Ayurvedic Rules for How to Eat, Not Just What to Eat

Eat at a moderate speed. Don’t gobble your food. Fill one-third of your stomach with food, one-third with water, and leave one-third empty. Don’t eat more at a meal than the amount of food you can hold in two cupped hands.

Overeating expands the stomach so that you will feel the need for additional food. Overeating also creates toxins in the digestive tract. During meals, don’t drink iced drinks or fruit juice, sip a little warm water between mouthfuls of food. Honey should never be cooked.

If it is cooked, the molecules become like a glue that adheres to mucous membranes and clogs the subtle channels, producing toxins. UNHEALTHY EATING HABITS Overeating Eating too soon after a full meal Drinking too much water, or no water, during a meal Drinking very chilled water during a meal, or indeed at any time Eating when constipated Eating at the wrong time of day, either too early or too late (see “Ayurvedic Daily Routine,” starting this page) Eating too much heavy food or too little light food Eating fruit or drinking fruit juice with a meal Eating without real hunger Emotional eating Eating incompatible food combinations (see chart on this page) Munching between meals Incompatible Food Combinations The shelves of pharmacies and health food stores these days are lined with digestive aids and pills for indigestion and gas. It is likely that most of these gastrointestinal problems begin with poor food combining. According to Ayurveda, certain food combinations disturb the normal functioning of the gastric fire and upset the balance of the doshas.

Combining foods improperly can produce indigestion, fermentation, putrefaction, and gas formation. If such a situation in your stomach and intestines is frequent or prolonged, it can lead to disease. As just one example, eating bananas with milk can diminish agni (gastric fire) and change the intestinal flora, resulting in toxins and causing sinus congestion, cold, cough, allergies, hives, and rash. Such disturbances generate ama, the toxic substance that is the root cause of most ailments.

The following table lists some (but far from all) of the incompatible food combinations worth avoiding. You can alleviate some of the ill effects of these combinations by using spices and herbs in your cooking. A strong digestive fire can be the most powerful means of dealing with these combinations. Chew a bit of fresh ginger (sprinkled with salt and lime juice if you like) before meals to stimulate digestion.