How Long Should a Meal Take?

3 months ago By Yogi Anoop

How Long Should a Meal Take?

Imagine being given a rasgulla or a sweet to eat and asked to set a specific time for eating it or to predict how long it will take to finish. It’s impossible to give an exact timing. Similarly, determining the exact duration for a meal is both challenging and, in many ways, unreasonable. The time is as long as it takes for the taste to be fully experienced on the tongue. The process of tasting food depends on each person, so the timing shouldn’t be the focus—enjoying the taste is what matters. In my experience, this is the primary rule of eating. It aligns perfectly with the entire eating process: tasting, naturally digesting, and finally, naturally expelling it.

When food is placed on the tongue, it signals the brain, which then begins producing saliva and hormones. This is how the eating process starts. If saliva is not generated adequately, the food’s taste cannot be fully experienced, and the digestion process remains incomplete. This process begins only when the taste signals reach the brain, triggering the release of hormones. In yoga, this is viewed as a therapeutic method. Ayurvedic doctors, yogis, and sages have always advised that food should be eaten with concentration and thoroughly chewed. This deepens the experience of taste, brings greater satisfaction to the brain, and reduces the amount of food required.

By eating mindfully and taking time to savor each bite, we ensure that food is not consumed in a hurry. Sages said that by chewing food for a prolonged time, even the subtlest flavors can be experienced. When we eat with enjoyment, the brain receives the necessary signals, allowing the body to function without any issues.

When food is properly chewed, broken down, and mixed with saliva, the digestive process begins smoothly. Similarly, water should be sipped slowly, not gulped down. If you drink half a bottle of water in 20-30 seconds without mixing it with saliva, try experimenting. If drinking water takes time, eating food certainly should too. Eating without mixing with saliva creates digestive problems, leading to rumbling sounds in the stomach. This noise occurs because you didn’t mix the water with saliva properly.

If you hold water in your mouth briefly and mix it with saliva, it won’t be acidic. Ayurveda recommends chewing food until it becomes almost like water, so it integrates easily into the digestive process. Yogis advise that we should aim to “digest” food in the mouth rather than in the stomach.

Ordinary people have a tendency to swallow food, but they lack the ability to regurgitate and chew it again like animals do. Hence, we need to go through the chewing process first so the food enters mixed with saliva and doesn’t need to be regurgitated. If swallowed without proper chewing, reflex action occurs, causing the food to come back up. For animals, this natural process, called rumination, is possible, but for us, it’s not, and it can lead to reflux and many health problems.

From all this, one thing becomes clear: there is no fixed time for eating, only a focus on savoring the taste. This is the primary rule of eating. Even if the food quality is poor, the quantity should be reduced rather than overeating.

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