Have meals around the same time each day. Like your sleep, wake cycle, your digestion will also benefit from a regular routine. Pre-program meal times into your day so that you have the time to take care of sustaining yourself. Water and food are next only to air for survival. When your digestion is trained to kick in at those set times through regular practice, it functions efficiently to build more "Ojas" from the foods you eat.
Ojas is the most refined product of the digestive process—the biochemical essence that sustains life and health. Nutrients from the foods you eat are absorbed and assimilated to the maximum extent by your body, and wastes are flushed out effectively, leaving little room for "Ama"--digestive toxins—to build up in the body and act as a breeding ground for imbalances and disorders.
As per Ayurveda, lunch is the most important meal of that day, which should ideally be eaten between noon and 2 pm, which is when the Sun is at its peak and so is the Pitta in our bodies, which takes care of the digestion. Our body expects us to respect it by following its rhythm for whatever we do - which means not only sticking to ‘a’ particular time but sticking to the ‘right’ time meant for eating, sleeping, excreting - whatever is supposed to come naturally to us!
If we eat a particular meal at a particular time every day, then our body gets used to it. It all becomes a part of the body’s cyclic rhythm, which means that the associated processes will also happen accordingly at the same time every day. The body will crave for food and feel hungry at the same time every day, and we might feel like emptying our bowels at the same time every single day. That’s how our bodies are meant to be. But when our food timings are all over the place, we end up confusing our bodies - which means that the other processes associated with eating also get messed up and confused, leading to problems like indigestion and constipation.
Ayurveda suggests that eating the right kind of food at a regular time every day can go a long way in keeping diseases, especially metabolic disorders at bay, for as long as possible. It will also help in avoiding weight gain, as food, when eaten in the right quantity and at the right time, will be converted into energy and not fat.
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