So, what's a Hindu "breakfast"?

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The Indian breakfast menu is not a one-size fits all and doesn't really work towards a daily calorie chart. It is based on how much energy one truly needs. So more physical labour means a king size breakfast. Dr. David Frawley, the famous Vedic scholar and Ayurveda physician confirms. "If you are going to sit in an office in front of a computer, a heavy breakfast will set you back." Sounds very logical I guess. In the good old days, a north Indian at breakfast used to eat two to three stuffed paraatha (gaining some 1000 to 1500 calories) and that too with butter. The reason: farming used to involve a lot of physical activity. But, in today’s sedentary lifestyle, Ayurveda is likely to discourage consuming that many paraathas.

The funda behind authentic Indian breakfast...

Ayurvedic lifestyle and Ayurvedic cooking are gaining tremendous popularity today. Our modern world that thrashes anything unscientific seems to slowly understand the science in Ayurveda. The funda behind cooked Indian breakfast is about following a natural order of things we see around. The Indian naashta follows the principle of 'agni' i.e. the fire element in digestion, as expounded in the Ayurveda texts. Agni is the digestive and absorption process called as Pakwagni (digestive fire) that drives all digestion and metabolism in our bodies. So if the breakfast doesn't kindle the digestive fire, it is not that good for the body. Spice is added to gently stoke the Agni.

Nora Isaacs, a popular health journalist from the U.S.A remarks, "At the start of the day, sometime between 6:00 and 10:00 a.m., Agni is quite low, and it's not easy for most bodies to digest a big breakfast." So this means, the inner Agni follows the path of the sun. The highest Agni happens when the sun is on top by afternoon. That's when the body is ready for a heavy lunch.

In the book "Ancient Wisdom for Modern Health", Mark Bunn, a former AFL footballer turned Natural Health Guy, trained as both an exercise physiologist (Western Science) and in natural, Eastern health-care (Maharishi Ayurveda) expands this logic and writes, "Unlike modern health directives, in Ayurveda and other time-tested natural health sciences, breakfast is not recommended to be a large meal, let alone the most substantial meal of the day. In long-living groups such as the Okinawans, Vilcabambans, Campodimelani and Abkhasians, none have breakfast as the most important or substantial meal of the day. They have understood that the time when the sun reaches its peak is when we are best equipped to eat more."

The world famous Ayurvedic physician Vasant Lad is oft quoted by Ayurvedic practitioners thus: "If Agni is healthy; you have tremendous energy throughout the day. But if Agni is not healthy, you cannot go so fast. The energy is Agni, and Agni is energy."

Thus influenced by Ayurveda, the Indian breakfast "Naashta" is more of a warm-up for the body. Eating warm, fresh, well-spiced, easy-to-digest vegetarian foods is the Indian naashta trademark. The case for the good old naashta seems to be strong but before embarking on the naashta journey consulting a qualified Ayurvedic physician would be wise.

Ram Lingam blogs his insights on India and Indian culture at www.indiasutra.co.nz