The short version
Many of us now eat zero-oil food: the pan wiped dry, dal with no tadka, salad with no dressing. The Charaka Samhita has a rule about this. In its method of eating, Vimanasthana 1.24, the second rule is to eat unctuous food (snigdha), food with some sneha in it, such as ghee or oil. The next verse gives eight reasons for it, and the rule right after it is matravat, the right quantity. So this is not a case for more ghee. It is a case for some, in measure.
This page is the full version of our reel: the verse clause by clause, all eight reasons Charaka gives, and how much fat a day the FAO/WHO range comes to.
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📖 19 min read · Charaka Samhita, Vimanasthana 1.24-25, Sutrasthana 13, 23 and 27
What this article covers
- The zero-oil kitchen and the one thing we get wrong
- Ahara vidhi vidhana: where the rule sits
- Snigdham ashniyat, clause by clause
- Charaka's eight reasons for unctuous food
- What snigdha means, and what it does not
- Matravat: the next rule is the right quantity
- The modern reading: fat, taste and four vitamins
- The fat-free salad test (2004)
- How much fat a day?
- Ghee in the zero-oil kitchen
- Frequently asked questions
- More to read
The Zero-Oil Kitchen: Today's Habit and the One Thing We Get Wrong
In many Indian kitchens today the oil is measured in drops, or left out. A paper towel wipes the pan dry. The dal is served without a tadka, the salad with lemon and salt or a fat-free dressing, and the ghee has moved to the back of the shelf. For many people this feels like the healthy choice.
Our reel opens with one line: the Charaka Samhita says food should be unctuous. That surprises people, because we expect an old text to be the strict one. So what does the text actually say about zero-oil food in Ayurveda?
The zero-oil habit: a pan wiped dry, dal with no tadka, a salad with no dressing. On our reading of Charaka, a dry (ruksha) meal.
The thing most of us get wrong is the either-or. We picture oily, fried food on one side and clean, zero-oil food on the other. Charaka's rule sits on neither side. It asks for food that is unctuous (snigdha), food with some sneha in it, the unctuous part that ghee, oil, milk and nuts carry. And the very next rule in the same verse is matravat: eat the right quantity. The text is not asking for fried food, and it is not asking for no fat. It asks for some, in measure.
Modern nutrition makes a related point: four vitamins are absorbed more easily when a meal has some fat, and the FAO/WHO experts set a minimum for total fat, not only a maximum. We work out both below.
Ahara Vidhi Vidhana: Where the Rule Sits (Charaka Samhita, Vimanasthana 1.24)
The Vimanasthana is the Charaka Samhita's section on measure, and its first chapter, the Rasa Vimana Adhyaya, is about tastes (rasa) and food. Near its end Charaka lists eight factors that decide whether a food does good or harm (ashta ahara vidhi visheshayatana), and then gives the rules for eating, the ahara vidhi vidhana, in a single verse.
Vimanasthana 1.24: the method of eating
तत्रेदमाहारविधिविधानमरोगाणामातुराणां चापि केषाञ्चित् काले प्रकृत्यैव हिततमं भुञ्जानानां भवति- उष्णं, स्निग्धं, मात्रावत्, जीर्णे वीर्याविरुद्धम्, इष्टे देशे, इष्टसर्वोपकरणं, नातिद्रुतं, नातिविलम्बितम्, अजल्पन्, अहसन्, तन्मना भुञ्जीत, आत्मानमभिसमीक्ष्य सम्यक्॥२४॥
In the CSRTSDC edition's English, the method is for the healthy and the sick (in certain cases)
: one should eat warm, unctuous food in proper quantity, after the previously consumed food is digested
, food that does not clash, in a pleasant place with pleasant things around, not too fast, not too slowly, without talking or laughing, and with full attention.
The next verse, Vimanasthana 1.25, explains each rule, and the edition numbers them as it goes: (1) ushna, warm; (2) snigdha, unctuous; (3) matravat, the right quantity; (4) jirne, after the last meal is digested; (5) virya-aviruddha, foods that do not clash in potency; (6) ishte deshe, ishta-sarvopakaranam, a pleasant place with all the pleasant accessories; (7) natidrutam, not too fast; (8) nativilambitam, not too slowly; (9) ajalpan, ahasan, tanmana, without talking or laughing, mind on the meal; and a closing rule left unnumbered, atmanam abhisamikshya, considering what suits you.
