Finding a Food by Its Local Name or Ayurvedic Filter in Ayurveda & Asana Yoga

Searching by Regional Alias and Filtering by Dosha, Rasa, Virya, and Gunas

In the app's catalog, each of the 704 dravya records stores a primary name alongside an array of regional and culinary aliases (for example, "Aam panna" is indexed with "raw mango cooler" and "kairi panna"). Meanwhile, the smart food search engine (`SmartFoodSearchEngine` and `CanonicalFacetParser`) supports both text queries and structured Ayurvedic filter chips (`AyurvedaSearchFilters`).

In the filter bar, you can cycle each dosha (Vata, Pitta, Kapha) through three states—`Pacifies`, `Neutral`, or `Aggravates`—and filter by taste (`rasa`), heating/cooling potency (`virya`), qualities (`gunas`), or the `easyOnDigestion` toggle, as well as numeric nutrient constraints.

• Regional & Botanical Aliases: Search by kitchen names (mung, masoor, toor, chana, urad, jeera, dhania, hing) or English names (mung beans, red lentils, pigeon peas, black gram, cumin, coriander, asafoetida).
• Ayurveda Filter Chips: Filter results by Vata/Pitta/Kapha preference (`Pacifies`, `Neutral`, `Aggravates`), taste (`rasa`), potency (`virya`), qualities (`gunas`), or `easyOnDigestion`.
• Allergen Filtering (`Allergen` enum): The food model tracks 14+ allergen groups including gluten-containing cereals (with barley, oats, rye sub-items), milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts (by specific nut: almonds, cashews, walnuts, pecans, pistachios, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, macadamia, pine nuts, chestnuts, coconut), sesame seeds, soybeans, mustard, celery, lupin/molluscs/crustaceans/fish, and sulphites.

Verifying Raw vs Cooked and Whole vs Split Forms Before Logging

Once a search returns matching foods, check the preparation state in the title before logging a portion. In Indian cooking, the same legume appears as whole dried with skin (sabut), split with skin (chilka), or split and husked (dhuli)—and either dry/raw or boiled/cooked.

Because 100 grams of dry raw lentils (~340–350 kcal) absorbs water during simmering to become roughly 250 to 300 grams of cooked lentils (~115 kcal per 100 g), matching dry weight to a raw entry or ladled weight to a cooked entry is critical.

• Dry/Raw Entry: Select when weighing dry rice, dry dal, dry flour (atta/besan), or whole spices before cooking.
• Cooked/Boiled Entry: Select when weighing or ladling cooked rice, boiled lentils, or steamed vegetables onto your plate.
• Single Dravya vs Prepared Recipe: Check whether the row is a single ingredient or one of the 1,511 multi-ingredient recipes.

Using Barcode Search or Custom Food Entries When Needed

For packaged groceries, the app also includes a camera barcode scanner (`BarcodeFoodMatcher` and `BarcodeFoodMatchScorer`) that matches product barcodes against catalog records, as well as a custom food editor (`FoodItemEditorView`) for entering a package's Nutrition Facts panel directly.

Always verify the gram weight of the serving you select so your daily log reflects the portion on your plate.

1. Type either the regional culinary name (such as "toor dal" or "jeera") or the English name ("pigeon peas" or "cumin") in Foods or Search.
2. Optionally tap the Ayurvedic filter chips to narrow candidates by Vata/Pitta/Kapha (`Pacifies`), `rasa`, `virya`, or `easyOnDigestion`.
3. Confirm whether the entry is raw/dry or cooked and check the serving weight in grams before adding it to your meal.

Sources & Classical References

1. USDA FoodData Central — Documentation — Documentation on how USDA FoodData Central classifies raw, cooked, and regional food items.
2. University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension — Cooking Dried Beans, Peas & Lentils (FNH-00360) — Extension reference on pulse varieties and dry-to-cooked yield expansion.