Ayurveda Diet
One thing that prevents many people from making the dietary changes necessary to avoid diabetes is the idea that they will be forced to eat bland and unappetizing food for the rest of their lives; forced to look forward to the occasional “cheat day.”
With Ayurveda, nobody is condemned to a boring diet. In fact, the joy of living is always prioritized above all else. For that reason, this system gives great importance to taste, or rasa, in all of its meals, due to the joy, enthusiasm, and therapeutic effects it brings.
When it comes to managing diabetes, it’s not the case that your food will be flavorless, but you may need to start prioritizing different flavors and foods. For example, rather than indulging in sweet, sour, and salty flavors that can promote diabetes, individuals should enjoy bitter, astringent, and pungent flavors. Instead of prioritizing heavy, oily, and cold foods, it’s better for those with diabetes or prediabetes to opt for light, dry, and warm foods.

Some other dietary recommendations for balancing kapha to treat diabetes are to
- Drink hot ginger tea with your meals to stimulate digestion
- Avoid excessive salt intake
- Favor pungent spices such as pepper, mustard seed, ginger, and cayenne
- Avoid heavy fruits like bananas, pineapples, and figs
- Avoid processed meats
- Regularly eating herbs such as turmeric, cinnamon, and fenugreek seeds
- Eat foods such as
- Bitter gourd
- Garlic
- Legumes (besides soybeans)
- Chinese okra
- Light fruits, such as apples, pears, and pomegranates
- Green leafy vegetables
- Low-fat dairy products (in moderation)
- Neem and curry leaves
- Lean Meats
- Amla
- Starchy vegetables such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, winter squash, green peas, corn, and pumpkin
- Non-starchy vegetables such as tomatoes, celery, cucumbers, mushrooms, broccoli, zucchini, and bell peppers
- Pungent spices such as pepper, cayenne, mustard seed, and ginger
- Grains such as corn, millet, rye, barley, and buckwheat over oats, rice, and wheat.
If changing your diet to fulfill these guidelines sounds like a challenge, don’t worry; there are many easy Ayurvedic recipes for both prediabetes and type 2 diabetes that will make following these guidelines simple and easy.
In addition to cooking tips for diabetes, we also have guides for meal prepping, suggestions for foods to avoid, recommendations for how to eat more mindfully and practicing intermittent fasting. When eating Ayurvedically it’s important to know about ghee and how you can use it in your healing journey.
In addition to these dietary recommendations, Ayurveda suggests many key lifestyle changes to help patients manage diabetes as well.