is not recommended – honey, ghee, meat, fat, sesame oil and beverages.
Honey along with ghee, even in unequal proportions, should not be consumed along with water.
Honey along with seeds of Pushkara (Inula racemosa)
Honey, along with wine of dates (Maireya) and sugar
Milk drinks along with Mantha (solution of corn flour)
Mushroom with yellow cap, with mustard oil is incompatible.
Leaves of Jatuka(Ferula narthex) or ripe fruit of Nikucha (Artocarpus lakoocha Roxb). Should not be taken with honey and milk
Ripe fruit of Nikucha (Artocarpus lakoocha Roxb) should not be taken with the soup of Masha (black gram), sugar candy and ghee because they are mutually contradictory.
Meat of Tittiri, peacock, Godha (Iguana lziard), Lava (common quail), Kapinjala, cooked by the fire of wood of castor and processed with, fried in castor oil is lethal.
The treatment for incompatible food consumption
Shodhana – purification procedure – Panchakarma. It helps the cleanse the body and gut of the toxins.
Shamana – palliative treatment – Based on particular Dosha imbalance observed in the patient.
Virodha chikitsa – symptom based treatment.
Health should be restored quickly by using food that have opposite qualities to that of incompatible foods.
In whom it might not affect?
In those who exercise regularly, who are habituated to oily fatty food, who have good digestion power, in young and strong, the incompatible food will not cause any ill effects.
In those, who are habituated (sathmya) to incompatible food and in those who take low quantities of incompatible food for a long period of time, the ill effects will not be seen.
Types of Viruddha Ahara- Types of food incompatibility as explained by Charaka:
1. Desha Viruddha – Place – Intake of dry and strong substances such as strong wine, in deserts; oily and cold substance in marshy land is place contradictory diet habit. because, in deserts, it causes extreme increase of Vata and Pitta and in marshy land, it causes extreme increase of Kapha Dosha.
2. Kala Viruddha – Time contradictory diet habit – Intake of cold and dry substances in winter; pungent and hot substance in the summer.
3. Agni Viruddha – Power of Digestion contradictory diet – Intake of heavy-to-digest food when the power of digestion is low (mandagni); intake of light food when the power of digestion is very high (Teekshnagni). Similarly intake of food at various with irregular and normal power of digestion fall under this category.
4. Matra Viruddha – Dose specific diet contradiction – Intake of honey and ghee in equal quantities
5. Satmya Viruddha – Habit specific diet contradiction- Intake of sweet and cold substance by persons accustomed to pungent and hot substances.
6. Dosha Viruddha – Dosha specific diet contradiction- Utilization of drugs, diets and regimen having similar qualities with Dosas but at variance with the habit of the individual.
7. Samskara Viruddha – processing – Method of preparation specific diet contradiction:- Drugs and diets which when prepared in a particular way produce poisonous effects, for example, meat of peacock roasted on a castor spit, heating of honey etc.
8. Veerya Viruddha – Potency specific diet contradiction- Substances having cold potency in combination with those of hot potency.
9. Koshta Viruddha – Bowel specific diet contradiction –
Administration of a mild purgative in a small dose for a person of with hard bowel (Krura Koshta) and administration of strong purgatives food for a person with soft bowel (Mrudu Koshta)
10. Avastha Viruddha –Stage specific contradiction: Indulgence in Vata aggravating diet after physical stress, sexual intercourse, exercise.
Indulgence in Kapha aggravating diet by a lethargic, sleepy person.
11. Krama Viruddha – Order specific contradiction – If a person takes food before his bowel and urinary bladder are clear (empty) or when he does not have appetite or after his hunger has been highly aggravated.
12. Parihara Viruddha –Prescription specific contradiction – Intake of hot things after taking pork
13. Upachara Viruddha – Treatment specific contradiction – Taking cold things after taking ghee.
14. Paka Viruddha – Cooking contradiction – Preparation of food with bad or rotten fuel, under-cooking, over-cooking or burning during the process of preparation.
15. Samyoga Viruddha – Combination – Intake of sour substance with milk.
16. Hrudaya Viruddha – Palatability :- Any substance which is not pleasant in taste.
17. Sampat Viruddha – Richness of quality:- Intake of substance that are not mature, over-mature or purified.
18. Vidhi Viruddha – Rules of eating :- Taking meals in public
Effect of taking incompatible foods –Intake of unwholesome food is responsible for the
Shandya – causation of sterility ,
Andhya – blindness,
visarpa (herpes, spreading type of skin disease),
Dakodara – ascitis,
Visphota – eruptions,
Unmada – insanity,
Bhagandara – fistula,
Murcha – fainting,
Mada – intoxication,
Adhmana – bloating
Galagraha – spasmodic obstruction in throat,
Pandu – anemia, initial stage of liver disorder
Amavisha- poisoning due to Ama (indigestion and altered metabolism),
Kilasa type of skin disease,
Kushta – skin disorders
Grahani – sprue, IBS,
Shotha – oedema,
Amlapitta – acid dyspepsia,
Jvara – fever,
Peenasa – rhinitis,
Santana Dosha – foetal diseases and
Mrutyu – death. [102-103]
Treatment for disorders of incompatible food and diet habits –First the undigested food particles left in the gut and the highly imbalanced doshas should be expelled out of the body. For this purpose, two Panchakarma treatments – Vamana – emesis treatment and Virechana – purgation treatment is adopted.
