This Week’s Interview with Caroline Cronin: Ayurveda Wellness Counselor
This week, I had the privilege of sitting down with Caroline Cronin, an Ayurveda wellness counselor, to dive into the ways Ayurveda can guide us back to balance—especially through nutrition. Caroline works closely with clients to uncover what’s really going on beneath the surface, helping them restore their original constitution, called prakriti. She explained to me that while our prakriti never changes throughout our lives, the way we feel can shift based on stress, lifestyle, and environment. Through diet, daily practices, and herbalism, she helps guide clients back into balance—even offering seasonal cleanses when needed.
Below, Caroline shares her insights on the three doshas, how to identify your dominant one, and how food plays a powerful role in maintaining balance.
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1. Can you explain the three doshas and how they influence our dietary needs?
The three doshas are at the heart of Ayurveda. They’re the three primary energies that govern our body, mind, and behavior. Each person has all three, but in unique proportions that make up their prakriti. The three doshas are vata, pitta, and kapha.
Vata Dosha (Air + Space)
Qualities: light, dry, cold, mobile, irregular, quick.
Tendencies: creativity, fast thinking, enthusiasm—but also anxiety, dryness, and irregular digestion if out of balance.
Dietary Needs: Grounding & warming foods like cooked grains, root vegetables, soups, and ghee. Moist, nourishing textures such as warm milk, oatmeal, and hearty curries. Avoid: cold, raw, crunchy foods and excess caffeine.
Pitta Dosha (Fire + Water)
Qualities: hot, sharp, intense, oily, penetrating.
Tendencies: focus, ambition, strong digestion—but also irritability, overheating, and inflammation when imbalanced.
Dietary Needs: Cooling & calming foods like cucumbers, melons, leafy greens, cilantro, and coconut. Sweet, bitter, and astringent tastes like rice, beans, and greens. Avoid: spicy, fried, or acidic foods, as well as excess alcohol and caffeine.
Kapha Dosha (Earth + Water)
Qualities: heavy, slow, stable, moist, dense, grounded.
Tendencies: calm, compassionate, strong immunity—but also sluggishness, congestion, and weight gain if imbalanced.
Dietary Needs: Light & stimulating foods like lentils, beans, leafy greens, peppers, ginger, and turmeric. Warming spices like cinnamon and cayenne. Avoid: heavy, oily, dairy-rich, and very sweet foods.
Your prakriti influences what foods nourish you, while your vikriti (current imbalance) shifts with seasons, stress, and lifestyle. Ayurveda teaches that ‘like increases like, opposites bring balance.’ So if you’re fiery, eat cooling. If you’re airy/dry, eat grounding. If you’re heavy/slow, eat light and stimulating.
2. How can someone identify which dosha is dominant for them?
In consultations, which usually last 90 minutes to 2 hours, I ask about diet, lifestyle, health history, and even childhood patterns since constitution doesn’t change. The challenge is seeing past current imbalances to find the true dosha. Some people are dual-doshic, with one dominant and one secondary, and rare tri-doshic people are very balanced and resilient.
3. What role does food play in balancing an imbalanced dosha?
Food is everything—really all consumption matters, including thoughts and emotions. In Ayurveda, the six tastes each amplify or pacify different doshas. Since ‘like attracts like and opposites heal,’ a vata who runs cold should bring in warm, moist, grounding foods. Pittas benefit from sweet root vegetables or squashes, while vatas may need to avoid too much coffee, which can worsen dryness and anxiety.
4. How should our diet shift as we move into fall and cooler temperatures?
Ayurveda aligns with nature’s rhythms. Fall and winter are vata seasons, so we need warm, grounding foods—root vegetables, grains, and healthy fats like ghee and olive oil. Seasonal eating is key. A kapha person might even choose this time to cleanse, though still being mindful of excess sweet foods.
5. Imbalance vs. out of balance—how do you know?
In today’s world, many of us have lost touch with our bodies. We dismiss symptoms as ‘normal,’ when often they’re signs of imbalance. For example, a vata imbalance may show up as anxiety, feeling cold, or dry skin. A pitta imbalance could look like monthly breakouts or irritability. Kapha imbalance might feel like sluggishness, congestion, or weight gain. Even within a woman’s monthly cycle, the three doshas appear: ovulation aligns with kapha, the pre-menstrual phase with pitta, and menstruation with vata. The more self-aware we are, the more we can work with food and lifestyle to bring ourselves back into balance.
6. How do you help pregnant mommas who are facing major aversions or morning sickness find balance?
There’s a wonderful book I recommend called Yoga Momma, Yoga Baby, which explores Ayurveda during pregnancy and postpartum. Bland foods can be supportive for women facing food aversions. Dates, for example, are incredibly nourishing, and gentle spices like cumin, coriander, and fennel can be brewed into a tea that supports digestion and regularity. Cravings can also be revealing—not just physically but emotionally. If you’re craving sweets, sometimes what you really need is sweetness in life, like quality time with your partner. Pregnancy is about nourishing both body and spirit.
Closing Thoughts
Talking with Caroline gave me such a deeper understanding of how Ayurveda views balance, not as a fixed state, but as a practice of returning to alignment again and again. The doshas shape how we experience food, energy, and even our emotions, and I love how practical her guidance feels for everyday life.
Next week, I’ll be sharing part two of my conversation with Caroline, where we’ll explore how to make Ayurveda accessible in our modern lifestyles, small daily habits that keep you aligned with your dosha, and her “must-haves” for staying balanced all year round. There’s so much goodness left to share, you won’t want to miss it!