“Let food serve as your first medication and your kitchen serve as your first pharmacy”
Ayurveda is all about achieving equilibrium in body, mind, and spirit. There are very specific rules that have been mentioned around eating in Ayurveda.
Health begins with digestion. When our digestion is good, we can keep ourselves healthy.
Even though Ayurveda is a science that majorly focuses on "tailor-made" - personalized treatment and diet plans for each individual, there are few credos that can be put forth broadly for everyone.
The following 10 guidelines will serve as a manual for utilizing the age-old knowledge of Ayurveda to produce health, vitality, and energy through eating.
1. Make Your Lunch the Largest Meal
Our body’s digestive fire or the Agni is in coordination with the sun, and so when the sun is at its peak that’s when our digestive fire is also at its maximum potential.
So having a wholesome, nutritious meal at noon helps the Agni to break down and assimilate the nutrients easily with less energy output than the other times of the day.
Ideally, the best time to have lunch begins from 11 am - 1 pm.
This is also the ideal time to indulge onto foods that are more complex and take time to digest.
You can have a cheat meal during this time to regress its ill effects!
2. Light After Twilight
Ideally, no food should be consumed after sunset as the food consumed after sunset takes a lot more time and energy to digest eventually resulting in the production of metabolic toxins “Ama’. Ama is majorly responsible to aggravate pathogeneses of all ailments.
In today’s times, it is not practically possible to follow this and thus a practical midway is to try and consume light, warm, and fresh food a maximum of 1-2 hours past sunset.
3. More Cooked, Less Raw
With rising demand and decreased agricultural productivity in the modern era, the use of pesticides and synthetic toxins on food has dramatically grown.
So, it is advised to eat more freshly cooked food. Cooking food helps to reduce the toxins in them.
Another reason why raw foods should be consumed in less quantity is that it is more complex to digest and puts a load on the Agni if consumed in larger quantities.
4. Avoid–‘Tummy Full’
Considering your stomach is divided into 4 parts, it is always advised to eat until the 2 parts are filled with food, 1 part with liquids, and the remaining 1 part be left empty for digestion.
If food is consumed exceeding this amount it puts a load on our Agni leading to the production of metabolic toxins or Ama, responsible for causing various ailments.
So along with eating the right food it is also necessary to eat the right quantity.
5. Listen to Your Digestion
Regardless of whether we are actually hungry or not, or if the previous meal was digested or not, we often eat at set times.
This is not the proper way to eat, and if you keep doing it for a long time, it could cause difficulties and hamper your health.
Therefore, it is always advisable to pay attention to your body and only eat when you are truly hungry, which is a sign that the previous food has been properly digested.
6. Eat Your Fruits Correct
Fruits are a great source of fibre as well as important vitamins and minerals; they also include a variety of antioxidants, including flavonoids, which are good for your health.
But they are beneficial only if consumed properly.
Fruits should always be consumed alone, i.e.,
One fruit at a time and,
Without any other food
Also, fruits should be consumed 30 mins before a meal or 1 hour after meals.
When consumed in this way, nutrients are properly digested and assimilated by the body.
7. Sipping Way of Water
It is not advised to drink a lot of water before, after, or in between meals.
But we can always have small sips of preferably warm water in between meals.
Always avoid cold beverages and cold aerated drinks in between meals.
8. Eating Mindfully
Food is something that will sustain you and keep you in good health. According to Ayurveda, eating is a moment for connection, gratitude, and intense awareness of the meal with all of our senses.
Ayurveda advises against using any form of distractions when eating, including watching television, taking calls, responding to texts and emails, or even just conversing and laughing.
Simply adhering to these simple guidelines will produce fantastic outcomes in terms of good health.
9. Pots for Cooking
Ayurveda advises to use clay pots and cast-iron utensils to cook food, as it neutralizes the body's pH, reducing the risk of many diseases.
Also, by using cast iron utensils it helps to give an additional dose of iron naturally.
10. Post-meal Ritual
After any meal, it is advised to stay calm, take a few deep breaths, and sit in Vajrasana posture for a few minutes to let our body rest and activate the digestion process properly.
Edited by – Dr. Neelesh Patil