Overeating is a habit that can be difficult to break. Eating more food than your body requires is also a symptom of an eating disorder. Eating excessive food over time can lead to weight gain and put you at greater risk of chronic health issues including diabetes and heart disease. While breaking the cycle of overeating may appear to be difficult, Dr Dimple Jangda, an ayurveda and gut health coach, recently shared a simple and easy trick to prevent it.
In her Instagram post, Dr Jangda shared the benefits ofsitting crossed-legged on the floor while eating, and how it could help you to keep the habit of overeating in check.
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Dr Jangda added that eating while sitting in cross-legged, sukhasana, can do wonders for the digestive system. “There is a lot of wisdom and scientific reason behind this traditional practice”, she said before going on to detail the benefits of Sukhasana while detailing its functioning.
1. Sukha means “easy” or “at ease,” and asana is a posture. This asana relaxes both the mind and the body. When your brain is calm, it is better able to focus on the food, and your body is better able to digest and assimilate the nutrients. Further, with no movement in the lower limbs, the brain is ready and tuned to receive signals from the five sense organs and send messages to the stomach about the type of digestive juices to prepare ahead of time.
2. Now, that the lower body is close to the ground, the pressure on the heart to pump blood to parts of the body that are in a resting phase is reduced, increasing blood circulation to the abdominal region.
3. The muscles in the stomach, liver, and gall bladder are worked out and sufficiently compressed to discharge the necessary digestive juices. Additionally, Sukhasana strengthens the pelvic areas and promotes improved nutritional absorption.
4. The body naturally and rhythmically moves back and forth to pick up food and put it in the mouth when we sit on the floor to eat. This makes digestion even easier.
5. It has been discovered that the vagus nerve, which is responsible for sending signals to the brain, only detects a feeling of fullness in the mind 20 minutes after eating. The act of bending forward while eating slows down the eating process, giving the brain adequate time to receive the vagus nerve impulses. This also helps in preventing overeating.
Eating while sitting on the floor has been an ancient practice not just in India but in other Asian civilisations like Japan as well.
