The title should not be construed to mean the method to eating, rather it should convey the idea as to how best one can eat. Eating is a natural course of dietary intake which, invariably, includes all edible solids, drinks and liquids, and solid foods etc. In our country it is a way to proper hygienic method. Let us not lose sight of the fact that our ascetics and religious guides had advised certain rules (even if by implication) in this regard. Those rules still hold good. Western world modified our dietary rules in a different way. Following suggestive points may be kept in mind so that necessary benefits are derived to fullest advantage:
- Eat only when you are tension free. While taking meals, always feel easy and relaxed. No food be ever taken under stress and strain. While eating, fully concentrate on your meals, relish the meals and never gulp down food into stomach. Masticate and chew each morsel many a time before ingesting it. Eat very slowly and let the saliva mix up with each morsel.
- Do no suppress natural excretions of the body. Cultivate the habit of passing urine and stools in time, at least before taking meals. All the undesirable toxins must be expelled from the body, in order to render the body light and also to create proper vacuum in the body to store edibles.
- Make sure that you wash your hands properly, rinse mouth, wash face and feet. Splash water onto your eyes. In winter, lukewarm water may be used, but eyes should never be washed with hot water.
- Keep your nails well cut so that they do not prove as vehicles to carry infection into your body. Nails, if uncut, are doorways to let in infection. Children should be guided properly about hygienic value of clean and clipped nails. Most of the infections, find their way into human body by means of unclean hands and nails. Before going in and coming out after work, make sure that hands are washed with soap.
- Make sure that your seat is quite comfortable and airy, there is no congestion and lack of fresh air, and the persons, if sitting with or around you, are cheerful, receptive. (Do not talk or discuss any problem while eating.) Your meals should never be disturbed by anyone. Never leave your meals mid-way or attend to telephone calls or watch T.V. or listen to the Radio/Audios. Devote complete and unhindered attention exclusively to your meals. Any deviation will divert your attention, causing digestive problems. If you are mentally upset, you will neither enjoy nor relish your food and your mind will, thus, be preoccupied and disturbed with undue cares, worries and problems.
- Raw fruits and vegetables should not be mixed with your normal meals because they require different types of enzymes and natural juices to be digested. If that can’t be avoided, then, it is advised that part of each edible variety is taken with first four or five morsels so that the body is readied for releasing requisite quantity of juices and digestive enzymes to digest the various food items.
- It is better not to take any water, at least an hour before taking meals or for two hours or so, after taking meals. Taking water before during and after meals is said to disturb emergence of digestive juices and enzymes, thus delaying and inhibiting the digestive process. Those, who take too much of water, turn out to be obese and bulky. Mixture of saliva, juices and enzymes is a natural process in helping the digestion of food. If water is taken with the meals, then saliva is not formed properly in the mouth. This situation should be avoided, if not totally ruled out, at all costs.
- After taking meals never go to sleep. Have some rest (not sleep) after lunch and sustainable walk after dinner, as has been well said that ‘After lunch rest a while, and after dinner walk a mile.’
- After finishing meals, it is always better to urinate. A friend had once advocated and opined that, if one cultivates the habit of voiding urinary bladder after meals, he has far less chances of having kidney stones and diabetes. Another pointed out that if one visits the closet for urinating, (when the last morsel is still in his mouth) he will have no diabetes and urinary stones.
- ‘Vajrasana’ is the only asana which can be performed after taking meals. If Vajrasana is performed, after 30-45 minutes of taking meals, it will expel flatus, help in digesting the food. It is also beneficial in relieving pains in joints, especially knees, feet and ankles. Persons with damaged cartilages and reduced spaces between the joints should perform Vajrasana only after their cases have been cleared by their doctors, otherwise not.
- In order to keep digestive system fortified and in good condition, you should lie on your left side and thus you will have your food quickly digested, wind will also get expelled and, above all, you will feel light and cheerful.
- After finishing meals, always wash your hands with soap. Rinse your mouth properly before and after taking meals.
- It matters not how much one eats, the cardinal point is that whether the ingested food was taken, keeping in view general rules of nutrition, health and hygiene.
- Never take cold drinks after hot foods or vice versa.
- Any food item taken should be fresh, tasty, nourishing, palatable and well-balanced.
