It’s often been argued that not eating after 7 p.m is what’s best for us and our health. Chinese medicine has a very set mindset on this and it agrees that in order to be healthy and have a healthy digestive system, it’s best to avoid eating at night. In Chinese medicine, qi (energy) circulates throughout our body through twelve main channels. For each channel, there is a two hour period during which the energy is the strongest.

In Chinese medicine, it is told that digestion is controlled by the Earth element which represents the organs stomach and spleen. The stomach’s strongest energy level is in the morning between 7 and 9 am and the spleen is strongest between 9 and 11 am. Therefore, our digestive system is the strongest between 7 and 11 am which is why it is often advised to eat early in the morning as our body has much more time and energy to properly digest the food we consume.

Twelve hours later, our digestive organs are at their lowest level of energy which is why we are told that eating by 7 pm is detrimental to our health because it doesn’t have enough energy to burn the fattening foods we consume at night which leads to blockage in our digestive system and can even cause sleep problems because of the uneasiness caused by poor digestion. The food we consume stays in our stomach and often leads to gas, bloating and discomfort. In case of intense hunger, it is advised that we consume fruits or vegetables because they’re the simplest to digest.

Digestion slows down as the day goes by and when we consume a large amount of food late at night, energy is drawn from other organs to help us digest food. At night, from 11 to 3 pm, the energy in our body is focus on our liver and gall bladder. These are the organs that clean our body of the toxins inserted into it during the day. When we eat late at night and take away from their energy level, we get indigestion and insomnia. Furthermore, toxins get stored in our organs and joints because the liver didn’t function well enough to get rid of them because our binge eating drew energy from it. Thus, not eating after 7 pm not only benefits our digestive system it is also very beneficial to our liver’s ability to function.

Here at HolliBalance WellBeing Center, we have had many clients come in with digestive problems and when we advised them to stop the consumption of food after 7pm, they saw many of their symptoms disappear. This even happens to symptoms completely unrelated to digestion such as arthritis. Furthermore, people also notice a drop in weight as the body is able to rid itself of toxins. In conclusion, this allow the meridians to balance and naturally become more powerful when energy is not drawn into digestion overnight.

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