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Healthy Habits For Pitta Organs
According to Ayurveda, the prostate is a pitta organ, which means it is prone to inflammation. Other pitta organs on the body are the skin, eyes, liver, stomach and the small intestines. Ayurveda says that if you eat a lot of hot or spicy foods, pitta can be aggravated, putting undue stress on these pitta organs like the prostate.
While spicy foods are obviously heating to the body, other foods like coffee, alcohol and dense proteins like red meat and eggs are also heating to the body. In a 2016 study, scientists pooled prostate-related data from numerous studies that involved more than 842,000 men from North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. (1)
They found that men who ate eggs (which can aggravate pitta) at least 4 times a week had a 14 percent higher risk of getting prostate cancer compared to those who ate eggs less than 3 times a month. Eggs, particularly the yolk, are considered a very pitta-aggravating or heating food. Those prone to inflammation may consider limiting consumption of heating foods. This is even more true during the hot summer months and for those who have a predominant pitta body type.
>>> Find out what your body type is here. Highly pitta men seem to be prone to prostate-related health concerns.
What made this study so interesting was that the men who ate the most chicken to the tune of 4 times a week had a 17 percent decreased risk of getting prostate cancer compared to the men who ate poultry less than twice a month. Chicken is considered one of the few cooling or pitta-reducing animal protein sources, suggesting that the nature of the protein may determine its inflammatory potential.
While the cholesterol in eggs has been recently taken off the FDA’s nutrient concern list, if you were to speak with an anthropologist, they will tell you that eggs were a delicacy and not a mainstay in our evolutionary diet. The eggs were tiny, very hard to find and there were many other animals better equipped to find the eggs long before we were able to – hawks and eagles for example.
Avoid Summer Pitta Aggravation
Nature, of course, always has the solution to these problems. The harvest in nature during the summer months is primarily cooling and rich in leafy greens, veggies and fruits. One of the golden rules of Ayurveda is that the seasonal harvest always antidotes the extremes of the season. In the hot summer, nature harvests cooling foods. In the cold winter, nature harvests warmer foods like nuts, seeds and more proteins and fats. In the wet spring, nature harvests low-fat and congestion-free foods like bitter roots, sprouts, spring greens, berries and cherries.
Male Pattern Baldness Linked to Increased Prostate Cancer Risk
One of the defining features of a male pitta body type is male pattern baldness. This is caused by the conversion of testosterone, which is safe, to dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which is toxic and linked to male pattern baldness as well as prostate health concerns. In one recent study, they found a link between men with male pattern baldness and prostate cancer. (2) This is well understood in Ayurveda, as baldness and prostate concerns are part of the pitta prevention plan. Basically, men with this body type should not overheat or inflame the body, and it may be a good idea to take saw palmetto preventively, as it blocks the uptake of DHT. (3)
Eat Seasonal Foods and Let Nature’s Umbrella Protect You
Every month, I publish a free seasonal eating guide filled with recipes, grocery lists, superfoods and articles about the new science on the benefits of seasonal eating. Please sign up for this free year-long guide, called The 3-Season Diet Challenge.
To reduce pitta fast, eat pitta-reducing foods from the Summer Grocery List. This will support your prostate any time of the year. Once better, go back to eating with the seasons.
