Best ways to Avoid Indigestion

Nutrition is the sum of all the activities, involving taking in and utilization of materials essential for the maintenance of the body of humans. It involves procuring food, making it suitable for intake, processing within our digestive system, absorbing useful elements, and removal of undigested matter in the form of feces. Good food is that which contains balanced calories, is easily digestible, and contains all the essential nutritional contents for our bodies. Food is not only a need for our metabolism but also has traditional and cultural importance. Eid ul Adha has great value in the life and culture of Muslims. All over the world, Muslims slaughter their sheep, goats, cows, and camel to commemorate the Sunnah of Ibrahim (A.S.). During Eid days the most item of food in our meal is meat (mutton and beef).    

Humans use plenty of items as food sources, which contain fruits, vegetables, grains, oil, fats, and meat. We eat fruits and vegetables as a source of carbohydrates, oil, and fats as source of lipids (steroids) and proteins as a source of amino acids. Fruits and vegetables are easily digestible while proteins require much longer time for their digestion. Fruits are digested within 30 approximately after their intake, vegetables are digested for approximately 1 hour of their digestion while fats and protein needed a much longer time for their digestion. Due to these reasons, most patients who visit hospitals on Eid ul Adha days are those who have indigestions, diarrhea, and dysentery.  

When we talk about the digestion of meat, chicken is much more easily digested and requires only 1 – 2 hours for its digestion. Mutton and beef require a much longer time for their digestion. Mutton and beef require more than 6 hours for their digestion. Beef and mutton are major components of meals in our feasts and regular food on Eid days. Here we are discussing some good suggestions for the complete and easy digestion of meat, and the prevention of any kind of indigestion. We can divide these strategies into three categories.

1. Pre-eating practices:

We can avoid indigestion if we properly cook meat (mutton & beef). So, for this purpose use the following suggestions that help you in the proper cooking of meat.

• Complete cooking:

Try to avoid any raw cooking of meat. Use a cooker for cooking the meat. Raw meat is a source of plenty of infections and also causes indigestion and even food poisoning in some cases.

• Ginger paste treatment:

Before cooking the meat, marinate the pieces of meat in the ginger paste for 15-30 min, this will make possible the cooking of meat easily.   

• Lemon water treatment:

Some people didn’t like more ginger taste in the meat so use a second strategy. Make small pieces of meat and marinate in lemon water for 15 minutes. This treatment makes the meat to cook properly. Properly cooked meat doesn’t cause any type pf indigestion.

2. Cares during Eating:

We don’t eat by ourselves, but our host tries to feed us until we fill our stomachs. We have a great culture and traditional values. We visit our relatives and friends on Eid ul Adha. We give our friends and relatives lunch and dinner parties.  During feasts, our hosts try to give their guests the maximum variety of items of food and they insist their guests eat more and more. This will lead to serious indigestion on Eid days. So we must remember the following things.

• Avoid overeating:

Eating must be for the living, so avoid overeating. Overeating makes serious problems for your health. These may be long-term as well as short-term. The long-term issue of overeating is obesity while the short-term issue related to overeating is indigestion.

• Eat by complete mastication:

Use a little bite and chew with your teeth properly so that your stomach has to do little work.

• Use good beverages during food:

Carbonated water is best for the proper digestion of food. Remember that overuse of carbonated water is not good for the health.

3. Post-eating strategies:

After eating a good meal, we must remember the following things, otherwise, we have to face serious gastric problems, such as abdominal pain, discomfort, indigestion, diarrhea, dysentery, and flatulence.

• Walk:

Don’t sleep or lay down immediately after eating a meal rich in meat. This will make you suffer from a serious kind of indigestion. So before you have to go to sleep, just walk for 10 – 15 minutes after a meal to avoid any kind of gastric disorder.

• Green tea:

Use green tea of fennel, Mint, Cardamom, and Cinnamon. This will help to digest your meal. This green tea was used since ancient times to cure gastric problems. So these are very powerful agents to smooth your digestive system.  

• Carom seed (Ajwain):

Use one teaspoon of carom seed powder with normal tap water. This is also a very powerful ayurvedically used herbal medicine to help in digestion and also to avoid any kind of indigestion.

I hope you will find this reading very helpful. I wish you will enjoy the happy and pleasant days of Eid ul Adha.