21 Foods That Are Incompatible With Milk

By Dr MS Krishnamurthy MD (Ayu), PhD.
There are certain foods that you should not take along with milk. Incompatible foods with milk can cause short term effects like skin rashes, stomach disturbances etc.

Introduction

Milk is a controversial energy rich drink which is practiced since from the beginning of the life. Many people who know little about Ayurveda declare that milk uses are not mentioned in Ayurveda. This is so untrue. Many Ayurvedic texts proclaimed it as the ambrosia for the mankind.

Different sources of milk are explained and their qualities and actions are also appreciated in most of the texts, especially in three primordial texts Charaka, Sushruta and Vagbhata Samhitas.
Read related: Cow milk benefits

Likewise bad food combination – Viruddhahara is the unique concept of Ayurveda and total 18 viruddhas (incompatible food stuffs ) are explained.
Read related – Bad Food Combinations And Solution As Per Ayurveda

Knowingly or unknowingly we practice wrong food combinations with milk and become the victims of several ill health conditions.

So there is a necessity to unearth such complex and less understood topics from modern view point by possible sophisticated techniques and ideologies. Because the science of Ayurveda is the outcome of long term trial and experiences of the seers; their sayings in the traditional text books hold good even today.
Read related – Eating Etiquette: Healthy Eating Rules

Milk being a nutritious and an element of the balanced food, if taken in wrong combinations it may cause various untoward effects due to the result of incompatibility. The ill effects may show up immediately in some cases or may show up delayedly, if a wrong combination is followed for a very long period of time.
Read Cow milk And Buffalo Milk – A Comparison

The classical version mentioned in Bhojana kutuhala text (Author: Shri Raghunatha Soori) regarding the Milk and its incompatible agents are mentioned here below –

Classical verses

Instant untoward effects are certainly found if the milk is consumed with any of the combinations of fish, non veg food,
jaggery, green gram, radish;
Most commonly the above wrong food combination leads to skin diseases.
Read related – 5 Things To Do After High Cholesterol Food Intake

(My experience – I have observed this kind of incompatibility among the Military officials when I was working in IPGT and R, Jamnagar where I used to get a lot of cases of psoriasis with the history of such incompatibility).

Likewise those who are habituated to have milk with raw vegetables, blue berry (wine prepared out of blue berry), arrack followed with milk intake can be dangerous to health.
Read Human Milk Benefits, Medicinal Uses

Incompatibles

Warm or cold milk should not be consumed along with radish, green leafy vegetables, oil cakes (taila pinyaka), mustard etc.

Combination of wood apple – Kaitha, blue berry, lemon or lime, jack fruit, young shoots of bamboo, sprouted grains/tender shoots of Capparis decidua Forrsk., jujube fruit, banana, sour pomegranate, any sour fruit or vegetable etc.

Jack fruit is a very heavy-to-digest fruit. If milk is consumed along with it, it instantly leads to stomach pain and digestion disturbances.
Milk with banana is also told as a wrong combination for the same reason. This is the reason Banana Milk shake does not suit everyone. Only those who have very good digestion strength can have it in small quantities.

Any sour fruit or medicine is to be avoided along with milk. This includes amla and Triphala Churna.
Read Can Fruits Be Consumed With Meals?

Milk with salt is a wrong food combination. Hence consuming milk with salty biscuits, or with breads coated with salty butter can lead to allergic skin issues and weak digestion. Even tea with salty biscuits are to be avoided.

Milk with sour foods

You write that sour fruits should not be taken with milk because it undergoes curdling in the stomach, which is undesirable. 

When we pour lemon juice into milk, it gets spoiled, right? But when we curdle the milk with curd itself, we use it regularly. So, in a way, curd is spoiled milk, right? Then why do we eat spoiled milk (i.e. curd)? 

Very good question. 🙂 Dr Hebbar here. 

In Ayurveda, the nature of fermenting agent and also the time taken for fermentation are given much importance. 

For example, for specific fermented liquids, Asava, arishta etc. medicines, specific fermenting agents (Dhataki flower, Madhuka flower etc.) and time period of fermentation (a few weeks to months) is mentioned. 

Hence, the milk curdled from lemon juice is entirely different than the milk curdled with previous curd, which then gets converted into curds, which is better for consumption. Another point is, let us consider milk + sour herb consumed together. 

The curdling happens in the stomach rapidly and the obtained product will be abhishyandi – sticking to the body channels, making the nutrition channels to secrete excessively, thus blocking the channels and causing diseases. 

Even the normal curd is also considered abhishyandi, hence not recommended daily. This abhishyandi effect will be more profound when someone repeatedly takes milk with sour things and is detrimental to digestive and overall health. 

Watch video: Amla With Milk Or Triphala With Milk?
Watch another one 
Avoid Milk with Amla and Sour Foods – Listen to What Acharya Charaka Says

Complications

Effect of wrong milk combinations –
If such combinations are followed it may cause
deafness, indigestion,
discoloration and related skin diseases,
dumbness etc.
Read: How Much Food To Eat Per Day As Per Ayurveda?

Exceptions –
Few individuals may not show any ill effects despite taking the above combinations. They are –

• One who exercise regularly – naturally digestion strength will be more. Whatever he consumes, gets converted into energy very quickly and eliminated fast. The consumed wrong food does not stay in the body for a very long time.
• Accustomed to oily fatty food – One who is accustomed to excess of oils and fats usually has a very strong digestion power. So, the wrong foods will show only less ill effects in him.
• Good digestive strength
• In young age and with good strength
• Habituated to incompatible food
• If taken in low quantity.

Read related – Benefits of gym and exercise – Ayurvedic explanation

But in chronic and incurable or palliative disorders such incompatibilities can be traced out if history is taken cautiously.

Quite interestingly, in present days, young population has developed the habit of consuming the incompatible milk shakes and juices out of various vegetables and fruits. This is found to be a notable cause for various idiopathic disorders.
Read Ayurvedic Lassi – Qualities And Health Benefits

So careful watch on such food habits should be taken care individually. Further good researches can be expected in such area from the department of food and dietetics.
Contact Dr MS Krishnamurthy

Multiple ingredients rule

When multiple ingredients are involved, the above rule can be ignored. For example, taking Roti , containing salt, along with milk.
Corn flakes, market breads, biscuits, containing iodized salt.