What's The Real Cause Of The Problem?

It's been raining off and on for three days, and today was forecast to feel more like late winter than early spring. This morning I had a task to take care of at a big box hardware store halfway across town. Hubby Tony came with me; we combined my activity with walking up and down the aisles to get in some steps.

I had promised him lunch out, but my task went so quickly it was long before before any lunch restaurant would open. We modified our plans, deciding to head most of the way home and grab food from a carry out Chinese place, but on the highway I came up with another idea. There's a great Indian restaurant close to the house. We've been there a couple of times for dinner, but never during the middle of the day. Tony did a quick search to verify the place was open and we headed in that direction.

The restaurant calls their early specials a 'lunch box', which includes small portions of six different entrees, rice, and naan. Tony and I each ordered one. The entrees arrived on large round metal plates that had a shallow indentation for each item. Our waiter also delivered a metal bowl of wonderfully-seasoned basmati rice and a basket holding a large buttered naan cut into four pieces. 

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I started eating, and didn't stop until every morsel of food on the plate was gone (and the sauces completely sopped up). Halfway through the meal the waiter came by, saw the empty bread basket, and asked if we needed more. I said we did. 

If anything the second naan was even chewier and fluffier than the first. It also disappeared.

At the end of the meal the waiter asked if we were interested in dessert, but both Tony and I were full. We paid the bill and left. A half hour later I had a nasty case of indigestion. None of the food was overly spicy, and I blamed the issue on overeating.

Mid-afternoon I had a chiropractor appointment. The doctor was in a chatty mood, so I was telling him about my great meal and subsequent digestion issues. He told me that it was because I had eaten the food in the wrong order.

He explained, and I tried to follow. I learned that an Indian health system called Ayurveda says that food should be eaten mindfully and in a specific order. He went on to say that nowadays most Indian restaurants were Westernized and no longer follow the concept. At that point he realized that his next patient was there and ended the discussion.

I came home and tried to find out more about the topic and found out that there were six basic tastes that should be incorporated into each meal. A ideal Ayurvedic meal starts with sweet foods. followed by salty, then sour foods. Next comes pungent, astringent, and bitter items.

I know better than to think that I'll completely revise my diet according to these new rules, but I'll play with them when I remember. What's the worst that could happen?

Five years ago: Fancy That