Though we are now more aware of the effect of emotions have on our bodies and minds and how this relates to food, holistic nutritional systems have been using this knowledge of the link between emotions and food for thousands of years.

In Ayurvedic nutrition, for example, the Sanskrit word for “taste” rasa is the same as the one for “emotion”, indicating a clear connection. Taste and emotion could be considered as the same but acting at different levels of our being. In his book “Prakriti” the Ayurvedic doctor, Robert Svoboda tells us that

“taste is to the body what emotion is to the mind”.

So when we feel a particular emotion, it can be helpful to consider what taste might be helping to trigger it. Anxiety, for example, is linked with an excess of the astringent taste, a taste like that of the tannins in tea or wine.