Breakfast like an emperor, lunch like a king and dinner like a beggar - that's the local saying for the perfect start to the day. Anyone familiar with the "classic Ayurvedic" breakfast of boiled cereal porridge with stewed fruit is bound to think that our "ancients" had no idea, far from it! From an Ayurvedic point of view, a large, nutritious breakfast is also important for all those who have a day of physical exertion and arduous work ahead of them. So if you are preparing for a long mountain hike or want to chop your winter supply of wood, you would do well to strengthen your Kapha in the morning with a hearty breakfast of wholegrain cereals, nuts and dairy products. According to Ayurveda, even high-quality proteins, such as a breakfast egg, need not be foregone.
However, if your morning efforts are limited to walking to the parking lot and the work marathon ahead of you is all in your head, Ayurveda recommends light food that provides you with quick-burning energy.
Now the motto for a healthy breakfast is: warm, cooked, easily digestible and metabolism-boosting. What could be better than hot ginger water and a delicious cereal porridge garnished with almonds, raisins and a little cinnamon?
But be careful - an Ayurvedic breakfast porridge doesn't always have to be sweet. On the contrary, too much sweetness in the morning also makes you sluggish and destabilizes the insulin balance. In India, too, a hearty breakfast is preferred with upma, a spicy vegetable porridge. The sweet alternative to this would be sheera, a sweet wheat semolina roasted in ghee with almonds, raisins, cardamom, saffron and cinnamon.
No breakfast is also healthy
If you find it difficult to get out of bed in the morning and suffer from poor digestion, it's a good idea to skip breakfast. Instead of bread, cheese or muesli, why not just have hot water with ginger and a little honey and lemon? Alternatively, it can also be warm milk with spices. This helps anyone who cannot or does not want to follow the old country saying "Eat like a beggar in the evening".
Porridge, muesli or bread? Your dosha type decides
If you want to tailor your breakfast to your type, you have many alternatives for your morning meal:
Not everyone likes sweet porridge in the morning. Pitta types in particular already have a healthy appetite after getting up and prefer solid and chewy food to a creamy porridge. So they prefer "real" muesli and wholemeal bread to cooked cereal flakes with stewed apples.
And what's actually wrong with that? The most important thing for a healthy Pitta metabolism is to avoid acidic substances (such as orange juice and yoghurt) and to observe the right combinations, such as not eating raw fruit with milk and not having milk with eggs and meat. And you can also have a good German breakfast with wholemeal bread, a vegetarian spread, some raw vegetables and sprouts or muesli with nuts.
For Kapha types, a breakfast that is too big and too heavy is the best way to fall into a comatose deep sleep in the morning. Bad for all those who want to be and remain efficient. For this reason, all those who have a kapha-dominated metabolism (mandagni) should only eat a little by 10.00 a.m. and only when they are really hungry.
Light, dry and hearty meals, such as a spicy barley porridge or millet rice cakes with lentil spread and sprouts, are ideal for balancing kapha.
Vata types experience the Ayurvedic breakfast as a revelation. They love their warm breakfast porridge with steamed fruit, which gives them energy and comforting satisfaction for the whole day. The digestive spices of cinnamon, ginger and cardamom not only taste good, but also help against flatulence and constipation.
"Brunch types" who enjoy a sumptuous breakfast culture are represented among all constitutions. For them, good time management is particularly important: from 10.00 a.m. onwards, the digestive fire rises with the sun in the sky to a good level of heat and turnover. Accordingly, a brunch for lunch is well digested. Especially if it follows the Ayurvedic dietary rules.
Article by Kerstin Rosenberg
