Healthy and Unhealthy Eating Habits in Ayurveda

Healthy and Unhealthy Eating Habits

How you eat is as important as what you eat. Here are some suggestions for healthy eating,
followed by a list of habits to avoid.

EATING HABITS TO CULTIVATE

• Choose foods according to your constitution. They will nourish you and not aggravate your doshas.

• Choose foods according to the season.

• Eat fresh, sattvic food of the best quality you can afford.

• Do not eat unless you feel hungry.

• Do not drink unless you feel thirsty. If you are hungry and you drink instead of eating,

• the liquid will dissolve the digestive enzymes and reduce your gastric fire.

• Sit, don’t stand, to eat.

• When eating, eat. That is, don’t read, watch TV, or be distracted by too much conversation. 

• Focus on the food.

• Chew well, at least 32 times per mouthful. This enables the digestive enzymes in the

• mouth to do their work properly.

• Eat at a moderate speed. Don’t gobble your food.

• Fill one-third of your stomach with food, one-third with water, and leave one-third empty.

• Don’t eat more at a meal than the amount of food you can hold in two cupped hands.

• Overeating expands the stomach so that you will feel the need for additional food.

• Overeating also creates toxins in the digestive tract.

• During meals, don’t drink iced drinks or fruit juice, sip a little warm water between mouthfuls of food.

• Honey should never be cooked. If it is cooked, the molecules become like a glue that adheres to mucous membranes and clogs the subtle channels, producing toxins.

UNHEALTHY EATING HABITS

• Overeating

• Eating too soon after a full meal

• Drinking too much water, or no water, during a meal

• Drinking very chilled water during a meal, or indeed at any time

• Eating when constipated

• Eating at the wrong time of day, either too early or too late.

• Eating too much heavy food or too little light food

• Eating fruit or drinking fruit juice with a meal

• Eating without real hunger

• Emotional eating

• Eating incompatible food combinations (see chart below 

  NAME OF FOOD INCOMPATIBLE WITH on this page)

• Munching between meals

Incompatible Food Combinations

The shelves of pharmacies and health food stores these days are lined with digestive aids
and pills for indigestion and gas. It is likely that most of these gastrointestinal problems
begin with poor food combining.
According to Ayurveda, certain food combinations disturb the normal functioning of the
gastric fire and upset the balance of the doshas. Combining foods improperly can produce
indigestion, fermentation, putrefaction, and gas formation. If such a situation in your
stomach and intestines is frequent or prolonged, it can lead to disease. As just one example,
eating bananas with milk can diminish Agni (gastric fire) and change the intestinal flora,
resulting in toxins and causing sinus congestion, cold, cough, allergies, hives, and rash. Such
disturbances generate ama, the toxic substance that is the root cause of most ailments.
The following table lists some (but far from all) of the incompatible food combinations
worth avoiding. You can alleviate some of the ill effects of these combinations by using
spices and herbs in your cooking. A strong digestive fire can be the most powerful means of
dealing with these combinations. Chew a bit of fresh ginger (sprinkled with salt and lime
juice if you like) before meals to stimulate digestion.

NAME OF FOOD INCOMPATIBLE WITH

DON'T EAT	WITH
Beans	fruit; cheese, eggs, fish, milk, meat, yoghurt
Eggs	fruit, especially melons; beans, cheese, fish, kitchari, MILK, meat, yoghurt
Fruit	As a rule, with any other food. (There are exceptions, such as certain cooked combinations, as well as dates and milk, which have the same rasa, virya and vipaka.)
Grains	fruit; tapioca
Honey**	With equal GHEE by weight (e.g. 1 tsp. honey with 3 tsp. ghee); boiled or cooked honey.
Hot Drinks	mangos; cheese, fish, meat, starch, yoghurt
Lemon	cucumbers, milk, tomatoes, yoghurt
Melons	EVERYTHING – especially dairy, eggs, fried food, grains, starches. Melons more than most fruit should be eaten alone or left alone.
Milk	BANANAS, cherries, melons, sour fruits; bread containing yeast, fish, kitchari, meat, yoghurt
Nightshades, e.g., potato, tomato	melon; cucumber, dairy products
Radishes	bananas, raisins; milk
Tapioca	fruit, especially banana and mango; beans, raisins, jaggery
Yoghurt	fruit; cheese, eggs, fish, hot drinks, meat, MILK, nightshades

Particularly to be avoided are such concoctions as banana milkshakes and “fruit smoothies”
made with milk. Mixed fruit salads are also incompatible. Some blended fruit drinks made
with all fruit may be all right but check this chart first.

Recommendations Regarding Milk and Milk Products

In Ayurveda, milk and dairy products such as ghee and freshly made yoghurt are considered highly important to the diet.

However, the process of pasteurization, which kills bacteria and other potentially harmful microorganisms, may also destroy the enzymes necessary for proper digestion.

If the milk is heated for a fairly long period of time, such as fifteen or twenty minutes, the enzymes will definitely be destroyed, and calcium and other nutrients may not be absorbed.

When milk is heated just until it reaches the boiling point, its enzymes are not
destroyed, and it becomes less kaphagenic.

So if you can obtain organic, unpasteurized milk from certified dairies and heat it just to the boiling point, that would be best.

Nevertheless, pasteurized milk from the supermarket, and dairy products made from
that milk is still better than no dairy products at all.