Notice the order: before speed or attention, three things about the food itself, warm, unctuous, the right quantity. The speed of eating has its own page, How Fast to Eat in Charaka Samhita. This page stays with rule 2, and with rule 3 where the two meet.
Snigdham Ashniyat: The Second Rule, Clause by Clause
Here is the second rule with its reasons, the line our reel was built on.
Vimanasthana 1.25, rule 2: eat unctuous food
स्निग्धमश्नीयात्; स्निग्धं हि भुज्यमानं स्वदते, भुक्तं चानुदीर्णमग्निमुदीरयति, क्षिप्रं जरां गच्छति, वातमनुलोमयति, शरीरमुपचिनोति, दृढीकरोतीन्द्रियाणि, बलाभिवृद्धिमुपजनयति, वर्णप्रसादं चाभिनिर्वर्तयति; तस्मात् स्निग्धमश्नीयात् (२)॥२५॥
The CSRTSDC edition's English: One should eat unctuous because it tastes well, the food consumed stimulates any dormant digestive process, gets digested quickly, normalizes functions of vata, nourishes body, provides firmness to sense organs, increases strength, and enhances complexion.
Every rule in this verse is built the same way: the advice (snigdham ashniyat, "one should eat unctuous food"), then hi, "because", then the reasons, then tasmat, "therefore", and the advice once more. So the reasons are the text's explanation for a rule about meals, not a list of effects promised for a substance.
Snigdha means unctuous, smooth with oil or fat; it shares its root with sneha, the word for any unctuous substance such as ghee or oil. Two participles split the reasons in time: bhujyamanam, "while it is being eaten", and bhuktam, "once it has been eaten". The first reason belongs to the meal in the mouth; the other seven to what follows.
The edition numbers this rule (2), between warm food (1) and the right quantity (3): the best guard against reading it as "eat more fat".
Charaka's Eight Reasons for Unctuous (Snigdha) Food
Here are the eight reasons in the order the text gives them: the Sanskrit, the edition's English, and a plain line of our own. They are Charaka's reasons for his rule, not promises about any food, and not ours.
1. Svadate: it tastes good
Snigdham hi bhujyamanam svadate: while it is being eaten, unctuous food is relished. The edition: it tastes well
. Anyone who has eaten the same dal before and after its tadka knows what the text means.
2. Anudirnam agnim udirayati: it kindles a fire that has not yet been kindled
Agni is the digestive fire; udirayati means "kindles"; anudirna means "not yet kindled". The edition: stimulates any dormant digestive process
. The word "dormant" matters, as the box below shows.
3. Kshipram jaram gacchati: it is digested quickly
Jara here is digestion, literally a wearing down; kshipram is quickly. The edition: gets digested quickly
.
4. Vatam anulomayati: it keeps vata moving in its natural direction
Vata is the dosha of movement, and anulomana is keeping it moving "with the grain", in its natural, downward direction. The edition: normalizes functions of vata
. The Charaka Samhita: Handbook on Ayurveda (Vol. I, p.225) is blunter: carminates flatus
.
5. Shariram upacinoti: it builds up the body
Sharira is the body; upacinoti means "adds to". The edition: nourishes body
. The Handbook: develops the body
.
6. Dridhikaroti indriyani: it makes the senses firm
The indriyas are the sense organs; dridhi-karoti means "makes firm". The edition: provides firmness to sense organs
.
7. Balabhivriddhim upajanayati: it brings an increase in strength
Bala is strength; abhivriddhi is increase; upajanayati is "brings about". The edition: increases strength
.
8. Varnaprasadam abhinirvartayati: it brings clarity of complexion
Varna is complexion, literally colour; prasada is clearness. The edition: enhances complexion
. The Handbook: produces clarity of complexion
.
Then the close: tasmat snigdham ashniyat, therefore one should eat unctuous food.
