6 Reasons why Sitting on the Floor and Eating is Really Healthy

Whether one lives in the apartment of a high rise building or in a bungalow on some posh road, one common staple in every house is a dining table. Most commonly seen in a separate dining room, this is where families come together to share a meal, be it breakfast, lunch or dinner. Beating the norm, however, there are many Indian families that are ditching the dining table to sit on the floor and eat their meals. While at first glance it might seem unusual, there are actually multiple health benefits ssociated with sitting on the floor and eating the Indian way. Here are 6 of them –

1. Great for your Digestion –

When you sit on the floor, with your legs crossed to eat a meal, your body is positioned in an aasan that greatly helps the digestion process. Additionally, when you sit on the floor to eat a meal, your body will constantly bend forward and then go back to its starting position, thereby exercising the muscles in your stomach and smoothing the digestion process.

2. Helps you lose weight –

If exercising and dieting are not helping you get rid of that extra fat, maybe it’s time to change your eating habits. It’s been reported that, when one sits down to eat their food, their brain automatically calms down, thereby becoming better equipped to focus on the food one’s consuming. This way, your brain tricks your body into feeling full faster. How does this happen? Well, when you sit down to eat, the vagus nerve (the nerve that connects your stomach to your brain) sends faster signals to your brain, which in turn makes you feel like you’re full.

3. Enhances one’s life span –

Yes, you read that right. According to a recently published study, people who eat this way tend to be more flexible and have greater lower body strength. Because of this, they tend to be 6.5 times less likely to die within the next six years! So if you’ve been looking for the secrets of living longer, eating the Indian way happens to be one of them.

4. Increases one’s flexibility

Another great benefit of eating this way is that it increases one’s overall flexibility. When one sit’s in padmasana, the muscles in their pelvis, stomach, upper abdomen stretch and lower back get exercised. Apart from smoothing your digestive process, the constant exercise these muscles get also increases one’s flexibility.

5. Great for your heart

If you yourself are, or if you know someone, who is a heart patient, then adopting the Indian way of eating would be highly advisable. One of the most essential elements of a successful digestion process is sound blood circulation. Your heart, which is responsible for all blood circulation, goes the extra mile to make sure that blood circulation for the digestion process is not disturbed. When one sits on the floor, the blood gets easily pumped from the heart to all other organs. Alternatively, this does not happen when one sits on a dining table to finish a meal.

6. The human body was not designed for chairs

Lastly, the human body was simply not designed for chairs. If you trace our ancient history, whether to the Vedic Era or to the Ashoka Empire, everyone used to sit on the floor and eat. Even now, there are many countries such as Japan where it’s traditional to eat while sitting on the floor (Japan has one of the greatest life expectancy rates). All this reinstates the fact that human bodies were simply not designed for chairs.