The What, When & How of Healthy Eating

According to Ayurveda, eating sattvic food and having a sattvic lifestyle are the best preventive medicines. And following the sattvic way of eating habits helps maintain good mental, physical and spiritual health.

Following are the pointers taken from Charaka’s guidelines of healthy eating. Ayurveda recommends incorporating them into your lifestyle to enjoy health and wellbeing throughout life.

What to Eat

• Sattvic food that is fresh, organic, and vegetarian should be eaten.

• Heavy food items should be minimised.

• Food should complement, not contradict, eat other.

• Dried or pickled fruits and vegetables shouldn’t be consumed on regular basis.

• The daily diet should be rasa rich to provide nutrition to all the dhatus.

When to Eat?

• Eat at the intervals of at least four to five hours to allow complete digestion.

• Snacks should be avoided, but fruits can be had in between the meals without overburdening the digestive process.

• Sufficient time should be given to chewing. This ensures thorough mixing of saliva with food to ignite jatharagni (digestive fire).

• Heavy in nature, kapha food should be chewed properly for easy digestion.

How to Eat

• Kapha food that are heavy, oily, fried should be eaten first in a small quality.

• Food that are rich in madhura rasa like grains, legumes, and breads should fill one-third of the stomach.

• Pitta food that are salty, sour, and acidic should be eaten next and should fill another one-third of your stomach.

• The final one-third should be reserved for vata, the air itself.

• The meal should end with a sweet dish to satisfy the senses.

Healthy eating habits encourage thorough digestion, maximum absorption of nutrients, and energy building. To know more about healthy Ayurvedic lifestyle, talk to a Jiva doctor today, dial 0129-4040404 or click on ‘Speak to a Doctor’.