The Right Time to Eat, as per Ayurveda!

In our previous post, we discussed why Ayurveda stresses on eating right. Now let’s tell you more in detail about the timing of the meal or when to eat as per Ayurveda, which leads to optimum health.

We all have these certain times of the day when we eat - sometimes we might move that up and down because of our schedule - like have food at noon one day because there’s an afternoon meeting, or eat lunch at 4 another day because the morning meeting went on for too long. Most of us eat three meals a day - breakfast, lunch and dinner.

While breakfast might be anytime between 5 am and noon for us - depending on our individual schedules, lunch is usually between noon and 4 pm for most of us, while dinner could be anytime between 6 pm and midnight, or even later. A lot of us might skip one of these meals once in a while, or some others might even skip one particular meal everyday - like those who wake up late might skip breakfast, or those who might be looking to lose weight might skip dinner.

So as per Ayurveda, what is the correct time for food to be eaten? Well, the answer is pretty simple. Eat when you are hungry.

Yes, that would mean that the previous meal has been digested properly and completely, and the body is signaling to you by making you feel hungry. But while it will take some time to figure out and understand the signals from our bodies, we should also make sure that we do not end up giving a huge gap between meals. As soon as the body craves for it, we should feed it.

· Advertisements on television or a lot of people might have recommended breakfast to be the heaviest and most important meal of the day, right? Wrong.

· As per Ayurveda, lunch is the most important meal of that day, which should ideally be eaten between noon and 2 pm, which is when the Sun is at its peak and so is the Pitta in our bodies, which takes care of the digestion.

· Our body expects us to respect it by following its rhythm for whatever we do - which means not only sticking to ‘a’ particular time, but sticking to the ‘right’ time meant for eating, sleeping, excreting - whatever is supposed to come naturally to us!

· If we eat a particular meal at a particular time every day, then our body gets used to it. It all becomes a part of the body’s cyclic rhythm, which means that the associated processes will also happen accordingly at the same time every day. The body will crave for food and feel hungry at the same time every day, and we might feel like emptying our bowels at the same time every single day. That’s how our bodies are meant to be. But when our food timings are all over the place, we end up confusing our bodies - which means that the other processes associated with eating also get messed up and confused, leading to problems like indigestion and constipation.

Ayurveda suggests that eating the right kind of food at a regular time every day can go a long way in keeping diseases, especially metabolic disorders at bay, for as long as possible. It will also help in avoiding weight-gain, as food, when eaten in the right quantity and at the right time, will be converted into energy and not fat.

So, sticking to these basic guidelines on the right time to eat and maintaining a rhythm of some sort has a lot of benefits for the body! But what should we eat? What are the foods to eat and the foods to avoid? Find out in our next post.