Breakfast smoothie might be best at dinner

It is often that I am sitting around chatting with friends socially and they tell me the latest best diet they have started.  On one hand they want an Ayurvedic perspective and on the other hand, they are sure that their way is the best way.  Here is an example.

Yesterday a friend told me about the most amazing breakfast smoothie that she has every morning. Everyone is into breakfast smoothies.  It seems that if you don’t have a blended mix of superfoods and antioxidants first thing in the morning you are not serious about your health. Let's look at this from the perspective of Dhinacharya or the 24 hours cycle of Vata Pitta and Kapha.  Ayurveda recommends eating out biggest meal at noon when the sun is high in the sky. The sun (Agni or fire) and the moon ( Soma or cooling nurturing energy) have a big influence on our physiology and also the space element (Marut)

First thing in the morning after hopefully at least 12 hours without food we are just “breaking the fast”. The digestive fire is still slow and we need to wake it up.  Also during the night, the body has been throwing off toxins and it is best to start with warm water with lime to wake up the liver and kidneys to do their work.  This also triggers the colon to eliminate.  So we start with hydration and elimination. I have read that in Japan they drink about 600ml of water (that is about 2.5 cups) and then wait for 30 minutes before eating anything. That makes a lot of sense to me from an Ayurvedic perspective.

Then we can have breakfast.  With breakfast what we are trying to do is give us just enough food so that we easily digest it. Then at noon when the digestive fire is at it highest we can have a larger meal.  Eating at noon we get help from the sun to transform all the dumb food that we eat into intelligent blood.  Just because someone labels the bag of dehydrated food as “Superfood” does not mean that the body can utilize it.  It still has to be transformed by the liver into intelligent blood that will nourish all your cells.

If we overload our digestion first thing in the morning we will put out the transformative fire.  Also when lunchtime comes around we will not be hungry.  It is important to develop a routine so that we are hungry at lunch as that is the best time to eat so that the body gets the help of the life giver of our solar system, the sun.  The power of Nature will support our health.  This would be the best time to have your big meal.

If you had a big smoothie in the morning and you are not hungry all day long it may be that the body is still struggling to transform all the mix of foods, herbs and spices that were presented to the digestive system first thing in the morning.

The recommendation from an Ayurvedic perspective is a lighter breakfast, bigger nourishing lunch with all 6 tastes, and lighter dinner.  That is eating in tune with the 24-hour cycle of Nature.