Why Eat: Say 'No' to Hunger-less Eating
In your case, what is the key factor that compels you to eat: the alarm of the body or that tempting smell of food?
If you eat just for satisfying the taste, then be cautious! We need nutrition for daily mechanics and body repair. Our body engine depends on the fuel we use for our bio machinery and the way we give it maintenance. The course of digestion, absorption, and excretion helps to perform the physiological functions: heart, brain, and organs of the body.
Sometimes we eat, but only for the sake of eating.
When to Eat: Learn the Difference between Hunger and Craving
How do you recognize your hunger, when you feel your body light as a whole or when you feel your mouth wet as a whole (after seeing a tempting food)?
A person eats to fulfill
True hunger is a genuine physiological need that can be satisfied even with the simplest and plainest food.
- The psychological need is a false alarm that rings because of signals from the tongue or palate and satisfies by frosty, spicy, or salty foodstuff like ice cream, sweets, or peppery fried food. It is merely a craving.
- Social feasts are the medium to bring people together in their good and bad life events like a wedding or funeral. From immemorial, we have been promoting it to spread the feeling of love, share, and care.
When not to Eat: Listen to the Urge of Body
One should not eat in an unsettled state when there is a haste of intake, lack of energy, or uncomfortable burning sensation in the stomach.
Reasons
- When a person eats in a hurry, there are chances of eating anything and everything.
- The feel of less energy depicts hunger satisfaction as after taking a hearty meal, our blood supplies energy to the stomach for digestion process and we feel lethargic.
- The burning sensation and sour-watery mouth instigate the extended stay of food in the stomach.
The holy book ‘Geeta’ also says (Chapter: 17, Verse: 8, 9, 10):
“Katv-amla-lavanaty-usna-tiksna-ruksa-vidahinah
Ahara rajasyeshta dukkha-shokamaya-pradah”Meaning:
The foodstuffs that are bitter, sour (acidic), salty, hot, pungent (spicy), dry, or burning cause gloom, sorrow, and disease, and are pleasurable to those in the mode of passion.
Where to Eat: Select the Right Environment
Select a calm, quiet, and settled location that provides you the proper sitting arrangement and peaceful surroundings. Take the food in minimized music or noise, pleasant aroma, and a well-lit place.
Reason
Such a setting makes you focused on what and how much you are eating. It saves from over-eating.
Where not to Eat
An unhealthy environment and distracted brain affect the digestive system as the mind is connected to every organ and can cause adverse effects on the relative processes.
What to Eat: Go Ahead for Nutritional Food that Promotes Health
Food is a nutritious substance that incorporates adequate vitamins, minerals, and constituents: protein, carbohydrate, fat to boost up health by giving energy.
Just like the burning of fuel, the metabolism of nutrients also leaves ashes. The chemical property of these ashes plays a vital role in health status. The balance between alkaline and acidic ash food is the key to good health, which can avoid degenerative diseases and early aging. The suggested ratio of alkaline and acidic ash food is 3:1.
Illustration of nutritious foods with vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrate, fat!
Alkaline Ash Foods
- Fresh green leafy vegetables
- Ripe and fresh fruits, Dry fruits
- Nuts and groundnuts: Almonds
- Milk and milk products: Pure and raw milk, goat milk, cow’s ghee, buttermilk
- Honey, herbal tea, ginger.
Acidic Ash Foods
- All cereals and pulses
- Vegetables: Onion, tomatoes, potatoes, groundnuts, dried beans, Cholas
- Fruits: Unripe or preserved fruits, raw banana, plums
- Nuts and groundnuts: dry coconut, Fried and roasted nuts and groundnuts
- Milk and milk products: Pasteurized milk, paneer, cheese, cream, ice-cream
- Non-vegetarian food: Animal resourced foods
- Sauces, jams, vinegar, coffee, tobacco, alcohol, sugar, oil, oral carbonated liquids or drinks.
Right Choice of Food is the Key to Good Health: Chapatti and Vegetable Vs Fast Food
Give preference to chapatti made of whole wheat flour and green leafy vegetables over fast food.
Reason
This food bid farewell to the stomach in 3-4 hours, enters the colon in 8-9 hours, and the waste product eliminates in 16-20 hours.
What not to Eat: Maintain Distance with a Faulty Diet
Avoid disproportionate carbohydrates, fat, and protein. Stay away from the excess of protein, starch, or fat. Make sure of no deficiency of Vitamins, iron, and iodine. Be cautious while taking Niacin and tryptophan. Supply adequate water to your body.
Reduce the Consumption of Constipating Food
Are you a fan of non-vegetarian food and can’t stay away from eggs while breakfast and meat while mealtime? If yes, then you need to know that they are constipating food. This list also includes polished eatables like rice, hydrogenated oil, refined foods, milk, and milk products.
Reason
Constipating food delays the digestion process and causes strain, followed by a prolonged bowl yielding process. It may delay the elimination of waste products for up to 48 hours.
How to Eat
Thorough Chew is Beneficial
The chewing process facilitates the secretion of sufficient salivary enzymes that promotes the digestion of food. The enzymes present in the saliva break down the starches and digest the fat. The longer the food stays with saliva, the more it gets lubricated, giving less stress to the esophagus.
Chewing 32 Times: The Key to Weight Loss
Some research results say to chew 32 times before you swallow, while the suggested speed is 100 times per minute. It also says to reduce the calorie intake by 32 percent, which leads to weight loss.
The Fact behind the Story
In the process of thorough chewing, one eats slowly and gets satisfied before consuming what the body needs. Thus, even less eating surprisingly fills one up, leading to less weight than usual.
How Much to Eat
Be Cautious while Consuming Eatables: Don’t Overeat
Over or unconscious eating habits give a load to the intestine and cause indigestion or delay in the process of digestion, which also leads to the formation of more toxic waste.
How Many Times to Eat
We remain in a hurry to earn to eat! We eat in a hurry to earn to eat!
This fact is pretty irrelevant and too relevant at the same!
If one takes eatables in a balanced and controlled way, the dietary intake can be divided into four parts.
- Breakfast in the morning: 7 to 8 a.m.
- Lunch in the afternoon: 11a.m. to 12 p.m.
- Refreshment in the evening: 4-5 p.m.
- Dinner in the early night: 8-9 p.m.
Myth
Eating frequent small meals boost metabolism, burning more calories.
The Fact
The intake of food hardly affects metabolism. The BMR (basal metabolic rate) depends on the size and composition of the body. It is the rate at which a body burns the calories and is more in people having a bigger body and muscles.
Inculcate them to enjoy every morsel of food pleasurably!
Stay healthy and keep smiling!
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