Q. I read your articles on the three doshas, and I think I need to balance both Vata and Pitta. What sort of diet and lifestyle should I adopt?

A. If you need to balance two doshas, pick the one that's more predominant of the two, and make your diet and lifestyle choices such that they balance that predominant dosha, but do not excessively aggravate the secondary dosha.

Or you could follow a seasonal approach. If you need to balance Vata and Pitta, it is more than likely that you experience an aggravated Vata in the late fall and winter and a vitiated Pitta during the hot months of summer. Therefore, you could follow a Vata-balancing diet and routine in the fall and winter and a Pitta-balancing diet and routine in the summer.

Foods like asparagus, lauki squash, other summer squash, small amounts of fresh lemon and fresh ginger root, fennel, milk, sweet lassi, mung beans, Basmati rice, cooked tofu, sweet juicy fruit and rasayanas such as Amalaki and Triphala are balancing for both Vata and Pitta.

Walking early in the morning, meditation once a day, going early to bed, and trying to maintain a good work-leisure balance are nurturing lifestyle practices that help balance both Vata and Pitta.