Festival Fasting and Acidity

Indian festival season is knocking at the door! People fast during the Navratras but fasting doesn’t necessarily compensate overeating after that.

After keeping your stomach hungry for the whole day, you tend to feast in the evening and hog, hog and hog. So, it is quite normal that you succumb to the demand of your hungry tummy and devour on sweet, spicy and all the special delicacies made at home.

Let’s understand what happens to our poor hungry little stomach throughout the day and find out what it can lead to.

Dr R.P.Singh, Senior Consultant Medicine at Rockland Hospital, says, “Our Indian festivals are celebrated in such a way that a lot of emphasis is laid on foods. People generally tend to keep themselves hungry but our stomach continues to work as it does on normal days. Acidic secretion or secretion of hydrochloric acid in the stomach occurs at a usual pace and even at the thought of food. Since there is nothing present in the stomach to neutralise its effect our gastric mucosa gets damaged and causes acidity.”

Have we taken you off your sailboat?

Well, we can surely combat acidity. Here are a few ways you must take a look at –

“Eat fruits”, adds Dr Singh, “because these can help to neutralise acidic secretions. If one needs to really see a doctor due to high acidity medicines will anyways solve the problem.”

Ruchi Jha, Yoga Expert at Real Power Yoga gives us a few tips to avoid acidity when fasting.

Yoga wise

One can do kapalbhati, anulom vilom and sheetkari pranayama as these breathing exercises have a cooling effect on our body and give us plenty of energy. The best time to do the breathing exercise is early morning because this way you will create a powerhouse of energy and also keep your body cool throughout.

Fruit wise

• If you want to eat fruits during the day, make sure you do not introduce variations. Restrict to one type of a fruit in a day. For instance, if you want to have an apple then keep yourself to apples only and bring in variety.
• Having papaya in the morning is the safest bet.

Food wise

It is a bad idea to bombard your tummy with so much of food in the evening. This increases the chances of acidity the nest morning. Keep your dinner as light as possible.

Dry fruit wise

• Keep almonds and raisins in water overnight and eat them in the morning.
• Avoid dry fruits in the night time.

Juice wise

Avoid mixed fruit juice. Stick to the plan of one fruit type on one day. So if you’re having an apple today you can alternate it with an apple and not any other juice.

Drinks wise

• It is needless to say that one must drink plenty of cold water.
• On an empty stomach, early in the morning, people must have cold milk.
• Try drinking lemonade – sweet and salty – to avoid acidity.
• Drink coconut juice.
• Do not drink tea on an empty stomach.

Cooling drinks listed above except tea help in detoxification and cleansing of the body.

General tips

• Do not eat oily food. People tend to eat potato chips and puri.
• Those who have low blood pressure levels must, however, have something salty.
• People with anaemia must take milk products and slightly fried paneer cubes in the evening.
• One can also chew on basil or tulsi leaves or cloves. But, an hour after chewing on cloves, one must drink a lot of cold water to negate heat produced by cloves.

So, feat but moderately and keep your stomach happy either when it is starving for food or jumping with joy with food!

Happy Navratras!