The broad principle which we can apply for ourselves is that if food is delicious we can digest it. Please try this. When eating enjoy the food with all the five senses, sight, hearing, taste, smell touch. We will find very quickly that we like some food and not other food. Once we have achieved this then we may be aware of the speed with which we eat.
The principle we are engaging here is our own awareness to tell us how to digest our food.
Generally speaking freshly cooked food is easier to digest. Let us go a step further and say organic food is easier to digest because it is not overloaded with toxins. Let us go one step further and say that freshly picked food and tree ripened food is easier to digest and much more delicious. This principle of delicious is the guiding principle of all Ayurveda nutritional treatments.
The digestive process is governed by Pitta which is essentially fire. So to digest food we need a healthy ‘fire’ in the body. This fire comes up with the sun and at the peak of the sun the fire in our body peaks. It is very important to eat at midday because otherwise the fire may burn our stomach lining. So our motto is “ a nation of kitchens” which feed children and workers, a freshly prepared meal at lunch time. This will take the edge off poverty and empty our overloaded hospitals. Is your pitta aggravated? Have a midday meal. Difficult? Try a hot box. Bring a small casserole to the boil in the morning, put it in your hotbox in the boot of the car and have a fresh hot meal for lunch. Or use a wide lipped thermos. Or a small padded cover for your thermos. “Make a plan” but by all and any means have a freshly prepared meal for lunch.
Raw food takes more time to digest than cooked food so it can sit in the body and create slime, particularly if eaten at night when the digestive fires are low. Raw food has the qualities of Vata so it will increase Vata in the body, qualities of space and air will increase and so will associated diseases, and that is why it is generally not recommended except perhaps in small quantities at lunchtime. Everybody is different and I am fairly sure that Eskimos can digest raw seal. And I am fairly sure that we can’t. If we can digest food then it feeds our energy and intelligence, and it feeds the fine tissues of the body which bring us enlightenment. If we cannot digest it then it creates, ama, sticky stuff or free radicals in the body, which block the channels and prevent our natural energy and intelligence manifesting in our lives.
To improve digestion we can use herbs and spices. Start using ginger and fennel as brilliant aids to digestion Madanapalas is a great shop on the web for herbal Ayurvedic medicines. (connects with Madanapalas here) Please look for our articles on home remedies and also join the workshop for a deeper understanding of the digestive process which is all important in achieving perfect health and enlightenment. If you prefer to read then this book is highly recommended can be ordered through