We all have busy schedules due to which we cut back on cooking time and again. In an attempt to achieve this, many times we end up eating leftovers. Now, we know that refrigerators can keep our food fresh for more than 48 hours but is it still healthy enough to reheat food and eat it the next day? let’s find out!
According to Ayurveda, food should be eaten within 3 hours of cooking or at the most in a single day. No matter how much you store your food in an airtight container, it will not stay fresh the next day.
Subah Saraf Jain of the Sattvik Movement recently posted an Instagram reel explaining how leftover food is considered tamasik (the way of ignorance) in Ayurveda and hence, consuming it can make you lazy. Subah further explained that according to the Gita, ideally, all cooked food should be consumed within a few hours of cooking and the leftovers of the previous day are considered tamasic.
What is tamasic food?
In Ayurveda, tamasic food is basically those foods which lack energy (prana) as it is stale and thus, it makes us sluggish and lazy. Tamasic food reduces the body’s ability to fight diseases and also affects the proper functioning of our immune system. Due to overeating, heating, leftover or stale food, what was once sattvik food (food that is light and healthy) can turn into tamasic.
A study published on Research Gate states that tamasic food increases pessimism, laziness and doubt while sattvik diet increases the energy of the mind and creates cheerfulness, calmness and mental clarity.
What happens if you eat leftover food?
As the expert explained, leftover food has little nutritional value, and has little or no life energy left inside. Consuming tamasic food continuously causes lethargy, inertia and lethargy in our body. Some studies also suggest that people who eat leftovers every day have a higher risk of suffering from clinical depression.
Plus, traditionally, our grandparents ate everything fresh (straight from the stove to the plate). “The culture of keeping foods in the fridge for long periods of time or eating frozen foods came from the West, and this is one of the reasons for the rapid rise in diseases,” she adds.
So what can you do instead?
Instead of storing your cooked food for the next day, try to eat it the same day you cook them.
*If there is any food left, then give it to those who need food on the same day.
