Our digestive system is the cornerstone of all the body’s health and strength - emotional, mental, as well as physical. These are simple Ayurvedic tips to optimize your digestive system.
1. Do not eat if you do not feel hungry. Feeling hungry is your body’s way . . . . . . of letting you know that the digestive system is primed and ready to work. Eating when you are not hungry, out of boredom or habit, stresses the digestive system to start working before it is ready to do so.
2. Your digestive fire is similar to any kind of fire. Kindling and stoking it brings the flame higher. The higher the flame the more efficient the process. Have a glass of wine with your meal. Alcohol is extremely fire proving, it is like pouring gas on the fire. Another way is to cut raw ginger root into thin slices, squeeze some lime juice and dust lightly with sea salt. Eat this 10 to 15 minutes before the meal.
3. Cup your two hands together. That unit of measure correlates to the size of your stomach, and how much you should be ingesting at any meal. Optimally we should be filling the stomach as follows: one third is food, one third is liquid and the other third is space. This gives the stomach room for mixing and churning.
4. Wait two and half hours between meals and snacking. Your digestive tract needs about two and half hours to complete a digestive cycle after eating. Consuming foods faster than that stresses the digestive system to begin another cycle before it is ready.
5. Poor food combining causes toxins to build up in the digestive tract. For example, fruits are mostly water and should not be mixed with diary, grains, meat or vegetables. Fruits like strawberries and melons are “eat it alone or leave it alone” fruits. There are more rules for healthy food combining too numerous to list here.
6. Do not consume cold food or beverages. Your stomach is like a pot on the stove. You want it to be hot so it can cook and properly break down the food. Consuming something cold stresses the digestive system to energetically bring up the heat.
7. The digestive system loves soups and stews. When you mix foods and cook them together on your stovetop, that allows the foods to work out their chi or energy differences. It is better to work out that energy battle on your stovetop than in your body.
No comments:
Post a Comment