Four reasons shared with warm food, four of its own
Put rule 2 beside rule 1 and a pattern shows. The warm-food rule (ushnam ashniyat, Vimanasthana 1.25, rule 1) gives five reasons: warm food tastes good, kindles the fire of the belly (agnim audaryam), is digested quickly, moves vata downward, and reduces kapha. The unctuous-food rule repeats the first four almost word for word, changing only the fire: not the fire of the belly but the fire not yet kindled (anudirnam agnim). Then, in place of the kapha reason, it adds four of its own: the body, the senses, strength and complexion. On our reading, warmth and sneha both help a meal along, and the text gives the building reasons to sneha alone.
How to read the eight. They explain a rule about whole meals. They are not claims about ghee, oil or any product, and they do not grow with the amount: the very next rule is about quantity.
What Snigdha Means, and What It Does Not
Snigdha is a quality (guna). Charaka describes food by pairs of opposite qualities, and the Charaka Samhita: Handbook on Ayurveda (Vol. I, p.226) sums up Sutrasthana 25.36 this way: food is of 20 types according to properties such as heavy-light, cold-hot, unctuous-rough
. The opposite of snigdha is ruksha: rough, dry. A meal with no sneha in it at all leans ruksha.
The sneha itself has its own chapter. In Sutrasthana 13, the Snehadhyaya, Charaka names four best snehas: ghee (sarpi or ghrita), oil (taila), muscle fat (vasa) and marrow (majja) (Sutrasthana 13.13). We go through that chapter in Charaka Samhita Part 13: the Snehadhyaya, so we will not repeat it here.
Snigdha is not fried. Nothing in Vimanasthana 1.24-25 speaks of frying. The rule asks for a meal with some sneha in it, eaten warm and in the right quantity. A puri soaked in oil and a dal with a spoon of ghee are both "oily" in everyday speech, but only one sits easily with the next rule, matravat.
Some foods are unctuous in themselves. The sneha in a meal does not have to come from a ladle. In Sutrasthana 27, the chapter on foods and drinks (Annapanavidhi Adhyaya), Charaka calls several everyday foods unctuous:
- Cow's milk (kshira): one of its
ten properties
isunctuous
(Sutrasthana 27.217). - Sesame (tila):
unctuous, hot, sweet, bitter and astringent
(Sutrasthana 27.30). - Almonds, walnuts and other nuts:
heavy to digest, hot in potency, unctuous, sweet
(Sutrasthana 27.157-158). - Black gram (masha, urad):
unctuous, hot, sweet, heavy
(Sutrasthana 27.24).
Foods the Charaka Samhita itself calls unctuous: cow's milk (Sutrasthana 27.217), sesame (27.30), almonds and walnuts (27.157-158) and black gram (27.24).
One verse before black gram, green gram (mudga, moong) is called the best of pulses
and described as dry, cold in potency
and light (Sutrasthana 27.23). Our reading, not the text's: a bowl of plain moong dal is, by Charaka's own description, a dry and light dish, and a tadka is one familiar way an Indian kitchen adds the sneha back.
Ghee and oil are not the same thing. A few verses before the rules of eating, the same chapter says: Oil, ghee and honey are the substances capable of pacifying vata, pitta and kapha respectively
(Vimanasthana 1.13). The next verse gives the reason in qualities: oil is unctuous, hot and heavy, the opposite of vata; ghee is sweet, cold and slow (manda), the opposite of pitta (Vimanasthana 1.14).
Matravat: The Very Next Rule Is the Right Quantity
The rule after snigdha is matravad ashniyat, eat the right quantity (Vimanasthana 1.25, rule 3). In the edition's English, food in proper quantity, without disturbing vata, pitta and kapha
, helps promote one's life-span, easily passes down the bowels, does not disturb the agni (digestive capacity), and gets digested without discomfort
.
Rule 2 asks for some sneha; rule 3 sets its limit. Nothing in the verse says that more sneha gives more of the eight reasons, which is why this page will not tell you to eat more ghee.
