Should I clean my tongue? The short answer. Yes.
Why is tongue cleaning important? Well there are a few obvious benefits of tongue cleaning, and a few interesting ones that come straight from your mother Ayurveda.
Here are the 5 top reasons that you should clean your tongue as par of your daily morning routine.
1. Stop swallowing + re-absorbing unwanted toxins
Ayurveda teaches that your cake-y tongue coating is nothing more than undigested food particles that have turned sour - literally fermenting and 'off' - that have slid back up your oesophagus while you were sleeping and landed themselves on your tongue. This is a form of 'ama' in Ayurvedic speak; that's AMA, pronounced armour. If you don't tongue scrape, then ama just slides right back down when you have your first drink or take your first bite. Ama doesn't just sound like armour, it has the same effect. Ama in the body creates slowness and heaviness, reduces your vitality and weighs you down. It dampens digestion, weakens organs and promotes accumulation. Accumulation = first stage of disease. Re-read that last sentence a few times.
2. Gauge the toxicity of your internal organs
Your tongue is more than a guide for chewing and talking, it's a cute little map of your internal organs (check it out below). Suffice to say your tongue and mouth is literally a window into your oral cavity, the entire digestive tube attached to it and your internal health. The position of coating on your tongue gives a guide into which of your internal organs is retaining toxins. Each of us have our unique weak spots. Daily tongue cleaning is the best way to check it on yours.
3. Candida sucks
That undigested, sour food - aka ama - is a magnet for microbes like bacteria, fungi and yeast. The one we see most during Ayurvedic treatments is Candida albicans, especially in Kaphas! If you have Candida then a tongue cleaner and Triphala are your new Ayurvedic friends.
4. Strong digestion is where it's at
As long as digestion is strong disease cannot manifest. Simple as that. Strong digestion, or agni in Ayurveda speak, is the internal fire that literally burns through anything that you eat and drink in excess. If you have a tongue coating then you are taking in something in excess, and by excess we mean more than your body is able to process. When you scrape your tongue you aren't just reducing the excess on your tongue, you are actually gently stimulating all your organs and awakening your digestive tract (remember that pretty organ map). Tongue cleaning actually nourishes agni. Better agni = less accumulation. Accumulation = first stage of disease. Did you get that?
5. Improved sense of taste
We don't need top tell you that your taste buds are on your tongue. If they are caked in ama, then they can't do their job. With a cleaner tongue you just might find yourself adding less sugar and salt. Now that is where it's at!
Tongue map
Click here to watch the 2 min vid showing how your tongue maps to your internal organs, or download your free high resolution Modern Ayurvedic Tongue Map pdf.
According to Ayurveda each of us have internal weaknesses, and the location of our tongue coating can give insight into where our internal weakness lie. This can include physical weaknesses, or simply show us where deep seated toxins are building within our body. Your Ayurveda body type, or dosha as we say, is what sets up these weaknesses in the first place. The word dosha literally means imbalanced, or that which tends to become imbalanced.
If you are unsure of what your tongue is telling you, or want to learn more about your Ayurveda body type, then you can take our dosha test. Even better, click here to head to our bookings page and book yourself in for an Ayurvedic consult or treatment.
MA // MODERN AYURVEDIC TM
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