Is it Hunger?

I can’t tell you how many times while writing this book that ideas of ‘hunger’ popped up and sparked cravings as my digestive fire responded to the tantalising details. It was the kind of feeling that makes you head straight for the biscuit tin, but is it a reason to eat?

Those of us who are fortunate enough to live in the West are surrounded by food – cheap and abundant, it stares us in the face on a regular basis. If we’re not eating, someone next to us is. If we’re not cooking food, someone else is selling it. I love food, and I’ve always been pretty lucky to be able to ‘put it away’ at will. From the outside, my skin was good, my frame was small, but my digestion wasn’t happy with me, and when I fed that kind of hunger I never felt satisfied, only craved more until I was pushed over the edge and regretted it. We’ve all been there – eating when you’re full, staying up late when you’re tired and taking on more than you can do. In the past it was a challenge not to do something that I ‘impulsively’ wanted to do, but now I understand more about my Agni, so my reasoning kicks in. If I get a craving: I ask myself, am I just procrastinating? Is the nostalgia of my mum’s cooking or a holiday dish calling my name? Even simpler is to say – would I drink a lassi right now, or eat a carrot or a bowl of dal? If not, guess what? It probably isn’t hunger.