Ancient cultures would want people to eat sparingly once the sun went down. Mark Bunn wants us to follow this age-old tradition to regain a healthy lifestyle
We are designed to eat our main meal in the middle of the day. This is when the sun and our digestive fire are at their peaks. Just as the sun sets in the evening and disappears by nightfall, our inner digestive sun (or fire) also sets. Think of a dynamic, blazing campfire that slowly dwindles in strength until it is just a bed of hot embers. This is similar to how our digestive fire lessens in strength from day to night. After sunset, our digestion, along with all its related internal processes, moves into its resting phase in order to facilitate the next cycle of inner purification during sleep.
The ancients knew that eating lightly at night was the secret to “the sleep of the gods”. When we do it, our body can fully focus its energies on eliminating the impurities and stresses that have accumulated during the day. Without the burden of a big evening meal to digest, we are better able to repair, revitalise and rejuvenate ourselves, and wake up as Mother Nature intended: With the birds bright, energised and motivated.
But what do we doIJ Most of us come home at 7, 8 or 9 o’clock at night and sit down for our main meal of the day: Steak and three chicken parmagiana that’s falling over the sides of the plate; spaghetti bolognese with a side of chips. And would we like some ice-cream, a little slice of cheesecake or some apple pie just to top it offIJ Well, it would be rude not to. So we loosen our belts, dig in and eat until we feel like we’re about to give birth. Consequently, instead of waking up ‘bouncing out of bed with the birds’, we wake up heavy, dull and sluggish.
Though modern science has historically been more concerned with the old calories-in and calories-out understanding of weight management, a recent study has shown the first causal evidence linking meal timing to increased weight gain. The study, headed by Fred Turek, Director of the Centre for Sleep and Circadian Biology, Northwestern University, found that mice that ate at irregular times — the equivalent of the middle of the night for humans — put on almost two-and-a-half times more weight than mice eating the same type and same amount of food during naturally wakeful hours (48 per cent compared to 20 per cent). Turek said, “How or why a person gains weight is very complicated, but it clearly is not just calories-in and calories-out.” On summing up the study’s findings, he poignantly commented, “Better timing of meals... could be a critical element in slowing the ever-increasing incidence of obesity.”
All of this has, of course, been known for thousands of years in the eastern traditions. Ayurveda tells us that large, heavy meals at night are not only likely to be poorly digested (as our internal fire is not so strong), but totally compromise our nightly rejuvenation cycle. Even worse, improperly digested food, known as ‘ama’ in Ayurveda, is not always easily removed from our bodies. Unless eliminated, such incompletely digested food accumulates night after night in our cells and tissue. Over time, this undigested mush starts blocking vital internal channels and impairing cellular communication. The ancient Ayurvedic texts clearly detail how ama directly leads to weight gain, joint stiffness, mental lethargy and a host of other imbalances.
While modern science does not have this understanding, sticky residues or ‘plaques’ are known to interfere with many internal processes. Atherosclerotic plaque is what lines our arteries. Plaques build up in our joints and play roles in certain types of arthritis. Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia are commonly associated with plaques that build up between the neurons or communication channels of our brains. The normal flow of communication gets blocked and as a result all areas of mental functioning — memory, clear thinking, decision-making — begin to deteriorate.
The question is, where do these plaques come fromIJ Modern medicine does not really know. Enlightened medicine men and women of times past knew that the main cause of these plaques is the improper digestion of food. Every part of our bodies is, after all, nothing other than the food we have eaten. It is well documented that one of the most significant differences between the diets of long-living people from traditional cultures and our own is that they eat far fewer calories per day. The Hunzans, for example, typically consume 500 to 1000 fewer calories per day than the average person in America. More importantly, most of their calories are consumed during the active, daylight hours, when digestion is strongest.
Wise ancient cultures that lived in harmony with the natural cycles knew to eat sparingly, if at all, once the sun went down. This is why traditionally the evening meal was known as ‘supper’. If one did eat after sunset it was only something that could be ‘sipped’ or ‘supped’. Why do we need a big meal at night anywayIJ We’re about to go to sleep!
The writer is a health expert based in Australia