The importance of a hot cooked breakfast/meal

Just wanted to mention how important it is in to have a hot, cooked breakfast!

In Chinese medicine the two organs responsible for digestion are the spleen and stomach (the Earth elements). According to the Chinese clock the times when those organs work the best is between 7-11am. It’s this time that you should have your breakfast and it should be your most nutritious meal of the day. Also looking at our circadian rhythms that’s also the time when we metabolise glucose the best.

I don’t want anyone to confuse what I’ve written about before, re: intermittent fasting. Even if your main goal is weight loss - DON’T SKIP BREAKFAST to get that 14/16 hour fast between dinner/breakfast in. Instead, eat dinner earlier. If you eat a nutritious, hot breakfast you actually help your entire digestive system set up for the day.

In China they eat a lot of congee for breakfast for this reason - here our equivalent would be porridge (with overnight soaked oats). As discussed with Ceylon cinnamon and some protein (nuts/seeds)…if your digestive system tolerates them well, are good additions re blood sugar regulating!

In general the Spleen (our digestive system) doesn’t like raw and cold food. It has to work really hard to break down and absorb the nutrients from cold/raw food. So since we are all trying to make our digestion (and nutrient absorption) as efficient as possible it’s better to avoid.

For example, If you’re going to have a salad for lunch always try to add something hot to it to help your digestive system or have some soup first. If you’re eating leftovers make sure to heat them up. Eating any vegetables - cook them! This works wonders for digestive issues (bloating/gas, diarrhoea, constipation, IBS).