How (Not What) To Eat According To Ayurveda
What I'm about to say might shock you, but the truth is…healthy eating isn't all about food.
Whether you've figured out the perfect diet for your unique body or not, you can still gain the benefits of healthy eating by stepping away from the paradigm of what and starting to focus on the how.
In Ayurveda, the state of mind that you eat your food in and the manner in which you eat is just as important (if not more so) than what's on your plate.
That's right, I've just given you permission to put the "perfect diet" on the back burner. Which begs the question; what should you focus on if not food?
Easy –start paying attention to how you're consuming your meals.
Are you sitting? Standing? Rushing? Are you tasting your food? Watching TV while you eat?
When you give yourself the space to enjoy food, the inherent nutritional quality of your meal is enhanced as your digestion becomes stronger. Bringing awareness and attention to mealtime can make a world of difference not only in how you feel, but also how much satisfaction you get out of your meals.
So, let's talk about some of my favorite tried-and-true techniques for enhancing the how of eating.
How To Eat, According To Ayurveda
The research is clear: stress can mess with your digestion and create chronic issues like IBS, indigestion, and acid reflux. And even if you aren't experiencing obvious digestive symptoms of stress, you can be sure that if you eat in a stressed-out state, your food won't be adequately absorbed[1][2].
Here's the good news: research also shows that using practices like mindfulness, parasympathetic breathing, and relaxation can move you into a state that's optimal for digestion – no drugs or supplements required[3].
Below are a handful of simple and effective Ayurvedic techniques for slowing down and enjoying your meals.
Relax
This may be the most critical thing I convey, so I'll say it in bold letters: you must relax while eating.
Ensuring your mind and body are relaxed is the most important thing you can do before beginning any meal. And I already know what you're thinking; "that sounds great, but when my meals are on the go, I don't really have time to relax."
I hear you, and I have a solution.
Paying attention to your breath can provide a lot of insight into what's happening inside your body. Feelings of stress often accompany fast-paced, shallow breathing, while relaxation brings with it deep, long breaths.
Why is that?
Your autonomic nervous system, the one involved in your stress response, has two modes: sympathetic and parasympathetic. When you're stressed, it ignites your sympathetic nervous system, which sends blood away from your internal organs and stimulates shorter, more shallow breathing. When the parasympathetic mode is activated, on the other hand, your breathing slows down, and your blood is sent back to your internal organs – priming you for activities like rest and digestion.
Sympathetic activation is beautifully orchestrated to help you defend yourself against stress and external threats and can be very useful when you have to fight or flee a situation. However, you may also find that your sympathetic nervous system gets activated due to internal "threats." Like, say, a list of to-do's, a stressful meeting, or an argument with a loved one. Even something as benign as sitting in traffic can trigger this sympathetic stress response.
Clearly, if you want to optimize your digestive capacity, you'll want to be in parasympathetic mode when you eat. And again, I know this sounds like an "easier said than done" scenario – but I have a simple trick for you: parasympathetic breathing.
Parasympathetic breathing bridges your nervous system and your digestive response to slow things down and get you primed for mealtime.
Toward the end of this post, I share one of my favorite parasympathetic breathing exercises that you can seamlessly begin to incorporate before your meals. It's super simple, I promise.
Sit Down
I know it can be hard to sit down and get present with every meal, but there are some significant benefits to carving out the time to have a formal sit-down instead of eating standing up or on the go.
First, when you're sitting, it's much easier to become aware of the fullness in your stomach. If you're standing, it will take longer for you to register that your stomach is full, but when you sit, due to the positioning of your stomach, it's much easier to stay tapped into the emerging fullness that happens as you eat.
Second, sitting helps you relax. As you just learned, the most important thing you can do while eating is to also ensure you're relaxing – so take a load off and relax for a few while you enjoy your food.
Slow Down
In addition to sitting down, you'll also want to learn how to slow down. Nine out of ten people I ask admit that they eat their meals way too fast (and I am certainly guilty of this, too). Training yourself to slow down with food is a practice, but it will become much more second nature over time.
It typically takes around 15 minutes for your brain to get the message that your stomach is full. That's why you can get through three slices of pizza in no time, but all of a sudden, once you round the corner on that fourth slice, you start to feel like you're going to burst.
When you slow down with food, it allows you to stay in touch with what your body is asking of you in the moment. This allows you to nourish yourself in a way that feels truly satisfying. Many people find that they require far less food to satisfy their needs when they slow down.
Mindful Awareness
One of the many benefits of slowing down with food is that it allows you to bring more mindful awareness to your meal. Mindful eating encourages you to tap into all of your senses so that your meal becomes the center of your attention as you fully experience each bite.
What does it mean to eat mindfully? It's all about attention.