Then, specific antidotes and prophylaxis is adopted.
How to leave bad food combinations and adopt right foods?Unhealthy things – foods, drinks, activities which have become accustomed by long use should be discontinued by quarter and quarter gradually.
Similarly healthy things (foods etc.) should be gradually made use with intevals of 1, 2 and 3 days.
So, the process of shift from bad to good food should be gradual and methodical, rather than a sudden shift.
Sudden discontinuance of unhealthy things, foods, drinks etc. and indulgence in healthy things, done suddenly and improperly give rise to diseases
The ill effects of incompatible foods that eliminated gradually and good habits developed gradually leads to robust health.
References:
Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 26th chapter
Ashtanga Hrudaya Sutrasthana 7th chapter
Some say fruits should be taken on empty stomach or it should be taken 30 minutes before food. As per Ayurveda, the short answer to this question is – it really depends on the nature of the fruit.
Fruits are explained in the chapter of
Annapana Vidhi Adhyaya of Charaka. This chapter explains foods and drinks that are used as meals. It also explains fruits. This indicates that fruits can be part of meals.
Ancient meal time:In ancient times, there were only 2 meal times. So, whatever was consumed (except liquids) were consumed as part of meals or just before or soon after meals. This does not mean that we should not consume fruits in other than meal time. But what this means is, fruits can be consumed as part of meals.
Sweet fruits:In the sequence of taking food, it is explained that sweet substances should be taken first, followed by sour, salt, pungent, bitter and astringent tastes. Hence, sweet fruits can be included in early part of meals, sour fruits can be included in second part of meals and so on.
Based on heaviness and lightness of digestion:Usually the fruits that are heavy to digest – such as jack fruit, mango, etc are consumed in first part of meals. This is because Ayurveda measures digestion capacity based on hunger. More the hunger, more the digestion capacity. Hunger is more in early part of meals. Hence, it makes sense to take heavy to digest fruits in early part of meals.
Light to digest fruits such as pomegranate can be taken at the end part / soon after meals.
Exception to above rule:If the total meals was spicy and one is having excess thirst, then it makes sense to take coolant sweet fruits such as banana or mango, even at the end of meals. The spicy foods would stimulate digestion strength and hence would be able to digest sweet fruits.
Folklore proverb:There is a proverb in Kannada –
ಹಸಿದು ಹಲಸಿನ ಹಣ್ಣು ತಿನ್ನು, ಉಂಡು ಬಾಳೆಹಣ್ಣು ತಿನ್ನು.
It means, eat jack fruit when hungry (just before or as first part of meals).
Eat banana after meals. This makes sense because, banana which is slightly unripe will have sweet and astringent taste and astringent taste is advised at last.
Quality of meal ingredients:Just a precaution is needed not to mix extreme hot and spicy foods with extreme cold foods. Also, one has to keep in mind about
wrong food combinations while planning meal ingredients.
For this reason, it is good to take fruits without mixing with other parts of meals.
So fruits should not be taken separately?There is no rule that fruits should not be taken separately. As per Ayurveda, one should eat any food only when hungry. So, whenever one is hungry, she can eat fruits.
Even replacing entire meal just with fruit salad is also good. But it is best done by replacing breakfast or lunch, rather than dinner. Because, night time is naturally dominated by Kapha Dosha. Excess sweet fruits (or food) is not recommended at night.
Read related: Night food is very important. Watch what you eat at night
, BMC Evolutionary Biology, Feb. 9, 2010
😕 I eat a little here and there but I dont think its ideal even with the slight milk proteins. My daughter gets eczema from dairy...and butter too. Her allergist, a brilliant man, says 90% of worlds population is allergic to milk proteins and dont even know it because it manifests in so many different ways.
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu) 
Shereefa 
Shubham 
Raulnycraul
Refer: Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 26th chapter, 84th verse – http://easyayurveda.com/2014/08/04/ayurvedic-pharmacology-charaka-samhita-sutrasthana-26/
In the section of incompatible combination with milk, he says –
Milk with sour fruits – mango, Amrataka – Spondias pinnata Kurz, Matulunga – Lemon variety, Nikucha (Artocarpus Lakoocha Roxb), Karamarda (Carisa Karandas Linn), Mocha (Salmalia malbarica Schett & Endl), Dantashatha (Citrus medica Linn), Badara – Zizyphus jujuba, Koshamra, Bhavya(Dillenia indica Linn), Jambava (Syzygium cumini Skeels), Kapittha (Feronia limonia), Tintidi (Tamarindus indica Linn), meat of Paravata (Pigeon), Akshoda ( Juglans regia Linn), Panasa (Jack fruit), Narikela (Coconut), Dadima – Pomegranate, Amalaka (Emblica officinalis Gaerth) and such other solid and liquid materials which are sour in taste become mutually contradictory when taken with milk.
So, it is beyond doubt clarified that milk is bad with sour foods including fruits.