The Sweet Trap of Indian Hospitality: Surviving Food Comas

 

India is known for its hospitality and Indians treat their guests like kings and queens. Though you enjoy the royal treatment at first, slowly when your stomach gets full you try to escape from their sweet and lovable hosting just to protect your stomach. So even when you politely say no, thank you, for some reason Indians think yes, okay go ahead and then serve you one more. So, food keeps coming and there are varieties, varieties of everything. Indians are mostly the joyous Asians who celebrate almost anything and everything. And never without sweets, when I say sweets it’s not just one they serve you, they serve you a variety just like different courses of side dishes and main dishes, there will be a lot of sweets. Until you get food intoxicated, the serving keeps coming. So, then you realize okay coma can not only be caused by certain things but with simple food too. When you eat a healthy food but too much, ultimately you are experience food coma, indigestion and sluggishness. When you probably eat too much of healthy sugar, you are in food coma as well. So basically, every day food that you consider healthy are benefiting your health only when eaten a handful. More than that it’s just a digestive overload that your system does recognize and process with a lot of strain. 

It is rightly said ‘Too much of anything is good for nothing’. So next time when you go for a feast at your friend’s place make sure to remember this proverb. The proverb carries a deep meaning beyond the simple surface words that can be applied to food, work and habits as well. Balance is vital and excess is harm. 

What you can do to avoid food coma?

• Portion control - Eat smaller portions of everything that is served. 
• Masticate the food well – Mostly in a social gathering we keep talking to people, hence forget to chew the food well. However, chewing the food well helps in better breakdown of the food enabling better digestion. 
• Listen to your body - Stop eating before you feel completely full. Imagine your stomach to be the pressure cooker. Just like you add grains, water and leave some space in the cooker for proper cooking to happen, in the same way leave some space in your stomach for proper digestion to happen.
• Balance your plate – Eat more vegetables and lean protein with less carbs, preferably complex carbs. 
• Skip heavy sugars – Have a spoon of sweet and not too much. Also minimize or avoid sugary drinks. 
• Sip not gulp - Sip warm water or ginger infusion during a meal to aid in digestion. Avoid cold water and drinking too much of water as they slow down your stomach acids affecting digestion. 
• Don’t miss the mouth-freshener – Enjoy a tsp of this post-meal blend of with cumin, fennel and cardamom seeds which aid in digestion, prevent excess stomach acids and freshens your breath.  
• Avoid the couch – Do not sit or relax immediately after a meal. Make sure to go to bed atleast 2 hours after dinner. 
• Go for a short walk - Walk in nature preferably or if not possible walk inside home for 10 – 20 minutes after the meal. 
• Fast after the feast - In case you ate a lot, then try to skip the next meal. 

So next time make sure to follow the above tips so you are not too full to function or too tired to move after a feast!! Let’s break the food coma cycle and feast without fatigue.