Charaka names the other side plainly too. Sutrasthana 23, the Santarpaniya Adhyaya, is the chapter on over-nourishment (santarpana), and its list of causes opens with unctuous, sweet, heavy and slimy food eaten atimatrashah, in excess (Sutrasthana 23.3-4).
How much is right? Charaka's first answer is that it depends on you: One must take food in proper quantity, which depends on the strength of agni (digestive power)
(Sutrasthana 5.3). Vagbhata gives the best-known rule of thumb for it, which we explain in Ahara Matra: Vagbhata's Stomach Rule. For fat in particular, the modern sources give numbers.
The Modern Reading: Fat, Taste and the Four Fat-Soluble Vitamins
Modern nutrition does not use the words snigdha or agni, and it does not "prove" Charaka. But on two points it lands close to the text.
Fat carries four vitamins. MedlinePlus, the US National Library of Medicine's health information service, says: The four fat-soluble vitamins are vitamins A, D, E, and K. These vitamins are absorbed more easily by the body in the presence of dietary fat.
(MedlinePlus, "Vitamins", review date 21 January 2025.) The FAO/WHO experts' report, below, makes the same point about fat-soluble vitamins in general terms, and India's guidelines name the four too: Fats serve as a vehicle for fat-soluble vitamins like vitamins A, D, E & K and carotenes, and promote their absorption.
(ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition, Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024, p.9.)
Fat makes food taste good. The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Fats and Fatty Acids in Human Nutrition met in Geneva from 10 to 14 November 2008, and the FAO published its report in 2010 as FAO Food and Nutrition Paper 91. Its introduction says: Dietary fats provide the medium for the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins; are a primary contributor to the palatability of food
. Set that beside Charaka's first reason, svadate: unctuous food tastes good while it is eaten. Different words, the same observation.
What the modern sources do not say matters as much. They say nothing about agni or vata, the senses, strength or complexion, and they are not evidence for those reasons; we do not offer them as such. The overlap is taste, and the plain point that four vitamins are absorbed more easily when a meal has some fat.
The Fat-Free Salad Test: What Brown and Colleagues Measured (2004)
The clearest modern test of the zero-oil habit is a small study from Iowa State University, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2004 (Brown and colleagues, volume 80, pages 396-403). It asked how much fat a salad needs for the body to take up its carotenoids, the orange, yellow and red pigments of vegetables such as carrots and tomatoes.
The same four vegetables as the 2004 study: spinach, romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes and carrots. In the study, only the oil in the dressing changed.
The design, in the paper's words: The subjects (n = 7) each consumed 3 salads consisting of equivalent amounts of spinach, romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and carrots with salad dressings containing 0, 6, or 28 g canola oil.
The salads were eaten in random order, at least two weeks apart. Blood was taken every hour for 12 hours, and the researchers measured the carotenoids arriving in chylomicrons, the particles that carry newly absorbed fat from the gut into the blood.
- With the fat-free dressing,
the appearance of alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, and lycopene in chylomicrons was negligible
. - With the reduced-fat dressing (6 g of oil), the appearance rose compared with fat-free (P < 0.04).
- With the full-fat dressing (28 g of oil), it was higher again than with reduced-fat (P < 0.02).
The authors' conclusion: Essentially no absorption of carotenoids was observed when salads with fat-free salad dressing were consumed.
What this study does and does not show. Seven people. Three carotenoids (alpha-carotene, beta-carotene and lycopene) measured in the blood for 12 hours after one salad, and nothing more: not long-term health, not other nutrients, not Indian meals. The oil it used, canola, is not a recommendation of ours. In that salad, with no fat in the dressing, those pigments were barely taken up.
The closest Indian parallel is a dry kachumber eaten on its own. A full meal often brings fat from another dish; the study did not test that.
How Much Fat a Day? The FAO/WHO Minimum and Maximum, Worked Out
The second half of the reel's promise. The FAO/WHO report gives a floor and a ceiling for total fat in its recommendations (chapter 2):
Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation (2008), FAO Food and Nutrition Paper 91 (2010)
Minimum total fat intakes for adults: 15%E to ensure adequate consumption of total energy, essential fatty acids, and fat soluble vitamins for most individuals.
