04/13/2020
What does Ayurveda say about the right amount of food to eat?
What we eat has a huge impact on our physical, mental and emotional health and well-being. With increasing awareness about making healthy food choices, we have learned to focus on "what we eat". While this is very important, another critical aspect of "healthy eating", which we might ignore or fail to understand, is "how much we eat".
Portion-size plays such an important role in maintaining health that Acharya Vagbhat has devoted an entire chapter of Ashtanga Hridayam (classical Ayurvedic text) to understanding food habits - the right quantity of food, right time to take food, effects of over-eating and eating less, etc.
Right amount of food activates 'Agni' (digestive fire). Foods that are light to digest and those that are hard to digest, require different digestive capacities.
As a general rule, if the food is heavy to digest, such as oily foods, non-vegetarian foods, sweets; it should be consumed till 1/2 of the satiation level is achieved. If the food is light to digest, it should be consumed till one is not overly satiated.
The right amount of food is that, which undergoes digestion easily. This will be different for each individual and will depend on ones digestive capacity. It can also change with age and the level of activity. To understand what should be the right amount of food, we need to develop the art of "listening to our body".
We can start by asking one simple question to ourselves before eating, "Am I hungry when I eat?"