New Delhi, May 13 -- Stop before you are finished. That is the entire instruction. Not when the plate is empty. Not when the stomach protests. Stop at eight-tenths, when satisfaction has arrived, but excess has not yet begun.

The Japanese have practiced this discipline for centuries. They gave it a name. They made it a proverb. And they were right to do so.

There is no frustration, no struggle, no visible drama. There is simply a person pausing with food still on the table. That pause, practiced daily across a lifetime, turns out to change everything.

At its simplest, this proverb is about stopping before the stopping becomes difficult. Eight-tenths full is the point where hunger is gone, but the body is not yet burdened. That final tw...