When I first started learning about Ayurveda, I was taught that the body produces a burp when we are eating to signal that we have eaten enough.
I was skeptical at first, because I didn’t think that I burped when I ate. Burping is not considered very polite in the West and especially not at the dining table. I’d never thought of burping as useful, or even wondered why we did it. If anything, it was just something that needed to be excused. I had heard that in “some cultures” that burping was a compliment to the chef, but I was certainly more inclined to ignore private burps and suppress them in a social situation.
Burping as portion control is a thing. Who knew?
However, when I started paying attention, I realized that I do in fact burp after I’ve been eating for a while. I needed to test this out and I got my friends and family to pay attention to the burp too. Lo and behold everyone does it. It’s definitely a thing.
It makes me wonder if the whole compliments to the chef thing has anything to do with complimenting the host on being able to provide ‘enough’ food for guests, especially in times of scarcity. Many people in the West are more likely to suffer from the consequences of having too much and not knowing when to stop than not having enough. When we don’t know when to stop, we suffer from obesity and other illnesses and then we seek external and extreme methods to stop ourselves from over-consuming. These include diets of all kinds, calorie or carb counting, surgery, weight loss drugs, extreme exercise, fasting and detoxing. These methods often cause further imbalance in the body and set off a desire for binging and over eating again. The pendulum swings from side to side, with binging and starving being the two most extreme points of the pendulum’s pathway.
In Ayurveda, this is seen to be a cause for concern because it contributes to ama (the toxins that build up in your body) and it causes the doshas to go out of balance. The irregularity and swinging between extremes is particularly disturbing to vata dosha. Overeating and particularly over a long period of time will cause all kinds of problems in the digestive system and untreated, will eventually lead to disease.
The simple gift of the burp from your body will end the need to seek complicated external methods of deciding when to stop eating. Becoming aware of the first burp is nature’s way of telling you that you’ve had enough and listening to this burp can help you feel much better.
It can feel a bit odd making the decision to watch out for the burp. Choosing to go within for answers is not what we are encouraged to do these days. But it does work, especially if you eat slowly and chew your food properly so that your stomach has time to let your brain know that you’ve had enough. Comfort eating, drinking fizzy drinks during your meals, eating too fast, eating while watching something on TV, or suppressing the burp without thinking may make it harder to become aware of this valuable little sign that it’s time to stop.
Rituals to mark the end of the meal
Once you’ve noticed the burp, it can be useful to create some routines to mark the end of the meal. These could include things like brushing your teeth, taking pause and enjoying some mindful breathing, taking time to be grateful or just a moment or two of silence. It is good to have a little gentle walk after eating too. In Ayurveda this walk is called shatapawali which literally means 100 steps. This is said to enhance digestion, increase metabolism, aid with weight loss, balance blood sugar levels, lift the mood, and improve the sleep.
As always, don’t take my word for it try it for yourself! Learning to trust your body is a wonderful journey.