These 5 Ayurvedic Eating Habits Will Help Improve Your Digestion

The emphasis on modern diet advice is often on what we eat, not how we eat it. Ayurveda would agree with the saying: We are what we eat. But even more importantly to the Ayurvedic diet is that we are what we digest.

Depending on your dosha, which is your Ayurvedic constitution, you will naturally have certain eating habits – good and bad. Each dosha varies slightly.

Which Ayurvedic Dosha Are You? Take This Fun Dosha Quiz to Find Out!
 
 

Let’s Start With Ayurvedic Diet and the 3 Doshas’ Ayurvedic Eating Habits:

Vata Dosha

Vata people (air types) have a habit of eating erratically at different times of the day and they tend to suffer from sudden weakness because they’ve forgotten to eat.

How to Embrace Your Vata Dosha and Feel Grounded AF
 

Pitta Dosha

Pitta people (fire types) often find themselves rapidly devouring food and tend to suffer from hanger (hungry anger!) if not regularly fed.

Find Balance and Embrace Your Inner Pitta Dosha Fire with These Cooling Ayurveda Tips
 
 

Kapha Dosha

Kapha people (water types) like to indulge themselves in sweet, sugary foods and tend to suffer from overeating and lethargy.

Calling All Kapha Doshas! Want to Feel More Energized and Balanced? Here’s How
 
 

These 5 Ayurvedic Diet Tips Can Help Improve Your Digestion:

There are many guidelines based on Ayurvedic eating habits that a person can apply to their life when leading an Ayurvedic lifestyle.

Unfortunately, some of these are pretty unrealistic, such as eating after sunrise and before sunset. Both socially and practically, this can be totally unavoidable.

However, here are a handful of Ayurvedic eating tips that many of us can easily apply to our daily lives.
 

1. Feed All 5 Senses

Take time to appreciate not just the taste of the food but also the texture and the smell of your meal. Eat food that you find aesthetically pleasing, stokes the digestive fire, and makes your eyes hungry.

Within an Ayurvedic diet, it is very important to eat when you feel hungry, this is a signal that our digestive fire is ready to receive and digest.

Ayurveda also acknowledges that we consume on every sensory level so even taking a small moment to consciously note the texture and the combinations of all these aspects will lead you to a greater feeling of contentment and satiation after a meal.
 

2. Consider Your Emotions

Try to eat when you feel calm and emotionally stable. It may not always be possible of course, but just taking a few breaths and meeting the moment with your full attention will help activate the rest-and-digest nervous system response.

Each dosha has a predisposition to certain emotional imbalances that are directly correlated to digestive issues:

• Vata types are more likely to experience volatile emotions such as anxiety and restlessness; this can lead to weak digestive fire and uncomfortable flatulence
• Pitta types are predisposed to hot emotions such as irritation and frustration; this can lead to overly active digestive fire and heartburn
• Kapha types tend to veer toward heavier feelings such as laziness and depression; this can lead to slow digestive fire and constipation

If we eat when we’re calm and emotionally stable, we help to reduce our doshic imbalances and digestive predispositions.
 

3. Give Thanks

Give thanks to the chef, to the food, to the earth – in whatever way makes sense and feels authentic.

Ayurveda maintains that an attitude of gratitude leads to less stress and more contentment.

We now know that a less stressed system is a happier environment for our good gut bacteria, and the happier they are, the better our digestion.

These 10 Gratitude Mantras Will Bring You Joy, Peace and Abundance
 

4. Make It a Ritual

No need to make a song and dance about it! But doing the same actions before and after your meals readies the digestive system.

It can be as simple as always remembering to wash your hands or doing your best to eat at similar times each day. Your body has a natural intelligence that is guided by signals and cycles internally and externally.

Dinacharya is the Sanskrit word for daily routine, and by giving yourself a daily rhythm, you are giving your body recognizable signals each day as to what you require from it.
 

5. Research When Eating Out

Try to frequent restaurants that have an ethical backbone, and are not only profit-orientated.

According to Ayurvedic diet, the environment and the way in which food is prepared has a massive effect on its energy and its prana.

Prana: Demystifying Life Force Energy

On a practical note, the more profit-orientated the establishment is, the more likely they are to use lower quality ingredients and additives. Often a meal made by a loved one can be vastly more satisfying than an expensive meal in a gourmet restaurant.
 
 

Try These Ayurvedic Diet and Ayurvedic Eating Tips to Help Digestion

Ayurveda is a holistic practice that takes into account every level of our being.

So eating a homemade chocolate brownie with 100% attention and enjoyment is sometimes better for you than drinking a shop-bought green kale smoothie while rushing to a yoga class. It’s all relative and all related!

Whether you live to eat or eat to live, we all have to do it! And I hope that these tips will make the experience even more of a joy. Bon appetit!

All included information is not intended to treat or diagnose. The views expressed are those of the author and should be attributed solely to the author. For medical questions, please consult your healthcare provider.

This article has been read 149 times. Share it and spread the love!