🍽️ Healthy and Unhealthy Eating Habits (Ayurvedic Guidelines)

🌿 Eating Habits to Cultivate

“How you eat is as important as what you eat.”

Principle	Ayurvedic Reasoning / Benefit
1. Eat according to your constitution (prakriti)	Maintains doshic balance and promotes digestion.
2. Eat seasonally	Aligns body with nature’s rhythms and climate.
3. Choose fresh, sattvic, high-quality food	Increases clarity, calmness, and vitality.
4. Eat only when hungry	Supports strong digestive fire (agni).
5. Drink only when thirsty	Prevents dilution of digestive enzymes.
6. Sit down to eat	Encourages mindful, calm digestion.
7. Focus only on eating	Avoids distractions like reading, screens, or talking too much.
8. Chew thoroughly (≈32 times)	Begins digestion in the mouth and reduces strain on the stomach.
9. Eat at a moderate pace	Prevents overeating and promotes awareness.
10. Fill stomach: ⅓ food, ⅓ water, ⅓ empty	Maintains space for proper digestion and movement.
11. Eat portions equal to two cupped hands	Prevents overeating and toxin (ama) buildup.
12. Drink small sips of warm water during meals	Aids digestion; avoid cold or iced drinks.
13. Never cook honey	Heated honey becomes toxic and clogs subtle channels (srotas).

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🚫 Unhealthy Eating Habits

Habit	Why It’s Harmful (According to Ayurveda)
Overeating	Weakens digestive fire, creates toxins (ama).
Eating too soon after meals	Undigested food ferments and creates gas.
Drinking too much or too little water with meals	Impairs digestion.
Drinking very cold water	Extinguishes agni.
Eating when constipated	Blocks proper digestion.
Eating too early or too late	Disrupts the body’s daily rhythm.
Eating heavy food in excess	Increases kapha and sluggishness.
Eating fruit with meals	Causes fermentation and gas.
Eating without hunger	Weakens natural appetite and digestion.
Emotional eating	Aggravates doshas and ama.
Mixing incompatible foods	Leads to toxins, allergies, and digestive distress.
Constant snacking	Prevents complete digestion and increases ama.

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⚖️ Incompatible Food Combinations (Viruddha Ahara)

Improper food combining disturbs agni (digestive fire), causing fermentation, gas, and ama (toxins).

Food	Incompatible With	Notes / Effects
MILK	Bananas, Fish, Melons, Yogurt, Sour fruits, Yeast bread, Kitchari	Causes congestion, skin issues, allergies.
YOGURT	Milk, Sour fruits, Melons, Hot drinks, Fish, Mango, Starches, Cheese, Banana	Mango lassi is not recommended.
MELONS	Everything (especially grains, starches, fried foods, cheese)	“Eat them alone or leave them alone.”
EGGS	Milk, Yogurt, Melons, Cheese, Fruits, Potatoes	Creates digestive heaviness.
STARCHES	Bananas, Eggs, Milk, Dates	Fermentation and gas.
HONEY	Ghee (in equal parts by weight)	Toxic combination; honey should never be cooked.
CORN	Dates, Raisins, Bananas	Causes heaviness and gas.
LEMONS	Yogurt, Milk, Cucumber, Tomato	Creates curdling and digestive disturbances.
NIGHTSHADES (potato, tomato, eggplant)	Yogurt, Milk, Melon, Cucumber	Aggravates kapha and vata; may cause allergies.

❗ Particularly avoid:

• Banana milkshakes

• Fruit smoothies with milk

• Mixed fruit salads (unless carefully combined by type)

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🥛 Guidelines for Milk and Dairy Products

Principle	Explanation
Milk, ghee, and fresh yogurt are valued foods	Nourishing, grounding, and rejuvenating.
Avoid over-pasteurized milk	Destroys enzymes necessary for digestion.
Best practice: Heat unpasteurized milk just to the boiling point	Makes it easier to digest and less kapha-forming.
If unpasteurized milk unavailable: Use pasteurized milk—it’s still beneficial.
Never boil milk too long	Destroys nutrients and enzymes.

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🌸 Simple Digestive Aid

Before meals, chew a small piece of fresh ginger with a pinch of salt and lime juice —
this stimulates agni (digestive fire) and prevents indigestion from mild incompatibilities.