When you eat, are you paying attention to your food? Enjoying each bite? Savoring your meal? If not, you're missing out on the magic of mindful eating.
While there are many ways to go about it, I recommend that people begin a mindful eating practice by taking in their food with all of their senses – smell, touch, sound, sight, and finally, taste.
Once you begin to mindfully taste your food, dig in here a bit. What flavors are you picking up? What's the texture of your food? Does the taste change from bite to bite?
Finally, a wonderful way to stay close to your mindful eating practice is to pause mid-way through your meal to re-examine your satisfaction/hunger. Does the food taste as good as when you took your first bite? Are you beginning to tire of the flavor? How are things shifting as you move through this particular meal?
Eat When You’re Hungry, Stop When You’re Not
The cardinal rule for “fullness” according to Ayurveda is to stop eating when your stomach is about 75% full. This one can take a bit of practice because most people are used to eating until they’re 100% full — or more. It’s especially challenging to hit that 75% mark when you’re enjoying one of your favorite dishes, or if you’re eating too fast.
While eating to 75% full is not an exact science, the one thing that will absolutely help you with this practice is slowing down and being mindful with your food. It make take some extra attention and willpower at first, but once you get into the habit, 75% full will begin to feel like the new normal, and your gut will be very thankful.
Ayurveda also recommends giving yourself ample time between meals so that when you sit down to eat you’re actually hungry. When we give ourselves some space between meals we allow our agni (digestive fire) to ramp back up, which is ideal for the digestion, absorption, and assimilation of nutrients. If your digestion is still working on your last meal or snack when you sit down to eat again it will produce digestive backup, otherwise known as “ama,” or toxic buildup.
Create a Peaceful Environment
Loud TV, a computer or phone screen, distracting music, or even unpleasant conversations can all impact your state of mind while you eat. Instead of allowing the outside world to interfere with your eating process, take matters into your own hands and create an atmosphere conducive to relaxation and mindfulness.
This could look like putting your phone away, turning off the TV, and perhaps lighting a candle or turning on some relaxing music.
If you're eating lunch at your desk, you can simply turn away from your electronics and bring as much of your attention to your meal as possible.
Do what works for you; any movement in the direction of mindful awareness is going to make a difference.
Gratitude
Giving gratitude for your food, your company, and all of the steps it took to get the meal you're about to enjoy onto your plate is a beautiful practice that will enhance the quality of Sattva in your mind. Sattva represents the energy of peace, love, and joy. When you feel Sattvic, it primes your body and mind for deep relaxation and presence – precisely what you're looking for at mealtime (and truly, at most times).
Two-Minute Breathing Exercise To Prime Digestion
While your autonomic nervous system switches between sympathetic and parasympathetic automatically, you can intervene in this process and direct your nervous system by commandeering your breath. Simply choosing to take slow, deep belly breaths can signal to your nervous system that you're safe and calm, and therefore, it can also chill out.
The best part? It typically only takes a few minutes to "trick" your nervous system into calming down. Try this simple parasympathetic breathing exercise:
**Counts are meant to serve as a guideline; if you can't hold or extend your breath to the suggested counts, that's perfectly fine – your breath shouldn't feel strained at any point in the exercise.
Begin by taking a deep breath into your belly, trying to extend the breath in for a count of five.
Hold your breath gently for a count of four.
Slowly exhale for a count of eight.
At the bottom of the breath, hold it for a count of three.
Repeat two to five times.
After this exercise, you'll likely notice a feeling of calm in your body, and your mind may also be a bit less cluttered. This is an excellent practice to do any time during the day, but particularly before meals.
Takeaway
I know that making your meals a ritual in the ways I've described here can be a hard sell for anyone with a busy life – which is pretty much everyone. But you don't have to be perfect to make a change.
Any steps you take to increase relaxation, peace, and mindfulness around your meals will nudge you in the right direction. Over time, small habits build on each other, and you may find that you naturally slip into parasympathetic breathing every time you sit down for a meal.
And while that's fantastic, the key takeaway I want to get across is that true nourishment goes beyond your choices around what to eat. When you enjoy your food mindfully in a relaxed state, it will improve your digestion and metabolism, and you'll most certainly see a difference in how you feel – regardless of your diet.
References
Song, Eun Mi, Hye-Kyung Jung, and Ji Min Jung. "The association between reflux esophagitis and psychosocial stress." Digestive diseases and sciences 58 (2013): 471-477.
Qin, Hong-Yan, et al. "Impact of psychological stress on irritable bowel syndrome." World journal of gastroenterology: WJG 20.39 (2014): 14126.
Cherpak, Christine E. "Mindful eating: a review of how the stress-digestion-mindfulness triad may modulate and improve gastrointestinal and digestive function." Integrative Medicine: A Clinician's Journal 18.4 (2019): 48.