When To Eat

Did you ever pay attention to ‘when to eat’? To be healthy and at the right weight, we often focus on ‘what to eat’. But timing is everything!

In Ayurveda (the ancient Indian science of longevity), eating is key to good health. And one aspect of healthy eating is the time of day when we eat. There are a couple of considerations here.

Eating With The Sun

The sun is at its zenith in the middle of the day, around noon. This is also when our digestive fire is strongest. There’s a reason this area is called solar plexus. When our digestive fire is at its strongest, we digest food the best, and assimilate the nutrients more effectively.That’s also why it’s best to make lunch our largest meal, and eat the heaviest part of our daily food intake between 10 am and 2 pm.

If we eat late at night, our digestive system is straining more to process the food. In addition, if we eat too late then we often go to sleep with undigested food in our system. This is a setup for heart disease. It’s best to eat dinner at 6 pm, or 7 pm latest whenever possible, and wait two to three hours minimum before going to sleep.

If you go to sleep early, it’s best to eat dinner by 6 pm. If you go to sleep late (i.e. after 11 pm, then you will start to get hungry again and want more food before going to sleep.

Eating Within a Certain Time Frame

Intermittent fasting is based on the principle of eating within a certain time frame. Usually that time frame is six hours. For example, you have lunch at 12 noon, and should then be done with dinner by 6 pm. But according to Ayurvedic expert Dr. John Douillard, if you eat all your food within an 11 hour period, you will be within the parameters of having a healthy eating pattern. For example, if you finish dinner at 6 pm, don’t eat again until 7 am. This will mean 13 hours of fasting.

How Can I Start?

Most people work days/are active and away from home during the day and don’t have the opportunity to eat a main meal at lunchtime. To get started, here are some things you can do:

1. Cook over the weekend. Freeze meals in portion sizes. Take a meal out in the evening, put in the refrigerator to defrost, and take for lunch the next day. Heat it at work or heat up in the morning, put it in a wide-mouth thermos, and take with you.
2. Cook something quick and easy before you leave the house and take it with you. An instant pot is great for this.
3. Cook more on nights you get home early, and take for lunch the next day.
4. Put something up in a crock pot in the morning so it’s ready for dinner, or put up in an Instant Pot and set up for delay start.