After a transition period of two years or so I am beginning to eat only once a day. I have stopped eating breakfast and will now only eat when I get home after work. I feel lighter and more energetic as well as more cheerful as I know that I will have more prana available during my spiritual practices.
BUT another side-effect which is a big inconvenience is very bad breath. Or so I’m told by my relatives. The dentist said my teeth are fine, and the family doctor said it might be the “stomach gases” that come up and make the breath bad.
So I am wondering if I should do stomach cleansing practices such as Jala Vaman Dhauti Kriya and Vastra Dhauti Kriya as shown on this page: http://www.yogasimplified.com/yogasimplified/chapter6-1.htm
Because of my dieting I have become a sweet-eater. I can eat 10 bananas in a row! This probably creates a ‘vatta-pita-kapha’ imbalance which may be the cause of the bad breath, but I don’t know. I’m cutting back on sweet food and if the bad breath doesn’t go away I will try the above practices.
Any comments?
Good luck on your transition, Chiron.
I think you may want to confirm whether the bad breath is due to stomach gas or dry mouth. Since you are not eating often, you mouth may be getting dry which may actually be causing the bb. you can try gargling and drinking water every 30 mins or so and try if it works.
you can also try drinking some fruit juice (if thats ok with you) to cut down the stomach gas if thats causing the bb.
different qn - but related to this topic:
Throughout my college days and most part of last ten years, I have skipped breakfast as I am late raiser and run late for college or work. I drink coffee though once in the morning. It is believed that skipping bf affects memory, etc.
Is this really true? is it ok to skip bf on a long-term basis?
what are the negative effects of not having breakfast?
I realize this is way late, but have you considered your calorie restriction could be putting you in ketosis? Bad breath is a common side effect of the Atkins diet because your body shifts to a different metabolism (burning more protein and fat rather than sugar, I think?) when you eat very low carb or simply go for long periods without eating. There are little sticks you can buy at the drug store to test whether you are in ketosis (by peeing on them). Though mild ketosis certainly doesn’t hurt, I think you want to avoid being in heavy ketosis for long periods or it can result in a condition of dangerously low blood pH (ketoacidosis).
In my case, the muscle tissues have always been in pretty good shape even when body weight dropped very low for my height. Don’t know about the liver heh, pretty sure it was being stressed with all the dietary experiments.
Well I can tell you it definitely didn’t smell like fruit or nail polish remover. Maybe rotten fruit or industrial nail polish remover, LOL.
Thank you for your post, never knew anything about these biological processes. The ketosis test strips will be fun to play with if I decide to do some fasting again.
Must admit, I never succeeded with switching to one meal a day in the long haul. It was too exhausting and counter-productive (if not hypocritical). With my heavy workload I’d come home tired and sleep instead of doing practices. Now I’ve found a suitable diet and don’t think about it much anymore, just make sure I stay away from processed food and do my practices! I suspect that if I’m ever able to reduce my food intake it will be a result of some kind of natural transformation, not something I can force myself into. Had to find out the hard way I guess.
Bad breath doesn’t seem to be a problem now, especially after I found what tongue scrapers are for 