And 20%E for women of reproductive age and adults with BMI <18.5
.
Maximum total fat intakes for adults: 30–35%E for most individuals.
"%E" is percent of energy: the share of the day's calories that comes from fat. To turn it into grams you need one more number, which the report gives in its introduction: fats provide 9 kilocalories per gram
. So for a reference day of 2,000 kcal:
| FAO/WHO line (total fat) | Energy from fat | Fat in grams |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum, most adults: 15% | 300 kcal | about 33 g |
| Minimum, women of reproductive age and adults with BMI under 18.5: 20% | 400 kcal | about 44 g |
| Maximum, most adults: 30-35% | 600-700 kcal | about 67-78 g |
The working: 15% of 2,000 is 300 kcal, and 300 divided by 9 is about 33 g. At the top, 30% is 600 kcal, about 67 g, and 35% is 700 kcal, about 78 g. If your day is smaller or larger than 2,000 kcal, the grams scale with it.
Total fat means all of it. These numbers cover everything in the day's food: milk and curd, nuts and seeds, grains and dal, eggs, fish or meat if you eat them, and the ghee or oil you add. India's guidelines make the split: Fats/oils that are used for cooking (vegetable oils, vanaspati, butter and ghee) or added to foods at the time of consumption/ dressing, are termed as 'visible' fats.
And: Fats that are present as integral components of various foods (such as nuts, seeds, pulses, cereals and millets) are referred to as 'invisible' fats.
(ICMR-NIN, Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024, p.54.)
Total fat comes from the whole day's food: milk, curd, nuts, dal and grains carry some, and the ghee or oil you add is only one part.
For the visible part, the same page sets limits: The visible fat (cooking oil) must be limited to 20–50g (4–10 teaspoon full) per person/ day depending on the level of energy (calorie) requirement
, and For example, not more than 27–30g visible fat/cooking oil is required for a 2000 Kcal diet/day
. For a sedentary lifestyle it suggests women and men limit daily fat intake to 20g and 30g of visible fat, respectively
.
Read together, the picture for a 2,000 kcal day is roughly this: total fat of at least about 33 g and not more than about 67-78 g (FAO/WHO), of which the added, visible part stays at about 27-30 g or less (ICMR-NIN). The rest comes from the food itself.
Not a prescription. These are guidelines for populations, not a plan for you; needs differ with age, body size, work and health. If you have a heart condition or high cholesterol, are managing your weight, are pregnant, or have been told to limit fat, ask your doctor or a qualified vaidya before a big change to the fat in your diet.
Ghee in the Zero-Oil Kitchen: A Measured Sneha, Not More Fat
Our reel's comment word is GHEE. But the verse does not name ghee. It names snigdha food, and ghee is one sneha among four. Charaka ranks it first among them, for a reason of his own (Sutrasthana 13.13), and the Bhavaprakasha describes cow ghee at length; we gather those classical qualities in Cow Ghee in Ayurveda rather than repeat them here.
What does a zero-oil kitchen do with this? Our editorial reading, offered as ideas, not instructions:
- A spoon of ghee on dal or rice. The most familiar way an Indian meal becomes snigdha, and easy to measure.
- A measured tadka. Measure the ghee or oil with a teaspoon instead of pouring it. A teaspoon in a small pan with cumin and a dried chilli is often enough to season a family's pot of dal.
- Let the plate carry some of it. Curd, milk, a few nuts or some sesame bring their own fat, and Charaka calls milk, nuts and sesame unctuous (Sutrasthana 27). They are part of what the Indian guidelines call invisible fat.
- A little oil on the salad. In the 2004 study even the smaller amount, 6 g of oil, raised carotenoid uptake compared with none.
A small, measured tadka: ghee with cumin seeds and one dried red chilli, ready to go over a bowl of dal.
And count it in the day. The Indian guidelines have a line on ghee itself: Limit ghee or butter to just 1 to 2 teaspoons/day or avoid, if possible.
(ICMR-NIN, 2024, p.54.) The two do not cancel each other. Charaka asks for an unctuous meal in measure, not a lot of ghee, and the sneha can come from oil, milk, curd, nuts or seeds. A meal can meet both.
