What to Eat Before & After Yoga - Sadhak Anshit
Practicing of Yoga means involvement of complete body and mind. While it’s recommended to start your day with Yoga, often times people have complained about acidic reflexes post session, due to empty stomach. Eating patterns to follow around Yoga has been a query amongst most of Yoga practitioners. A regular Yoga session lasts up to 90 minutes which involves a combination of Pranayamas and asanas, a period of such length requires energy and hydration.
Working out on an empty stomach may leave one with fatigue, while a wholesome breakfast before the session will increase the chances of sickness. Yoga Asanas require twisting and bending of body parts in various angles, a full stomach may lead to suffocation and feelings of nausea. Thus, eating around Yoga is an essential subject to dig into, it’s important to find mid-way to crack the query of food consumption before and after Yoga.
FOOD PROCESSING
Scientifically, food takes about three hours to digest. The process of digestion requires energy, thus if you start your Yoga asanas right after your meals, you won’t be able to dedicate all your energy to the asanas, as; much of it would be concentrated towards digestion. Though, different kinds of food items digest on different paces. When it comes to liquids and fruits, they generally take about 30 minutes to digest. In same order, light or smaller meals take two hours to digest against the three hours that are required to digest a full meal. Thus, start your Yoga session one hour after your last consumed meal.
EATING BEFORE YOGA
Snacking is a better option when it comes to eating before Yoga. If you practice Yoga first thing in the morning, you could opt for a glass of lukewarm water with a tinge of honey and lemon. Either you can help yourself with a bowl of salad packed with green and other fibre infused veggies; they are fast and easy to digest. All kinds of fruits and nuts are a great pre-yoga snack. Bananas and Apples are the most recommended, because while bananas provide quick hit of energy, due to its carbohydrates and Vitamin-B contents, Apples are alkaline fruits which help in countering acidity. A bowl of oatmeal also makes for a prudent choice.
SATTVIK MEAL
Yoga truly believes in the benefits of Sattvik meals and thus religiously promotes it each time. The food items that contain Sattva (pure, clean, energy, nature, strong, wise) qualities (guna) constitute to Sattvik meal. Sattvik food is also nutritionally wholesome, which keeps you full without making you feel heavy. Sattvik Meal is a part of Yoga teachings.
Post practicing Yoga, it’s quite natural to feel hungry. But, you may lose all the advantages you gathered from Yoga, if after asanas you indulge in meals like Briyani or Chole Bhature.
EATING AFTER YOGA
Eating after Yoga is quite normal, but along with eating it is essential to keep your body hydrated during and post Yoga. Drink plenty of water, and if you can, help yourself with coconut water. You could resort to other fruit juices as well, but avoid additional sugar, rely on natural source of sugar. Soups of vegetables like carrot, celery, spinach or cabbage make for nutritional calorie free meal. Add ginger and black pepper for taste, but avoid readymade soups. For lunch or dinner go for simple wholesome meals like roti and vegetables with rice and dal.
Eating right kind of food is also a part of Yoga philosophy, as it preaches of cleansing from inside out.
