Is It Okay to Eat Small Meals Frequently?

Have you ever experienced feeling more energetic with a spring in your step at certain times when your stomach feels light? If so, what might that mean for the conventional wisdom that you need three full meals a day to be at your best physically and mentally? Many people who go to various yoga and wellness programs report feeling very vibrant all through the day and correlate this to the diet provided in these programs. But might not the scheduling of the meals and portion sizes – when and how much we eat – also play some possible role in the increased energy?

Excited at the possibility of a more energetic life, people may also experiment with intermittent fasting, going eight hours or more between meals, trying to increase the sense of vibrancy in daily life. However, without seasoned guidance, such eating habits may be hard to sustain or may not produce the effects one desires. Fortunately, the yogic tradition offers a systematic way to consistently structure our eating habits for a more energetic lifestyle.

Listen to Sadhguru elaborate in this video on the importance of understanding the digestive system to harness our full potential in life: “Just see how your body feels when there’s food in the stomach, and how your body feels when the stomach is empty. You will see your body and your brain will work at its best when your stomach is empty. If food is constantly being processed in your digestive system, a certain amount of energy naturally is gone there. So, both your brain and body will not function at their best.”

“Most of your problems are because of unclean colon, and the way people are eating today. Keeping the colon clean is going to be a big challenge for them. Suppose you eat one big meal like we normally do – one big meal, and either we don’t eat anything else, or if we are too active, maybe we eat a fruit or something – you will see, your colon will always remain clean. And people should try this, they must purge themselves one day and see how it feels. Suddenly, there is something light and beautiful about you. Every day, that’s how you’re supposed to feel.”