The Satapatha Brahmin establishes that the quality of food should be limited. Food should be taken as to what is proportionate to body, is sufficient for it and does not injure it. When there is too much food it injures the body. When the food is too little it does not satisfy the requirements of the body. This means that every individual should take as much food as may be necessary for the sustenance and nourishment of the body. According to the Brahmins one should take food only twice a day, once in the morning and a second time in the evening.

Baudhayana says that a householder should take only two meals every day. He should not eat food in the intervening period and that if he acts up to this advice he reaps the merit of a fast, but Apastamba allows partaking of roots and fruits between the two meals.

According to the Dharmasutras a Vedic student should eat as much food as is necessary for the sustenance and nourishment of his body. A householder should take thirty-two morsels of food, a forest hermit sixteen and an ascetic only eight morels of food. But according to Baudhayana a student and a householder should not stint themselves as to food. They can do their work properly and efficiently only if they eat sufficient quantity of food. There is, however, no sin if a fast is observed by a householder as a penance for some lapse.

In the Bhagavad-Gita it is clearly stated that one can discharge one`s duties neither by taking too much food nor by avoiding food altogether. One should take as much food as is essential for sustaining his life. And also the food should provide adequate nourishment.