We understand that a good health is attained through conscious exercise as well as being mindful of what you eat. The benefits of yoga extend not only to muscles and your nervous system but after a few months of consistent practice you will also begin to be more aware of eating clean, nutritious and wholesome produce. You will find that meals comprising of a few quality ingredients will keep you feeling light and vibrant. Mixing too many foods at one time can trigger poor digestion. Here’s a practical guide to combining foods appropriately.
It is recommended to practice yoga on an empty stomach, feeling too full or bloated is very uncomfortable, especially if you try to twist you do an inversion. What we eat can affect our digestive tract, if you are eating unhealthy the process of digestion can actually deplete our energy despite the fact that we eat to fuel ourselves. The digestive tract consists of the stomach, small intestine and large intestine. The stomach breaks the food into smaller parts, the small intestine assimilates the nutrients into the blood stream and the large intestine governs the elimination process.
A Proper Combinations of Yoga Food for a Good Digestion
Different food types require different digestive enzymes and require different amounts of time to complete the digestive process. A cocktail of food combinations can result in lethargy, toxic build up in the gut and a blockage of energy flow, whereas eating simplistically improves digestion, increases energy and helps relieve depression, anxiety and mood swings.
The digestive tract has three basic functions: The stomach separates the food into smaller parts, the small intestine completes the breakdown and assimilates nutrients to supply to the rest of the body, and the large intestine eventually eliminates any remaining waste. Keeping this system in good working order is essential to overall health and vitality.
Here’s some guidelines to simply your food choices:
Fruits: quickest to digest and convert into energy due to their high sugar content, best to be eaten on its own
It usually takes 20-60 minutes to digest fruit.
All vegetables can be eaten together and combined with protients, it’s best to combine low startch vegetables with grains
It usually times 30 minutes to 2 hours to digest vegetables.
Grains are best to be combined with only low starch vegetables and not in combination with protein, it is highly recommended to have only one type of grain at each meal
It usually takes 2-3 hours to digest grains
Proteins can be combines with all vegetables, It’s best to have only one type of protein at a meal.
It usually takes 2-4 hours to digest protein
When eating out in Hong Kong, it can be difficult to find a restaurant with high quality produce and with meals designed to be health. The Awakening has opened in Sai Ying Pun offering a wide vegetarian selection with a menu carefully crafted to be healthy as well as delicious- ask for the “Inspire Menu” designed for yogis! Feeding yourself purposefully is like doing yoga off the mat: Each choice of what and how to feed yourself is an opportunity to practice awareness, compassion, and self-love
