Food – How Should Our Food Be?
- Persons suffering from intoxication, burning sensation, food poisoning, altered conscious, debility should consume cooling foods.
- Persons suffering from vitiation of Vata, Kapha dosha, after undergoing purgation therapy, after intake of ghee should resort to warm food.
- Persons of Vata constitution, dry emaciated body, regularly exercising should consume unctuous food.Obese individuals, diabetics, kapha constitution individuals should take dry food stuffs.
- Person suffering from dryness thirst should take more of liquid foods.
- Persons having weak digestive fire should consume food only once a day (This gradually stimulates the appetite) while those having normal digestion can take two or three square meals.
- Consume food that is wholesome to the season prevailing individual body constitution.
Demerits of improper quantity
If the food consumed is less than the required quantity, it reduces the bodily strength, complexion, causes dissatisfaction, upward movement of Vata dosha, reduces the life span, impairs the normal functioning of body mind and the body falls prey to various diseases. The food consumed in excess quantity causes vitiation of all three doshas viz., vata, pitta kapha in the body, causes heaviness in the body, constipation, aches pains, diarrhea, giddiness, vomiting, distaste and lethargy.
Signs of proper healthy eating
In one has adhered to the rules of eating then one should not feel too heavy after eating. One should not notice heaviness in chest, tightness & pricking pain in the flanks and distension of abdomen. On the other hand one’s hunger & thirst should subside, sense organs should function properly. One’s activities such as walking, sitting, breathing & laughing should not cause any difficulty to him.
Proper method of eating
The food we eat should comprise of all six tastes viz., sweet, sour, salt, bitter, pungent & astringent. Sweet should be eaten first followed by sour & salt and later the remaining tastes. Hard and heavy to digest foods should be taken first followed by semi solid and liquids in the end. Food articles which are impure, left over, contaminated by dust & stones, foul smelling, not pleasing to mind, tasteless, spoils, preserved & tanned food, frozen and reheated should be avoided.
Forbidden people & places
The company of people we have while eating also matters to make our eating more beneficial. One must avoid eating food in open area and on roads. Do not eat with people who are always sad, cruel, engaged in anti social activities, wicked and drug addicts,
Things to be avoided after food
Sleeping, sitting for long, drinking lots of fluid roaming in sun, jumping, traveling, exercising, sexual intercourse, reading and taking bath should not be done immediately after food. A person who eats like an animal without following any rules ends up in various diseases. Healthy or unhealthy, good or bad everything depends on what we eat. These simple rules when followed support life just like a pillar supports the building. Eat better, Stay Healthy.