- MINAL JOSHI
Last Sunday, after a typical Goan lunch—rice, fish curry, sol kadi, and maybe a sweet to finish—a gentleman came to my clinic in the evening.
He said, “Doctor, the food was perfect… but now I feel heavy, sleepy, and uncomfortable. This keeps happening.”
If you live in Goa, this may sound familiar. We enjoy fresh, home-cooked food. Most people are not eating junk every day. Yet, complaints like bloating, acidity, gas, and post-meal tiredness are very common.
So where is the problem?
It’s not just the food. Many people believe that if the food is healthy, the body should automatically feel good. But ayurveda explains it differently: It is not just what you eat, but how well you digest it. This depends on Agni—your digestive strength.
When Agni is strong, food is properly converted into energy. When it is weak or disturbed, even good food can cause heaviness and discomfort.
But then again, what is going wrong in daily life?
In Goa, the issue is often not the food—but the habits around it. A typical routine looks like this:
- Morning tea without real hunger
- Breakfast skipped or rushed
- Heavy lunch eaten quickly
- Tea or snacks in the afternoon
- Late dinner, often after 9.30 or 10 p.m.
Meals are also commonly eaten while watching TV or using the phone. These may seem like small things, but together they disturb digestion.
Common mistakes we ignore
- Eating without hunger: If the previous meal is not digested, the next meal overloads the system.
- Late, heavy dinner: A proper lunch is fine but late dinners do not allow enough time for digestion before sleep.
- Replacing meals with tea: Tea may suppress hunger temporarily, but it does not support proper digestion.
- Distracted eating: Eating without attention slows down the digestive process.
- Sleeping soon after dinner: This is a common cause of acidity and heaviness.
Simple changes that help
We don’t need to give up our favourite food. Small adjustments can make a big difference:
- Eat only when you feel real hunger
- Keep meal timings regular
- Finish dinner at least two three hours before sleep
- Eat calmly, without mobile or TV
- Keep dinner lighter than lunch
In a place like Goa, where food is a part of culture and joy, health does not come from restriction—it comes from balance. I don’t have to stop enjoying my meals. I just need to support my body in digesting them properly. Because in the end, it’s not the fish curry or the rice that is the problem it’s whether our body is ready to digest it.
(The writer is deputy director (AYUSH), Directorate of Health Services, an ayurveda practitioner and health administrator)
