by Setareh Kiumarsi
Imagine you’ve just finished a heavy, greasy meal at a dinner party. An hour passes, and the whispers begin:
“I wish we had something sweet, maybe a dessert, to wash down that heavy food!”
But did you know that desserts and sweets—usually made with a mix of sugar, white flour, and dairy—are extremely kapha-increasing and sticky in nature? When you eat dessert right after a meal, it’s like adding a big sticky glob of mucus into an ocean of undigested heaviness sitting in your stomach!
Not only does dessert not help your digestion, it slows it down, makes the contents of your stomach heavier and more sluggish, and fills your digestive system with ama (undigested toxins or mucus). These sticky toxins often get stored as layers of fat, leading to weight gain and a long list of kapha-related issues like hypothyroidism, diabetes, bloating, and inflammation.
Then you wonder:
“But I don’t even eat that much… why am I always gaining weight or dealing with all these little issues?”
When and how can we enjoy something sweet with less harm?
Here’s the key: in order for your digestive system to feel truly satisfied, it needs all six tastes—sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent—to be represented in your meal. That’s why you often crave something sweet after eating: your body is searching for balance!
But here’s what most people don’t know:
Sweet taste digests faster than any other taste which means it should always be eaten at the start of your meal, not at the end.
Most sweet foods are cold and moist in quality. They increase mucus and heaviness in the gut. If your first bite includes something sweet (like a date or a small sweet dish), this small amount of mucus-like texture triggers saliva production, rehydrates the stomach lining, and primes your gut for digestion. It also helps you feel full sooner, reducing the risk of overeating!
So instead of eating dessert after the meal, try eating your sweet first.
And skip those store-bought cakes and cookies full of refined sugar and white flour because they act like poison in your gut.
Choose natural sweets like dates, dried figs, or homemade desserts made with whole grain flours, natural sweeteners like grape or date syrup, and digestive spices such as saffron, cardamom, cinnamon, or nutmeg.
You can find a recipe for a light, healthy dessert at the link provided in this article.
Please be sure to credit the author, Setareh Kiumarsi, when sharing or republishing this article, which was written with love and the hope of well-being for all.