A two-question check for your plate. Is there some sneha somewhere in this meal: a little ghee or oil, curd, milk, nuts or sesame? And is it a measured amount? If the first answer is no, the meal is what the text would call dry (ruksha). If the second is no, it breaks the rule that comes next (matravat).
None of this says that ghee or any oil will fix anything in your body. The point is modest: a meal with no fat at all is not what the Charaka Samhita describes, and it falls below the floor the FAO/WHO experts set.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Ayurveda say zero-oil food is wrong? +
The Charaka Samhita's rule is to eat unctuous (snigdha) food: snigdham ashniyat, the second rule of eating in Vimanasthana 1.24-25. A meal with no sneha at all does not follow it. But the next rule is matravat, the right quantity, and Sutrasthana 23.3-4 lists unctuous food eaten in excess among the causes of over-nourishment. Its position is some fat, in measure.
Does snigdha mean fried or oily food? +
No. Snigdha means unctuous: food with some sneha in it, the unctuous part that ghee, oil, milk or nuts provide. Its opposite is ruksha, dry or rough. Nothing in Vimanasthana 1.24-25 speaks of frying, and the verse places snigdha between ushna (warm) and matravat (the right quantity).
How much ghee should I eat in a day? +
The Charaka Samhita's rules of eating give no spoon count: they ask for unctuous food and then the right quantity, which Sutrasthana 5.3 ties to your own digestive power. The Dietary Guidelines for Indians (ICMR-NIN, 2024) say "Limit ghee or butter to just 1 to 2 teaspoons/day or avoid, if possible", and keep all visible fat to about 27-30 g on a 2,000 kcal day. Your own amount depends on your age, health and work, so ask a doctor or a qualified vaidya.
Does a fat-free salad lose its nutrients? +
One study measured this for carotenoids. Brown and colleagues at Iowa State University (2004) gave seven people the same salad of spinach, romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes and carrots with dressings of 0, 6 or 28 g of canola oil. With the fat-free dressing, the appearance of alpha-carotene, beta-carotene and lycopene in chylomicrons was negligible; it rose with 6 g and again with 28 g. The study measured those carotenoids over 12 hours, and nothing more.
Is ghee better than oil? +
Sutrasthana 13.13 names ghee, oil, muscle fat and marrow as the four best snehas and ranks ghee first, for one stated reason: it takes on the qualities of what it is prepared with without losing its own. In Vimanasthana 1.13-14, Charaka pairs oil with vata and ghee with pitta by their qualities. Neither makes ghee or oil a fix for anything, and the Indian guidelines advise 1 to 2 teaspoons of ghee or butter a day, or none if possible.
Can milk, curd and nuts be the fat in my meal? +
They count in both readings. Charaka calls cow's milk unctuous (Sutrasthana 27.217), and sesame (27.30) and almonds, walnuts and other nuts (27.157-158) too. The Indian guidelines count the fat in nuts, seeds, pulses, cereals and millets as "invisible" fat, part of your total. A meal with a bowl of curd is not fat-free even if the pan had no oil.
Which verse of the Charaka Samhita says to eat unctuous food? +
Vimanasthana 1.24 lists the rules of eating (ushna, snigdha, matravat and the rest), and Vimanasthana 1.25 explains each one; the snigdha rule is numbered (2) in the CSRTSDC edition. Both verses are in the Rasa Vimana Adhyaya. Quotations on this page follow the CSRTSDC edition at carakasamhitaonline.com, with a second reading from Charaka Samhita: Handbook on Ayurveda, Vol. I; the plain-English renderings are our own.
More to Read on This Topic
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Milk, Curd, Buttermilk and Ghee in the Ashtanga Hridaya: the Kshira Varga, the dairy foods that bring their own sneha to a meal.
Taila Varga: Oils in the Ashtanga Hridaya: sesame, mustard and the other oils, as Vagbhata grades them.
Bhojana Vidhi in the Bhavaprakasha: the Bhavaprakasha's own rules for the meal, from the two meals a day to the order of the plate.
