Essential Points for Good Health

Following are the key formulas to keep the body healthy. Proper functioning of the digestive system depends on four factors they are as follows ---

Technique of Eating

The way of eating is more important than the quality of eatables. Taking even ordinary food in the right manner can give better results than consuming quality food in a wrong manner. In this context, one has to pay attention to three questions [When to eat? How much to eat? How to eat]. We answer these questions one by one as follows

When to eat?

The answer to this question is that one should eat - at a fixed time and when one feels very hungry. One should eat when both of these synchronize. Normally for a healthy person, it is enough to take meals twice daily. These timings can be around 11 AM and 6 PM. One can adjust this time slightly according to one's convenience. The habit of taking meals at fixed times is nicely rewarded in the long run. Further, one should not take anything in between two meals. It is a bad habit to chew something or the other throughout the day. This disturbs the digestion process. Suppose we are cooking rice in a vessel and go on adding small amounts of rice grains in it after short intervals; the result will be that some grains will be over-cooked, some of them will uncooked. This kind of cooking will never serve the purpose. The same rule applies to the stomach. The food once consumed gets digested by the next mealtime. Eating in between disturbs the digestion process.

One should eat when one feels very hungry and the stomach appears to be empty. If one does not feel hungry at a usual mealtime then one should skip that meal and should not take anything till the next mealtime. Supposing one does not feel hungry at 11 AM in the morning but gets hungry at 2 PM and starts eating at that time, it will disturb the cycle. Hence one should avoid this habit. Not feeling hungry undigested food in the stomach; hence in order to digest it, missing of one meal is essential. The synchronicity of the set mealtime and intense hunger is the right time for meals.

One should not take full meal early in the morning. Whatever is consumed in the dinner in the previous night is not fully digested due to sleep. Hence stomach should get some more time after sleep to digest to same. Taking full meal right in the morning is equivalent to giving a servant another task before he has completed the one in hand. However if one feels hungry in the morning and it appears difficult to work without taking something, then a liquid diet of milk, buttermilk, fruit, juice, water mixed with lemon and honey may be taken. Similarly, if hunger is felt at other times of the day, one should take liquids or easily digestible food items.