What the texts say
Charaka uses this pair to explain samyoga viruddha, food made incompatible by combination. Earlier in the chapter he widens the rule to 'everything sour, liquid or solid'. Sushruta lists sour fruits with milk. Vagbhata says sour things clash with milk and adds 'all fruit likewise'.[1][2][3]
The modern view
We have not found a modern study that tests sour fruit eaten with milk for any harm. The popular idea that milk curdles in the stomach is a modern explanation, not one from the texts.
From the classical texts
Questions people ask
Which fruits count as sour?
Charaka names nineteen fruits, among them mango, ber, jamun, pomegranate and amla, and then adds 'everything sour'.[1]
Related
Milk and amla
Charaka lists amla among the fruits not to take with milk, in a list that ends with everything sour, liquid or solid.
FoodMilk and mango
Charaka and Sushruta both list mango (amra) among foods not to take with milk. Charaka's list of fruits opens with it.
FoodMilk and pomegranate
Charaka names pomegranate (dadima) among the nineteen fruits he calls incompatible with milk.
FoodMilk and banana
Sushruta lists banana with milk as an unwholesome combination, in the same clause as banana with curd or buttermilk.
Sources
- Charaka Samhita, Sutra Sthana 26.84 and 26.99 (Atreyabhadrakapyiya Adhyaya).
- Sushruta Samhita, Sutra Sthana 20.8 (Hitahitiya Adhyaya), NIIMH e-Sushruta edition.
- Ashtanga Hridaya, Sutra Sthana 7.31, GRETIL e-text.
Updated 4 November 2026