Tongue Reading 101

There’s a coat of stuff on my tongue! What does that mean?

• Any coating on tongue=digestive fire is too low to burn through the food you are taking in
  The coating on your tongue is also coating your entire digestive tract.
• The thickness of the coating is proportional to the amount of toxic buildup in your colon.
• The color of the coating can reveal which doshas are imbalanced in your digestive tract (the first place to see doshic imbalance).

What do the colors tell us?

• White=kapha imbalance
• Brown/ Black/ Blue/ Gray= vata imbalance
• Red/ Yellow/ Green= pitta imbalance

What about all the other markings?

• “Scallops:” These are the marks of your teeth impressed along the edges of the tongue. It’s easiest to see these first thing upon waking. These mean you are not hydrated enough and there is vata in the colon.
• Deep lines in the middle: These grooves also indicate vata in the digestive tract.
• Ulcerations or cold sores/ fever blisters indicate pitta imbalance or excess heat in the digestive tract.

(The above is a good starting place without being trained in tongue diagnosis)