How to Gain Healthy Weight for Skinny People: A Vata Diet

Do you stay thin however much you eat? Maybe you also feel cold in mild weather, have dry skin, get gas and bloating, sleep badly or feel anxious. Daisy says these signs point to a dominant vata, the air-and-space dosha in Ayurveda. Her answer is not to eat more. It is to eat warm, grounding food at regular times so the body feels safe enough to gain weight. She also covers foods that upset vata, even some “healthy” ones.

Signs of a vata body type

Daisy lists the signs. These are finding it hard to put on weight, feeling cold, dryness in skin, nose, eyes and hair, bloating, gas, constipation and irregular periods. Others are poor sleep, anxiety and a restless, scattered mind. She calls vata light, dry, impulsive and always moving.

She says modern life pushes everyone this way. Skipped meals, too little sleep, convenience food, caffeine, smoking and alcohol all add to it. Her picture is a thin, dry leaf blown about by wind. Add a little moisture and warmth, and shelter it from the wind, and it settles.

The vata rule: moisture, warmth and heaviness

Ayurveda uses the principle of opposites. Vata is light, dry and cold, so Daisy says it calms with moisture, warmth and heaviness in food and lifestyle.

Daisy ties this to taste. Sweet food builds and nourishes, which adds heaviness. Sour food starts digestion and adds warmth. Salt holds water in the body, which adds moisture. These three tastes balance vata, she says. Bitter, pungent and astringent tastes do not, and neither do dry, light snacks like chips, wafers and popcorn.

What to eat from morning to night

On waking. Daisy suggests tea of cumin, coriander and fennel with fresh ginger, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. She calls most spices good for vata, including ginger, ajwain, black pepper, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, turmeric and saffron.

She says raw vegetable juice and salads aggravate delicate vata digestion. If you must have juice, warm it slightly, add ginger, black pepper, cumin, cardamom, salt and lime, and use only one or two root vegetables. She also says coffee and all teas are stimulating and can upset a vata nervous system. Her swap is golden milk made with almond milk, spices and jaggery or maple syrup.

Breakfast. Her options are steamed idli, dhokla, dosa, ragi dosa and uttapam with warm sambar. Or choose porridge of oats, quinoa, ragi, rice or amaranth, soaked overnight and cooked in almond or oat milk. Sweeten with jaggery, dates, raisins, maple syrup or coconut sugar, and top with soaked nuts and seeds. Parathas are grounding. Bread dries vata, so load it with avocado or nut butter.

Cook with sesame, mustard, olive, flaxseed or avocado oil, she says, not refined sunflower or coconut oil. She also skips coconut chutney as raw and cooling, and picks cooked onion chutney.

Lunch. She suggests yellow moong dal khichdi, or dal, rice, roti and sabzi with dal soaked overnight and cooked with hing, ginger, mustard seeds and garam masala. Root vegetables and potatoes suit vata. Cabbage, kale, cauliflower, bell peppers, chillies, tomatoes and brinjal do not. Rajma and chole are hard to digest, so she says to have them only occasionally. Appam with vegetable stew is her favourite.

Dessert. Rice kheer in almond milk, gajar halwa, moong dal halwa, and coconut, sesame or besan laddu.

Dinner. Heavy, dense meals: amaranth, wheat or ragi rotis with curried vegetables, soups with coconut milk, tofu, nuts and seeds, or khichdi. She says rice-based meals bring deep sleep to restless vata types. Before bed, she suggests warm almond or sesame milk with nutmeg, cinnamon, jaggery and ashwagandha or brahmi powder.

The plate ratio and the fruit rule

Daisy’s rule for every meal is 55% grains, 20% vegetables, 15% fats and 10% legumes. Legumes stay low because she says they are hard on a weak vata digestion. She says oils, fats, proteins and grains help restore ojas, the glow of vitality, which she says drains from undernourished, dry bodies.

She keeps fruit off the porridge. Her reasoning is that fruit digests faster than grains, gets held up behind them and ferments, causing gas and bloating. Ayurveda, she says, advises fruit at least an hour before a meal.

Her view on dairy

Daisy says Ayurveda recommends cow’s milk and ghee, but from a time when families cared for their own cow. She says today’s dairy involves cruelty and added hormones (rBST and rBGH) and A1 casein, and that many people are sensitive without knowing it. So she prefers plant milks such as almond, oat, soy and coconut. This is her personal view.

What research says

Research on vata as a body type is limited. One study of 463 adults in Manipur, India found that people with a vata constitution had the lowest body weight, BMI and body fat of the three types. It was reported in the Annals of Human Biology. That matches the “naturally lean” idea, but it does not show that a vata diet adds weight. Ayurveda has used these foods for centuries, and trials on this diet are still lacking.

Daisy’s tips

• Never skip breakfast. A heavy, dense one sets the tone for your day, she says.
• Avoid fasting. A gap of 12 hours overnight is the most she allows.
• Eat cooked, warm, mushy food. Soak grains, dals, nuts and seeds first.
• Avoid raw food, coffee, tea and dry snacks.
• Use the oils and spices she lists in every meal.
• If you take medicine for thyroid, diabetes or PCOS, keep your doctor in the loop. See a doctor if weight loss is sudden or unexplained.

Daisy covers every meal in detail in the video above. It takes about 16 minutes.