Ayurvedic diet: how to schedule your meals to aid digestion

Learn how and when to eat according to Ayurveda to support your health and digestion

We’ve all heard the adage that you are what you eat, but according to yoga’s holistic sister science Ayurveda, it’s not just the contents of your fridge that determine your sense of wellbeing. When it comes to your health, Ayurveda asserts that it’s mostly down to how well you digest your food, and it turns out that when you eat matters a lot.

In simple modern terms, digestion is the process of breaking down large molecules of food into smaller, water-soluble molecules that can be absorbed into your blood plasma and carried to your organs. General wisdom suggests that if what you put into your body is “healthy food” such as fruits and vegetables, then you too will be healthy. In Ayurveda, digestion is considered one of the four pillars of health - a vital, complex and far-reaching system of metabolising all of your experiences, a process that takes up to six weeks, and asserts that what you put in your shopping basket is only half the battle.

In Ayurvedic science, digestion is called Agni (meaning “digestive fire”) and it is seen as the key to both health and disease. According to Ayurveda, a balanced digestion (Sama Agni) is one that is neither too sharp nor too sluggish and presents as good appetite, good energy, and feeling good during and after meals without symptoms such as gas, bloating, heartburn or nausea. There are many Ayurvedic recommendations for improving the state of your digestion, from sitting down to eat to cooking your food to improve its digestibility, but a simple technique is considering not just what to eat, but when to eat it.

Ayurvedic science equates your digestive fire to the sun. Just as the sun is the source of all growth and dynamism in nature, Agni is the source of all transformation in your physiology. Like the sun, Agni has a peak time for metabolism during the day, while its strength grows dimmer at night. Though this can sound a little primitive, Circadian Rhythm Theory supports many aspects of an Ayurvedic daily routine, confirming that your body temperature and mental sharpness do indeed rise throughout the morning as the sun peaks in the sky. 

Many of my clients who come to me seeking relief from digestive discomfort are actually eating really healthy food, but often at less than optimal times. The most common thing I see is people eating a very big and heavy breakfast, skipping lunch or snacking, and eating another heavy meal late at night. To optimize your digestion, a few simple tweaks to timing may be all you need to do. Try aligning the pattern of your meals with that of the sun with this general daily rhythm and see what improvements arise:

Breakfast (6-8a.m.)

When you awaken in the morning and haven’t eaten for many hours, there’s a coolness to your digestion just as there is outside your window. Instead of loading up on heavy breakfast meats and cold cereals and juices that further dampen your digestive fire, enjoy a light, warm breakfast of stewed fruits - add cooked whole grains if you tend towards extreme hunger.

Lunch (10a.m.-2p.m.)

Lunch time is the ideal time to take your biggest meal of the day. The sun is positioned high in the sky for maximum metabolism and intensity just as it is in your body. Midday is perfect then to cook up a good lean protein source, cooked whole grains and lots of cooked veggies (these should take up approximately 50% of the food on your plate).

Dinner (5:30 - 7:30 p.m.)

As the sun sets, nature cools off and quietens again and the same thing happens in your body as it prepares for rest. Despite this being the typical time for the main meal in our culture, asking your body to digest a large, heavy meal shortly before bed is a recipe for interrupted sleep and incomplete digestion. If you tend to be very hungry in the evening, take your dinner earlier. It can be similar to lunch or lighter, such as an easily digestible vegetable soup or lentil dahl. Leave at least a couple of hours after eating before going to bed, so your body can complete its digestion and you’ll enjoy better sleep!