Food Sadhana

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. Hippocrates

FOOD SADHANA

Sadhana is a sanskrit word that means practice, a regular and mindful practice that we have daily.

Food sadhana is the practice that cultivates awareness, gratitude, and healthy mealtime habits

and it is a strong basis of Ayurvedic medicine.

Because the digestive process starts before we put food into our mouths it is important to recognize our digestion begins prior to actually eating the food. When the eyes see the food, ears hear about the food, nose smells the food, hands touch the food, and also of course when the taste buds taste the food, the salivary glands begin to secrete enzyme rich saliva.

So not only does some digestion begin in the mouth, it is a wholistic experience, and the brain early on is sending out the message to the rest of the digestive team that food is coming and that the body needs to begin to prepare.

HCL in the stomach, pancreatic enzymes, small intestine enzymes, there is a complex process leading to assimilation, absorption and elimination.

The digestive process begins before food is in the mouth. Other details matter: standing in an organized and clean kitchen, cutting and preparing the food slowly with prayer or positive thoughts. Mindful meal prep sets the stage for the therapeutic aspects of food. Putting quality, peace, and positivity into the food process will put our mind into the present action of eating, will create a sacredness about feeding our body and will also increase the tastiness and health of the food. Some will say a positive intention and some may embrace prayer. The food sadhana meets you where you are.

St. Euphrosynus, a saint who was a monk who cooked food, it was his to feed the people, and he can be thought of,, when saying a prayer for the meal prep ahead.

Once we sit down and have our food in front of us, we need to get present. Perhaps you have just come from working or other tasks, a pause or a separation from that to eating is pretty essential. This will allow your parasympathetic nervous system to be alert: the parasympathetic is the relaxing side of the nervous system that when activated slows the heart rate and engages the digestive system to be awake. This side of the central nervous system awakens the senses, slows the heart rate, calms the mind, slows the production of the adrenals pumping adrenaline into our body and awakens the digestive system and all the elements, organs and glands involved.

BEFORE YOU TAKE YOUR FIRST BITE:

1. Sit down, close your eyes, take 3 deep breaths.

2. Say a prayer or positive intention for your mealtime.

3. Chew your food slowly with awareness. Finish one bite before beginning the next one just as we may in yoga asana practice finish the inhale breath completely before beginning the exhaling. CHEW, chew, chew your food until liquified; the more you chew the more saliva is mixed with your food and the more enzyme rich saliva is mixed with the food to break down the carbohydrates. Traditionally you chew each bit 50x, about 20x will do.

4. Eat only until 75% full, after the last bite, the body begins to process all the food, eating slower will allow for more awareness of what 75% full is, satisfied, not hungry, but not stuffed. Notice a silent burp.

5. Rest after eating ideally 10 minutes, if possible lie on your left side. Then take an easy walk around the block.

Is you dinner the biggest meal of the day? A large meal belongs at lunch. Ancient time and into European culture lunch is actually dinner, and dinner is a smaller meal called supper.

Baby steps....one small change at a time for success.

The nature of digesting:

When finished eating the digestive process is now beginning to really take place as the food is moving out of the stomach (Kapha’s home) and into the small intestines where enzymes (Pitta’s job) work to digest. The pancreas may send more enzymes over to the small intestines and the gall bladder (which stores bile from the liver) will send bile to the small intestine to digest and assimilate the food. The small intestine absorbs the nutrients. The waste matter and toxins, and any left over particles not used by the body, will be sent into the colon (large intestine) to be moved down and out the body (Apana Vata’s job).

So we need to encourage the beginning of this important part of digestion by resting 5-10 minutes after our meal (ideally lie on your left side) instead of jumping up and getting into that daily fast pace mode, fight or flight mode, or activity mode. Pause, even if its just 5 minutes after you eat.

10:00-2:00 PM a pitta dosha window of time

A time for the biggest meal of the day.

The most important and highest potential for digestion.

It is true we don’t often have a two hour lunch here in America if you are a 9-5 worker, but cultivating at least a more restful lunch is a boon to your health. Step away from your desk, phone, TV, it'll help you maximize what lunch can do for you can sustain your energy for longer in the day.

Mealtime as sacred time is to treat the body as a temple and to find better digestion, assimilation, elimination and sustained energy.

The stillness that sacred mealtime creates will begin to seep into our other activities in our day and it will encourage being more present and mindful in our lives.

Say Grace before Your Meals

The purpose of saying grace is to give thanks for the food set before us, to give thanks to whom provided it, to give credit to the source bigger than us that created the food. Saying grace sets peace in our hearts and calms our minds.

Ayurveda comes from ancient India; what was available or understood to people of the time in 7,000 BC was Gods and Goddesses, much like Greek and Roman medicine had a mythology or pagan background. We can use the practice of saying grace and understand that the prayer we choose can be appropriate for our belief system.

While ancient texts offer sanskrit prayers there are others to use. See below...But for others it is the language of gratitude that will resonate most. You can take 3 breaths before your first bite, and then go around your table and have each person say something that they are grateful for. For others, mealtime prayers feel more appropriate.

Sanskrit Chant:

Annam Brahma Raso Vishnu (The creative energy in the food is Brahma/creative)

Pakto Devo Mahesarah (The nourishing energy/sustainer for the body is vishnu)

Evam Jnatva Tu Yo Bhunkte (the transformation of food (transforming food into nutrients body can use and into the tissues of the body and then pure consciousness is Shiva)

Anna Dosha Na Lipyate (If you know this, then all impurities in the food you eat will not become apart of you)

Sanskrti Chant:

Om Annapurnaya Namah

(Thank you to the goddess of food.)

Episcopal:

Bless this food to our use and us to thy service and make us ever mindful of the needs of others.

(My grandpa said this every night and I have carried it over to my family's meals.)

Orthodox Christian:

O Christ God, bless the food and drink of Thy servants, for thou art holy, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen