What the texts say
The line comes from the Ashtanga Hridaya's list of incompatible foods (viruddha ahara), where banana is paired with buttermilk, curd and palmyra fruit. Sushruta has the same pairing in Sutra 20.13, listing banana with palmyra fruit, milk, curd or buttermilk. The rule is about banana. It is not a ban on all fruit with curd: Charaka even names one fruit, amla, as something to eat curd with.[1][2][3]
The modern view
The only related study we found was a lab experiment, not a study in people. Researchers added green banana pulp at 3%, 6% or 9% to a fermented milk carrying a probiotic bacterium, then exposed it to acid and to bile salts. At 3% the banana helped the bacteria survive; at 9% fewer survived. A lab test of probiotic survival cannot tell us whether ripe banana with ordinary dahi does any harm.[4]
From the classical texts
Questions people ask
Related
Milk and banana
Sushruta lists banana with milk as an unwholesome combination, in the same clause as banana with curd or buttermilk.
FoodCurd and amla
Charaka names amla as one of the things to eat curd with, alongside ghee, sugar, green gram soup and honey.
FoodMilk and curd together
Sushruta says not to eat curd with milk, and puts it in a list of foods that become like poison when combined.
FoodFruit after meals
Sushruta puts fruit such as pomegranate at the start of a meal, and praises amla at the start, middle or end.
Sources
- Ashtanga Hridaya, Sutra Sthana 7.35, GRETIL e-text.
- Sushruta Samhita, Sutra Sthana 20.13, NIIMH e-text.
- Charaka Samhita, Sutra Sthana 7.61 (Naveganadharaniya Adhyaya).
- de Oliveira Vogado C, Dos Santos Leandro E, de Alencar ER, Ginani VC, Zandonadi RP. Survival of Lactobacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei LBC 81 in fermented milk enriched with green banana pulp under acid stress and in the presence of bile salts. Probiotics and Antimicrobial Proteins. 2020;12:320-324. PMID 30850942.
Updated 4 November 2026