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A Healthy Breakfast: 10 Buddha’s Recommendations For A Good Awakening. What To Eat And What To Avoid
A healthy breakfast starts with the Buddha’s Awakening, that is with the harmony and well-being of body and mind: let’s find out together what to eat for breakfast and what to avoid.
According to the Buddhist tradition, the awakening of Buddha is the search for spiritual enlightenment. It is an inner harmony and happiness that can be achieved through concrete gestures and actions as well as beneficial practices. In the same way, a healthy breakfast is the first step to take to wake up well and live your day with serenity and vitality. Let’s find out what to eat for breakfast to give energy to your awakening.
You cannot wake up in the morning? Do you need a lot of coffee to be able to stay awake? Hunger and fatigue torment you before lunch? These bad habits will only be a distant memory if you follow the 10 tips for a healthy and nutritious breakfast. Breakfast, is in fact the most important meal of the day: upon awakening, the organism is ready to receive all the nourishment and turn it into energy. Breakfast arrives after the hours of fasting at night and is therefore the first source of supply for all metabolic resources.
“The beginning is the most important part of the work” – Plato
And common sense reads: “who starts well is half the work”. Health and harmony, both physical and mental, depend intimately on the quality of what we eat. In fact, food offers us all the substances that our body can transform into physical vigor and mental freshness. The entire availability of resources during the day depends on the quality of the breakfast. But does an ideal breakfast exist?
A healthy and nutritious breakfast allows us to arrive at lunchtime in full force, awake and active. If you cannot wake up completely during the morning and if you lose strength in the middle of the day, it could be due to an unbalanced breakfast. The contribution of a healthy breakfast can exceed 25% of the total energy needs of the day. For a healthy and balanced breakfast, the subdivision of nutrients must be represented by:
60% of carbohydrates;
20% of fats;
20% of proteins.
A fundamental supply for our body is also represented by vitamins and mineral salts, that contribute to the regular psychophysical functioning. Through food we also introduce essential amino acids, which are molecules that our body cannot synthesize by itself. The ideal nutritional supply of a breakfast is therefore a complex index that depends on many factors. Many of the foods we are used to eating for breakfast, however, do not help us integrating all the substances we need. So what do you need to eat for a healthy breakfast?
Many people turn up their noses when it comes to talking about a healthy breakfast. The idea of a healthy and dietetic breakfast immediately brings to mind a series of tasteless foods which leave us rather dissatisfied and hungry. But, on the contrary, a healthy breakfast is the one that really nourishes us and gives us complete satiety. If we relate breakfast to the Buddha’s Awakening, breakfast must also make us happy. Not only we are not required to renounce the taste, but breakfast is also supposed to be good in order to offer maximum benefits for our health. A well-rounded health that includes both the body and the mind.
In line with the 10 Buddhist rules for awakening, or to achieve enlightenment, let us therefore see what are the Buddha’s 10 advices for a healthy breakfast:
1. Do not follow traditions without criticizing them. The civilizations of the past have handed down to us a great deal of wisdom, also related to nutrition. However, some traditions are not really in agreement with the principles of a healthy breakfast. The classic coffee and milk with biscuits or the cappuccino and croissant that we are used to have for breakfast are not healthy at all. Coffee is a simulant that causes strong addiction because of caffeine, a substance that can irritate the stomach and bowel. There are healthy, tasty and nutritious alternative beverages to coffee, like Macaccini. Milk contains lactose, a molecule that slows down digestion and causes intolerances. Milk often contains unhealthy substances, due to the practice of intensive animal breeding. Finally, biscuits and croissants are sweets that we should consume with moderation, not every morning. They are too rich in saturated fats, sugars and refined flours, bitter enemies of our health and figure.
2. Do not create excessive bonds with things. Reality is ephemeral according to Buddhism and material bonds imprison us. In the same way, bad breakfast habits do not allow us to live the day with the necessary energy and vitality, and can even make us sick. Sugar is one of the first habits to change. We are talking about refined white sugar, which according to various scientific studies is linked to the development of numerous health problems. A healthy and delicious alternative is coconut sugar; try it, it’s delicious!
3. Peace comes from within, do not look for it outside. A healthy breakfast depends on the quality and quantity of what you eat, and on how you eat. Try to eat only until the stimulus of hunger disappears, don’t overdo it and don’t eat greedily. You can enjoy a snack or a nutritious drink in the middle of the morning. Eat slowly, without haste: dedicate some precious time to the meal that will allow you to stand all day! But above all: eat only quality foods. Superfoods are foods of plant origin that naturally contain a nutritional concentrate of micronutrients, vitamins and minerals. They improve a healthy and balanced diet by providing you with all the substances your body needs.
4. Be generous. Sharing a healthy breakfast with the people you love is the best way to start the day. Generosity connects us to other people and generates harmony, peace and serenity. A gesture of kindness opens the way for more kindness. But be generous with yourself too: drink plenty of water and introduce simple liquids: prefer an infusion to fruit juices, sour and sweetened.
5. Do not do evil. As in the Christian religion, also in Buddhism one of the basic rules is represented by non-violence, respect and compassion. Do not do evil at breakfast means to give preference to vegan foods, which have not contributed to perpetrating suffering on animals.
6. You are responsible for your path. All the functions of your body depend on how you feed it, on how you keep it and how you train it. Physical activity is always the best way to make every organ in our body work well. However, we must also introduce the right foods to promote our health. A healthy breakfast is a breakfast rich in fiber, precious nourishment of our bacterial flora and therefore of our immune system. The fibers give us a sense of satiety and promote intestinal regularity. An oatmeal breakfast is a great way to incorporate fiber into an ideal breakfast.
7. It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Being masters of yourself, of your body and image is not always simple. Often we don’t like ourselves enough and we feel fat and out of shape. A good habit is to take a lot of fats in our diet, but the right ones. A healthy breakfast provides the intake of unsaturated fats and essential fatty acids like Omega-3 and Omega-6 in the right ratio. The best solution to integrate them in the right proportion comes from hemp: add some hulled hemp seeds to your oatmeal porridge!
8. What we are is the result of what we think. And even of what we eat, we could add. To keep your mind active and fresh all morning, you will need to introduce simple sugars, such as fruit, unsaturated or “good” fats, and micronutrients. The most important ones for brain health are iron, phosphorus and B vitamins.
9. Learn to love yourself. A healthy breakfast must necessarily be also a tasty one. If you are not satisfied with the taste of what you eat, you will never be happy. Start therefore with foods that contain tryptophan, a substance that stimulates the production of serotonin, “the hormone of happiness”. Cocoa is an excellent source … are you happy?
10. Care for your body, because it is your temple. The final advice for a healthy breakfast and an energetic awakening is thus to follow all healthy rules together. The Buddha’s Awakening is an instant breakfast that is easily prepared and contains everything you need for a vital and happy day. Mineral salts, vitamins, fiber and micronutrients, but first of all a delicious taste!
The Buddha’s Awakening is available in different combinations depending on your taste:
Açai and strawberry for a fruity and aphrodisiac awakening;
Pineapple and wheat grass for a detox start;
Raw cocoa for an outburst full of flavor;
Maca and vanilla for a sweet awakening;
Mango and baobab for an exotic day;
Hemp protein for maximum energy.
