Never ignore the act of chewing while eating

I had once been to one of the Army Headquarters to give yoga session to one of the team of Army in the morning. While conducting yoga class wherein I taught few asanas and pranayama followed by yoga nidra. In between, I also discussed briefly on five principles of yoga for health. The principles are proper diet, proper exercise, proper breathing, proper attitude, proper relaxation.  As I was left with very less time, I spoke briefly on each principle of yoga.  The yoga class ended as usually after yoga nidra. I came back to the guest house provided by the Army Headquarters.  I was just about to take breakfast , one of the army officials who attended my yoga class entered into my room very gratefully. I was surprised and reciprocated his gratitude with my grateful greetings. His gratitude now translated into words thanking me for the yoga class and the benefit he got because of the class. I pondered over that I have not taught anything special and accepted his thanks but wanted to explore what he has thanked for. But he solved this mystery. He sat along with me at sofa and very happily told that he had been suffering from acidity for the last 6-7 years after every meal and on that day, after the yoga class, he had not felt the acidic burns in the chest. I thought that this may be due to asanas or pranayama. But he clarified that among the 5 principles of yoga for health, I had taught about proper diet wherein I had suggested to chew every bite of meal atleast 30-35 times before swallowing. Then I remembered that due to paucity of time, I did not tell anything other than chewing. The official further told me that he had also taken many medicines to beat the acidity but the acidity resumed every time after a certain period of time. So, he left the medicines and decided to live with acidity burn.  The official was very happy that he had not suffered any kind of acid burn after taking the breakfast, he used to feel it earlier.  I thanked the official who strengthened my belief of chewing every bite of meal atleast 30-35 times by following this principle and sharing the immediate results of proper chewing in one meal only.

It is my observation that in office, at home, etc., we are usually addicted to viewing T.V. during our meals and therefore do not chew bites properly and hence, are prone to fermentation of the undigested meals which have not gone through the process of proper mastication.  Fermented and undigested meals in the intestines are being taken lightly but adversely affects our overall health which cannot described due to the limited space of writing. One study has even showed that most of the patients of gall bladder stones under research study were addicted to viewing TV shows/ youtube channels while taking their meals. These are those people who could not take meal without seeing the TV serials, etc. So, their focus is not on the food they eat, even they do not feel the taste of the meal, just gulp the food, while talking in the meeting or seeing the TV shows. Their meals are over within a couple of minutes.  You ask them about the taste of the last meal , they even are not able to recall what meal they have taken, a couple of hours ago. This is mindless eating that never serves the body as well as the soul. Mindful eating slows down the eating with complete mastication and involves the grounding i.e. feeling of taste of each bite, swallowing, feeling the colour of the meal, your complete presence during the meal and thus nourishes not only the body but also the soul. It is just like very short act of meditation. Eating in mindfulness helps the body’s endocrine and exocrine system to release digestive juices in the intestine for proper assimilation of the meal. Do you think that will this lead to over eating? Absolutely No. What we need to avoid over eating is nothing more than only mindful eating with proper chewing, that’s it for better health.