- Steady the mind and the body before you begin to eat.
- Wash hands and feet before the meal.
- Begin your meal with a blessing.
- Do not eat when you are upset.
- Avoid serving ice-cold water with the meal. Sip warm or room
temperature water. Cold water makes the stomach work harder to digest the meal as
heat is required for digestion.
- Serve freshly cooked food whenever possible
- Serve mostly cooked foods with small portions of raw salads of easily
digestible carrots, cucumber, light color greens. Slow Cooked foods
are easier to digest and they retain the nutrients besides tasting heavenly.
- Avoid serving milk with the meal. Milk is a hard food to digest and is
best served by itself after it is warmed to help the milk to be more digestible.
Milk is best served warm at night before bed, as calcium is more easily
absorbed when a person is lying down.
- Chew your food well. Delight in the flavor, texture, aromas and colors
of the food. Celebrate your meal
- Eat silently or have a good conversation.
- Eat a modest portion. Leave about 1/4 of the stomach empty to aid in
digestion.
- Rest a bit after the meal, enjoy good light conversation or relaxing music
after the meal. In the afternoon if one is relaxing by lying down, lie or curl up on
the left side of the body in order to properly digest the meal. Do not rest after an
evening meal but rather go for a short walk.
Ayurvedic books - click here
A book that I
would recommend for learning Ayurveda is Perfect Health :
The Complete Mind/Body Program for Identifying & Soothing the Source of Your Body's
Reaction
by Dr. Deepak Chopra
Perfect Health by
Dr. Deepak Chopra
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