Nutrition Bad Habits: Snacking and Overeating
Digestive strength as I've talked about in the past is called agni(we get our word ignite from this word) and it's said that if you have a strong agni you will live a long and healthy life The converse is also true If you have poor agni you will create disease for yourself So taking care of your agni is paramount to good health
How Does Agni Affect Heath?
If poor agni exists then there is residue due to incomplete digestion The metaphor of a campfire is often used If the campfire is robust and good wood(food that is appropriate for your energy constitutional makeup) then what's left when the fire is out is fine ash All the nutrients have been harvested
But what about a poor campfire? The result is charred wood that has been ineffectively digested by the fire In the energy science terminology in the gut the result is ama or undigested food This undigested food clogs the lymphatic channels and sets up the possibility of being disseminated to the rest of the body
Snacking
Eating in between meals affects agni by overutilizing it.....the gut's enzyme system is busy digesting the last meal But then the choicemaker(that's you) makes the choice to eat ............(fill in the blank) Now the agni has incompletely burned the meal and has to turn around and digest the snack
A vicious cycle is set up where the digestion is never complete....hence the result is ama Not good The solution to snacking is not easy because it's an addictive habit especially in the work environment But with resolve it can be overcome like any addiction Creating more balance will ultimately stop the snacking because the body will send signals of rebellion
Overeating
When we overwhelm even a good digestive fire by loading the stomach up too much(defined as what you can hold in the palms of your two hands) then it's like putting wet logs or too many logs on your campfire The result is charred remains or in energy science lingo ama Now this amount of how much to eat can vary from individual to individual because of many variables including exercise which puts more demand on agni
But I think it's fair to say that everyone will know when they have overeaten due to the sensation in the stomach The remedy for overeating is simple Fasting until you're really hungry for the next food
