Taking the best time to eat food or drink is the secret of a healthy body. Ayurveda says to practice Ushapan, drinking water an empty stomach first in the morning. It helps to flush out all the toxins from the body and cleanse the intestines. The entire day should be divided at an interval of 4 hours. Our body needs foods after every 4 hours says Ayurveda.
Let us dig deeper to know the best time to eat food and water.
What time should I eat my meals?
The breakfast should be taken within 2 hours of waking up which is generally between 8 am to 10 am every day. People who tend to skip their breakfast are more likely to get imbalanced blood sugar levels and high risk of developing high cholesterol, blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and obesity.
The best time to eat food for lunch should always be consumed within 3 pm, and dinner should be completed within 8 pm says Ayurveda. Dinner should always be consumed 3 hours before the bedtime.
- The biggest meal should be consumed during noon.
Is it bad to drink water with food?
The answer is NO, but also answer is ambiguous as many experts say that drinking water with food doesn’t promote easy digestion as the food tends to float up and hinders digestion. On the contrary, many experts say water aids digestion as it helps the food to dilute faster. The water in the body helps to absorb essential nutrients from the food and further softens the stool helping to ease the problem of constipation.
According to health experts, the best time to drink water should be half an hour before the meal and one hour after the meal. It helps the bile juice to make the food digest more as the doesn’t dilute the bile juice.
When should you eat the last meal of your day?
Having meal very close to the bedtime increases the blood sugar and insulin that makes hard to sleep during the night. Hence, the last meal of the day should be taken at least 2-3 hours before bedtime and should be the lightest of all meal. Consuming light food in the last meal helps reduce obesity and improvises the sleep cycle. As the body does not get water for long 8 hours during sleep, so it becomes tough for food to get diluted and digested so one should consume the last meal at least 3-4 hours before bedtime.
What time at night should you stop eating?
The last meal of the night should be taken at least 3 hours before bedtime to ensure that the food gets digested before going to bed. It helps to promote healthy sleep as it does not increase the insulin and blood sugar level in the blood. If you are early to bed and early riser then 6pm to 8pm mealtime is the best time to eat food. This helps the body to shed weight and reduce obesity as the body needs a minimum of 3 hours to digest 600 calories, including protein, carbohydrates and other vegetables.
Why should you not eat after 7 pm?
The body gets enough time for the calories to burn before you go to sleep. The best time to eat food should be before 7 pm. Eventually, this results in weight loss and prevents furtherobesity.
It helps to sleep better as heartburn, and indigestion doesn’t happen when you eat hours before bedtime. It promotes good heart health too. It reduces the chances of the high blood pressure along with many deadly health issues.
How long should you wait to drink water after eating?
The best time to eat food is within 4 hours in a day. One should always prefer to drink water for at least half an hour and a maximum of 1 hour after having their meal.
This is so because there is a proportion of solid-liquid that needs to be maintained. This balance gets hindered when we drink water, the proportion of liquid gets increased, thus diluting the acid/bile juice that the stomach produces to digest the food and absorb the essential nutrients.
Should you drink water before bed?
The best time to drink water is three hours before the bedtime. Here are some pros and cons of drinking water before bedtime-
PROS
- Keeps hydrated and controls the temperature
- Gives clear skin by removing toxin from the body
- Good immune system
- Reduce the risk of heart problems
- Weight loss
CONS
Disrupted sleep or Nocturia. Nocturia is increasing need to urinate, which is slower downed by the body during sleep to give a complete sleep cycle. When the sleep cycle is not completed properly, the risk of sleep deprivation occurs. This gives vegetative impact on a person’s mood, memory, bladder infection or overactive bladder, constipation and concentration. This adds up to the risk of disorders like diabetes, heart disease, depression and obesity. This can happen to any age group, but the risk of getting this is more to the older age group of people.
How much water should you drink in a Day?
Drink water whenever you feel thirsty. But experts say 8-ounce glasses or more than 2 liters in a day..
During sleep,the body loses water in the form of sweat and urine. It is equally important to keep your body hydrated, but if you drink too much water before bedtime, it will hinder the sleep cycle,so it is recommended to drink water or food three hours before bedtime.
There is no such number limit about how much or many glasses of water you should drink before bedtime, but the minimum amount of water should be taken to cool down your thirst. This would not hinder the sleep cycle, and hence it will reduce the chances of heart risk and other diseases.
So, healthy life will be maintained when you intake food and water in the best possible manner. A portion of healthy food and water routine will give the best health when maintained properly.
