Elements: Water
Increase: Kapha
Decrease: Vata and Pitta
Found in the Sweet and Salty tastes
Balanced by Clear, Light, Hot, Bitter and Pungent
Food representation: sugar, milk products, sweet flour products. Gooey foods are slimy, smooth, and sticky. Gooey foods increase mucous and sometimes even resemble it. Sugar and all foods with a sweet taste are gooey to some degree because they tend to create more mucous.
Action: defragmenter, holds together, connects and mends.
Positive effect:
Gooey Foods & the Skin
Sometimes the skin becomes so dry even oils won’t penetrate. Instead, rehydrate extremely dry skin with gooey-ness. For example, make a paste of oatmeal and apply directly to the skin. After ten minutes, clean the surface and use oil to seal in moisture.
Gooey & the Digestive Tract
The inside of the digestive tract closely resembles skin. Dry skin often indicates a dry colon. While flour products are too sticky, other foods like oatmeal porridge effectively coat a dry colon, helping to keep it moist and prevent constipation.
Gooey Foods & Wound Healing
Unless a wound is infected, gooey foods help wounds heal quickly.
Protecting Tissues
Gooey coats and protects delicate tissues.
In excess: suffocating the body channels, causes lack of clarity, turbidity of the mind, clinging and over stickiness
3 types of mucous
Thick white mucous is excess Kapha type cold phlegm, coming from thick, gooey, sweet blood plasma (Lymph). Yellow or green mucous is excess Kapha type mixed with Pitta, reflecting a condition of hot phlegm as seen during infections. A thin, watery runny nose is a sign of Vata type cold phlegm irritating and purging through the mucous membranes. Gooey foods aggravate mostly Kapha and Pitta phlegm type.
Mucous and digestion
Ultimately, any food, even not gooey or sticky, can create mucous or phlegm in the body. It all depends on the power of digestion. A strong digestion can handle gooey foods without resulting in phlegm, while even light food may result in phlegm when handled by a weak digestive system. That said, the more gooey the food, the more it resembles to mucous, the harder it is to digest and the bigger the chances it will not digest well and will cause mucous or phlegm.
Cheese & Mucous
Cheese is very gooey and should be avoided when mucous is present. Avoid all dairy products when Kapha type mucous is present.
Pastries & Mucous
Glue is gooey. As kids, we made glue from flour and water. As adults, we bake flour and water into bread. Then in our mouths, we chew it back into glue. Flour products can increase Kapha in the blood, making it sticky and gooey. Thick, viscous, gooey blood is hard to circulate and creates stagnation. Stagnant, slimy blood reduces circulation of oxygen, depressing metabolic activity and thyroid function.
Flour products increase Vata in the colon because they are difficult to digest, resulting in constipation, fermentation, bloating, gas and pain. Flour products can cause Pitta type inflammation in the small intestine, an allergic reaction.
Ingredients that are Gooey
Grains
Flour (wheat, spelt, oat, rye, all types) Oats, Oat Milk, Oatmeal, Pasta, Seitan (wheat meat), Semolina, Tapioca
Vegetables
Avocado, Okra, Sweet potato
Greens
Kelp, Kombu, Seaweed (Hydrated)
Meats
Beef, Chicken, Duck, Egg, Fish, Pork, Rabbit, Salmon, Sardines, Shrimp, Turkey
Dairy
Blue Cheese, Buffalo Milk, Buttermilk, Cheddar Cheese, Condensed Milk, Cottage Cheese, Cream Cheese, Feta Cheese, Goat Cheese, Goat Milk, Heavy Cream, Homemade Yogurt, Milk, Mozzarella Cheese, Paneer, Parmesan Cheese, Romano Cheese, Skim Milk Powder, Sour Cream, Yogurt
Nuts-Seeds
All nut butters, Almond butter, Chia Seeds, Flax Seed, Peanut butter, Tahini
Fruits
Banana, Mango, Persimmons
Sweeteners
Agave, Barley Malt, Brown Rice Syrup, Brown Sugar, Confectionery Sugar, Corn syrup, Date syrop, Fructose, Jaggery, Maple Syrup, Molasses, Raw Sugar, Splenda, Sucanat, Turbinado, White Sugar
Ferments
Kefir
Other
Xanthan Gum