1-E Food - How many times to eat per day

How many times to eat per day?

How long a meal would take to get digested? There are only 24 hours. No one has more and we cannot engage the digestive system all the twenty four hours. We must give it some rest also. Otherwise it will not work properly. So we must give to it the right type of work, and also rest. We must ensure both. We cannot work all the 24 hours inside.

Then, how many meals can be taken in a day? One meal. Meal means some rice or chappathi, pulses, vegetable, ghee, whatever goes into the ordinary meal. I am referring to the ordinary meal.

A meal takes 18 hours. When you take a meal, it goes into the digestive canal and reaches the stomach. The food that we take into the stomach, takes 5 to 6 hours, provided your digestion is good, and 8 to 10 hours, if the digestion is not good. It requires 6 to 7 hours to do the work in the small intestine. In all it takes about 12 hours. Then the digested part of the food is passed on to the blood stream and from there goes to various tissues. Then undigested part of the food is passed on to the large intestine. The digestion is not complete till this is thrown out. Otherwise we will feel heavy. Thus it requires 12 hours for the digestion and six hours for the elimination. It takes 18 hours to deal with the food. There are only 24 hours. You cannot help it.

Suppose you take three meals a day – a fairly good breakfast, a sumptuous lunch and a heavy dinner. The breakfast at 0800 hrs, the lunch by 1300 hrs and the dinner at 20.00 hrs and in between there are always snacks to oblige us. Now, what happens to you by 2200 hrs? The stomach contains dinner just taken, the small intestine will contain the lunch and the large intestine will contain the breakfast. No part will be empty. From the stomach down to the end, the whole thing will be full. No part is empty and no part can contract. When you get up early morning, you will feel restless within because you never gave rest to the system, and this restlessness manifests as digestive disorders, what are known as flatulence, acidity, peptic ulcer, gastro-enteritis, jaundice etc. All these are caused because we do not give rest to any part of digestive canal at any time in the 24 hours. Suppose you take only two meals a day, out of the three parts, one will take rest in turn and there is scope for some rest for all the three parts, and the individual can lead a fairly, comfortable life. Suppose there is an individual who takes only one meal a day, then one out of the three will be working and the others will be resting. Thus there is a greater scope for rest. There is a proverb, ‘A man who takes on meal a day is a yogi, one who takes 2 meals a day is a bhogi and one who takes three meals a ‘rogi’. This is also 100% correct scientifically. Those who over eat, must know that they over eat at the cost of rest to their internal organs.

Take only two meals a day. One in the day and the other in the night. When you get up in the morning, it is meant for work and not for eating. You will feel rested. If you have to work, you should allow hunger to mature and take your meal somewhere between 1100 hrs and 1300 hrs. Do not take breakfast – The No Breakfast plan must be adopted by everyone. If you miss your breakfast, 90% of the disease will immediately vanish. No healthy person will feel hungry early in the morning. If a false sensation of hunger is felt, it is mere pathological symptom. It is more a desire and not hunger. Breakfast is not the first thing that is needed. In the good old days, people never used to eat in the early morning. If you do that we shall digest whatever we eat. In other words, there will be no indigestion.

Lesser eating means greater energy and fasting will not produce any weakness unless you are mentally broke. If on the fasting day your mind is crying for food, you cannot be healthy. There are some people who are fasting for other’s sake. “Well, tomorrow is ekadashi, I do not take food”. The man is a pandit. He is doing it for outward show. But inwardly he is cautioning his wife. “Tomorrow is ekadshi. By 5 am everything should be ready; ghee should be there; payasam should be there, this should be there, that should be there etc”. Because the mind is always on food. That is not fasting. Not for exhibition sake, but real fasting where you understand that you are fasting or a holiday for you internally. It gives rest within. If you do it that way, you will never suffer.
Energy is given to you by the Lord, by communion and by prayer. The more philosophical you are, he more religious you are really religious, not ritualistic, the more you rely on God, the less food you need. It is ungodly people who require 3500 calories a day. So if you are godly, if you are leading a godly life [you need not take sanyas – be godly – have faith in God], God sustains you. Fasting will never weaken anyone. Sensible fasting will not weaken. But there is a limit to fasting. Each one has got a capacity upto which one can fast. Little by little improvethe capacity of fasting and Iask you intentionally to increase the capacity of fasting.

A very high official of the Government of India had high blood pressure about 20 years ago. He was an additional secretary. He tried all possible sources to become normal. Everybody diagnosed his disease as high blood pressure, and drugs were prescribed. But he was not becoming normal. Having plenty of resources, he was eating all the time. At last, he sent for me. I am a little blunt. I told him, ‘Sir, you are not having high blood pressure but you are having food pressure. High food pressure is the cause and the high blood pressure is the consequence. So unless you reduce eating, you cannot become normal. You must give up drugs and you must eat less. Eat less does not mean starve but only eat to the extent needed. There is no need in eating more than what you really require. It is not a bank where the more you deposit, the greater will be the savings’.

The officer got annoyed and said, ‘I must eat to keep my health’. I said, ‘Sir, are you having gas trouble’? ‘Yes’. ‘Are you digesting your food?’ ‘No.’ ‘Are you having constipation?’ ‘Yes’. ‘Then what is the use of eating more when you are not digesting it?’. It is just like giving more work to a very inefficient person.

Most people eat more than what they really require under the delusion that they are supplying energy to the body. A small quantity of food in the day and a small quantity of food in the evening is enough to sustain the body. You would not need more. When you are eating more, you are unnecessarily agitating you body and thereby you get into trouble.

What I eat is so small that I am no burden to my host. Like the other guests, I do not require 4 courses a day. “Prepare this and prepare that”. If you are a light eater you will be welcomed by all wherever you go. If you are a very heavy eater, well, your host will be put to difficulties.

Do everything moderately and you will be happy and holy. Moderation is the true parent of health and longevity. Eat moderately and if you do not over work your system, the metabolic rate will not rise up. There will be no tension within you and you will be happy throughout the life and you will not become old biologically, if you eat a little. Eat only twice a day. If you are hungerless, do not eat even once.