Knowing your Food

Knowing your Food: A Step towards Healthy Life

Ayurveda recommends that a healthy person wakes up about two hours before dawn. This ambrosial hour is considered auspicious as there is peace, purity, freshness and happiness all around in the environment. Diet is crucial to maintain health. Food should be taken in adequate amounts at appropriate times and should be favorable to your body constitution. The quantity of Food taken should depend on your digestive strength and ability, and also on your metabolic activity.

Food should be nutritious, simple, complete and balanced, suitable for the body. One must eat only after the digestion of the previous meal. If one pays attention to these points, food builds and support the body, improves the complexion and general appearance, and increase the life-span. In Ayurveda food intake is prohibited while doing any distracting activity because at the time of eating the mind should be calm, peaceful and stable for the proper digestion of food.  Only then maximum benefit from the food can be derived.

To obtain maximum nutrition, food should be taken in appropriate quantity. A good practice in this context is to leave one-third to one-quarter of the stomach empty after eating to aid digestion. It is only through practice and experience that we learn what kind of diet suits us best. A compatible diet and favorable foods provide maximum nutritional benefits, whereas incompatible and unfavorable foods can harm the body.

Suitability of food depends on different factors like body, region, season and ailments. Food taken while keeping all these facts in mind preserves health and prevents ailments. Remember eating should be taken as a serious and personalized activity. Do not disrupt the diet routine in spite of being busy and this personal eating activity should be performed with sincerity and concentration.

It is correctly said that “a person taking a compatible diet does not require any medication and with incompatible diet, even medication is of no use”. In the absence of medication, disease can be treated by taking the right kind of diet, but if the right diet is not maintained, all medicines turn ineffective.

 

A Healthy person, free from all ailments can work harder, follow the daily routine in a proper manner and perform his daily work more efficiently. He can derive pleasure and joy from any means of luxury, earn his living by any enterprise or business, serve the family, society and the nation in better way, as well as mediate and worship God for his own welfare. This specifies that having healthy body is the first step of healthy mind.