Protecting Your Digestive Fire - Part 2 of Living Long, Living Well

-Eat food at room temperature or a little warmer. Eating with your fingers will make sure it is the right temperature. Test your tea with your little finger. (Cancer of the esophagus can be triggered by habitually eating foods too hot.) Digestive enzymes are temperature specific and evolved to work with room temperature food—not refrigerated , frozen or iced.

-Allow 3 hours between meals to allow stomach digestion to be complete before new food is added to the system. You wouldn't add dirty clothes to the wash machine in the middle of its cycle!

-Don't drink with meals- instead load up on water or tea 1/2 hour before or 2 hours after. This avoids diluting your digestive juices and reducing digestive capacity.

-Chew food mindfully. Poorly chewed food may cause choking and, more likely, poor digestion. The mouth is the first step of digestion--chewing well mixes the enzymes in saliva thoroughly with your food to begin the breakdown necessary for full digestion.

-Use proper food combining as a rule. Occasional lapses may not be problematical, but daily or regular lapses will lead to toxic buildup and more possibilities of serious disease in the long run.

• No fruits eaten with other types of foods
• Melons always eaten alone
• Milk always taken alone except for totally sweet fruit ie. Dates, mangoes, figs or cooked with basmati rice
• Don’t mix milk with dal, fish, or meat—this is definitely a dangerous combination.
• Don’t take yogurt in a meal with meat.

·Relax to allow for proper digestion. Working lunches are bad for digestion and can confuse your prana or life energy flow. Make food a sacrifice to the digestive fire, offered to God. Saying a prayer or sitting quietly for a minute or two before eating will allow you to slow down and let energy & blood go to digestion. The Ayurvedic ideal is to not talk while eating. If that doesn’t work—avoid emotionally upsetting topics & topics you don’t want to take deeply into your body.

· Don’t eat & then sleep—leave 2 hrs between them. Digestion works better in an awake state.

· Don’t eat & then exercise, except for taking 1000 steps after a meal—2 hrs between them.

· Don’t eat & then meditate –leave 1 hour between to avoid poor meditation or bad digestion.

· Follow the diet appropriate for your Aurvedic constitution &/or current condition, as well as the season. If you need help with this, contact Terra at www.wisewomanhood.com