Any traditional meal we have at our houses, festivals, functions or in weddings, we must have observed that we are served food with different kinds of spices such as staple dal, vegetables, chapati, rice and pickles are served in the beginning and sweets are served at the end. Our ancestors stressed upon the fact that every meal should start with spicy foods and end with something sweet. But did you ever wonder why do we not eat the sweet first and then move on to other things spicy? It is not for nothing that our ancestors emphasized on the fact that we should end our meals with something sweet and it has a scientific reasoning to back it up. We spoke to Ayurveda expert Raman Mishra to tell us the significance of eating sweets at the end of a meal.
Our ancestors have stressed on the fact that our meals should be started off with something spicy and sweet dishes should be taken towards the end. The significance of this eating practice is that while spicy things activate the digestive juices and acids and ensure that the digestion process goes on smoothly and efficiently, sweets or carbohydrates pulls down the digestive process. Hence, sweets were always recommended to be taken as a last item.