Blame it on our hectic work or fast-paced modern lifestyle, we all would agree that at some point in our life we would have skipped our meal simply prioritizing the work in hand. Also, skipping meals becomes a common practise as we think it would take ages to eat a meal. Even worse is the habit of staying hungry the whole day trying to compensate for the previous day’s binge eating.
Well, it’s not just you who does this, but a massive percentage of people have started to think of starving themselves as a good practise. Here, we will be discussing the wrong ways and their effects on our body & mind, what happens when we starve ourselves, and what are the solutions.
Reasons why people tend to remain hungry or skip their meals
- Don’t get time for preparation of meal
- Being forgetful
- Digestion issues
- To lose weight
- Compensate for binge eating
- Doesn’t find food important
How long is too long for the body ? Why is meal timings important ?
Our body has a set metabolic clock which is in sync with the Sun. Mornings have the maximum metabolic rate, afternoon experiences the peak, which eventually slows down after the sunset. This is the only reason why health experts suggest avoiding heavy meals after 5-6 pm and consuming maximum nutrition in the daytime.
If a person skips breakfast, mid morning snack or even lunch then even if he tries to eat nutrition dense food later in the evening it doesn’t help and can never serve the purpose. This is because the golden time period is lost when the body could have easily digested & assimilated the nutrients from the food that you are eating. Now when the digestive fire is low how much healthy food you put in doesn’t get digested & absorbed properly leading to various ailments.
The ideal time gap between meals should be at least 3 hours. It is very useful for our metabolic rate i.e. metabolism. Even if somehow the gap goes upto 6 hours, that is also fine and the body is able to cope up to it. But not beyond that.
The following body organs face the mentioned issues when we starve for long:-
- a) Brain
As we know our brain’s primary fuel is glucose, and when it doesn’t get it we first tend to lose our ability to focus and do menial tasks. Therefore, when we starve or skip a major meal our blood glucose dips down as a result one can’t even think properly.
- b) Thyroid Gland
This is the chief gland that regulates our metabolism. When we don’t eat for long this gland slows down our metabolism in order to reserve the energy, which results in slow digestion, slow metabolism, dryness, constipation, flatulence, weight gain etc.
- c) Stomach
This is a place where major digestion happens. It produces acid at regular intervals for working upon the food. If we don’t eat then regular production of acid may damage its inner lining leading to ulcers.
- d) Hormones
Hormones get affected by when we eat and not eat. The stress hormone Cortisol generally rises when people don’t eat for long.
What is the Solution to the problem ?
The following quick solutions can settle all the mess created by staying hungry :-
- For a healthy body and mind, one has to fix a routine and a proper time for their meals.
- Pre-prepare your meals in advance so that you don’t have to budge at the last moment.
- If you had a party / eat out then prepare for a good detox plan the other day, simply not eating won’t fix the issue.
- Don’t rely on multivitamins pills and capsules, the truth is that food is the only medicine that can fix all your problems.
- In order to lose weight, try a diet that your body needs along with exercise, because starving yourself can only make you gain more weight in the end.
- Carry homemade snacks as a backup plan so that you don’t face starvation especially while travelling. For example- fruits, almonds, walnuts, pistachios, roasted makhana, peanuts, murmura, quinoa puffs, soya puffs etc.
