Why Breakfast?

Breakfast is a key start to every single day...  The word literally means “breaking the fast” after 8-12 hours without food or liquids. Breakfast is a regularly skipped meal with common excuses like, “I am not hungry, I am rushed, or I feel nauseated after breakfast.” While there can be many reasons for not wanting breakfast, it is common that digestion is sluggish, cold, or just not functioning properly. Americans are accustomed to fairly limited ideas of what breakfast consists of, and may be depriving themselves of vital nutrients, proteins, and proper warmth that aids the digestive process.  

TRY THIS: Have warm soup in the morning. A cup of organic broth will do. Soup is simple to make or reheat and stimulates digestion, igniting your "digestive fire" and prepares your digestive tract for later meals. Soup has a lot of proteins, minerals, and nutrients with a high water content that will help rehydrate your body after sleeping. When time is a factor, start waking up 5-10 minutes earlier to prevent eating on the go. Limit distractions while you eat. Start small and keep it simple. 

the B I G G E R WHY?

Digestion is strongest in the morning and weakest in the evening. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) recognizes the rhythm of energy movement between organs and has identified 7-9am as the most active time for digestion (7-9pm being the least active). Modern studies have supported this finding by showing how the habit of eating breakfast contributes to more regulated weight, more stable blood sugar, and better energy levels through the day.  

Breakfast does not have to be massive in size. The stomach is not a very large organ, and the quality of food we eat is far more important than the quantity. Starting the day with a cup of broth-based soup that contains a variety of vegetables, meats, and seasonings will provide many essential nutrients needed for the body to function well. Incorporating seasonal foods (produce that is "in season") will enhance this quality. Adjusting the temperature and density of your breakfast by the seasons is also valuable. Cold winter days invite a mug of steaming hot soup, but mid-summer heat may require fresh, mildly warm, cooling foods or chilled soups.  

Digestion is a warm process that is easily influenced by the thermal properties of food, beverages, and environmental conditions. Healthy eating includes respecting this need for heat in the digestive process. Eating mostly warm, cooked foods supports this need for heat. If we are eating cold, raw foods in the cold winter months we are weakening this digestive fire and creating sluggish, weak, cold digestion.  Many people start the day with a smoothie- which is fine- if adding a warming property to the list of ingredients. Some warming elements to throw into a smoothie (if your body is not always feeling overheated or showing redness in the face) include: ginger, cinnamon, and cayenne. Eating raw (cold) foods can also be aided with the use of warming ingredients such as mustard, black pepper, horseradish, vinegar, and warming ginger or green tea after a meal.  

So... BREAKFAST. Stoke that digestive fire at the start of every day. Think quality over quantity- but always keep that stomach warm so you can get the most from the foods you eat all day.  

Benefits of Limiting Alcohol and Caffeine in Summer

The warm temperatures and sunny skies of summer inspire trips to the beach, backyard BBQs, outdoor sporting events, concerts, festivals, dinner parties, and just an overall desire to socialize and enjoy the weather. Closely associated and culturally expected beverages at such events are alcohol and caffeine, whether it be beer, cocktails, and wine, or coffee, energy drinks, or tea. While a beer or latte here and there will not hurt, according to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), regular or excessive consumption of alcoholic and caffeinated beverages in the summer heat can cause more damage than just intoxication and jitters.

The TCM perspective is that consuming considerable amounts of alcohol, a yang substance, can create an excess in both heat and dampness, or a deficiency in the liver and spleen. Alcohol is a diuretic, which causes the elimination of water, and in TCM, when water is removed from the body, fire is left, causing heat. Alcohol raises the heart rate, increases circulation, and creates feelings of warmth in the body. This depletes the liver, causing symptoms like sweating, a flushed complexion, inflammation, loose stools, or dark urination.

When alcohol causes dampness, it is due to there being more fluid in the body than necessary, creating a swamp-like state in the digestive system. Overwhelming the spleen like this causes symptoms of fullness, bloating, excess gas, a heaviness in the body and limbs, fatigue, and a thirst without the desire to drink. So even when you’re thirsty from the heat, you have no desire to rehydrate with water due to the buildup of fluids in your system.

Like alcohol, caffeine is another ingredient to limit, especially in the heat of summer. Caffeine also acts as a diuretic, causing fluids to be removed from the body. High temperatures cause excessive sweating, so combined with the effect caffeine is having on the body, essential fluids are being expelled, causing dehydration. Caffeine consumption also harms the flow of Qi in the body by disrupting the body’s ability to maintain peak energy throughout the day. Associated with yang energy, caffeine can cause an imbalance for those who are yin deficient; because caffeine has warming and drying effects on the body, this type of yin/yang imbalance can cause symptoms like insomnia, irritability, anxiety, and high blood pressure.

The best liquid to consume to stay hydrated in the summer is water. It will nourish you from the inside out, and is able to tell what internal fluids are essential and which are not, therefore removing them via urine. Water can help balance yin and yang energies in the body, correcting any imbalances that occur from over indulgence. Along with water, there are many alcohol and caffeine drink alternatives that can aid hydration as well as provide other nutrients while being refreshing and delicious.

Drinks and Recipes

Kin Euphorics:

Kin Euphorics is a woman-founded and owned company that specializes in non-alcoholic, functional beverages made with ingredients to nourish your body and mind. Adaptogens help manage stress, nootropics support brain cognition, and botanicals enhance taste. Combining these special ingredients into delicious, refreshing, and exciting non-alcoholic beverages can help keep you hydrated in the summer while also nourishing your mind and body.

Recipe: Kin Julep

Ingredients:

• ¼ oz warmed honey

• 5-10 fresh mint leaves

• 2oz Kin Dream Light

• 2 oz ginger beer

• Fresh mint sprig for garnish

To Make:

In a julep cup or rock glass, lightly muddle the mint and honey. Add the Kin Dream Light and ginger beer and pack tightly with crushed ice. Stir until the cup is frosted on the outside. Top with more crushed ice to form an ice dome and garnish with a mint spring.

Ghia:

Ghia is a spirit free aperitif inspired by the Mediterranean summer tradition of sharing limoncello with loved ones after a nice meal. For the founder, Melanie, drinking is about connecting, laughing, letting loose, and just enjoying the simple pleasures of great music and warm nights. She wanted to make a drink that encouraged all those positives, without the negatives like hangovers or dehydration.

Recipe: The Hi Life

Ingredients:

• 2.5 oz Ghia aperitif

• 1 oz tonic

• Crushed rose petal

• Fresh sage leaf

To Make:

Pour 2.5 oz Ghia into a shaker. Add ice and shake. Add 1 oz tonic and strain into a chilled coupe or glass. Garnish with crushed rose petals and fresh sage leaf.

HoneyBee Sage:

HoneyBee Sage is a non-alcoholic bar and apothecary located on MLK Drive in Milwaukee, WI. They offer tisanes, herbal teas that are caffeine free and medicinal, as well as alcohol free cocktails and herb-infused beverages. You can order a tisane based on the relief or support you need, like respiratory, menstrual, digestive, antioxidant, detoxification, mood, headache, inflammation, or energy. Using various types of water, they can custom infuse your beverage with any combination of their specialty crafted herbal glycerites for a delicious and elevating experience.

Curious Elixirs:

These alcohol-free pre-mixed cocktails are infused with adaptogens to encourage relaxation, and were created with the sober and those who are less interested in alcohol in mind. Organic juices, herbs, spices, roots, barks, and botanicals are used to nourish the body and mind, as well as increase serotonin and dopamine.

Athletic Brewing:

Athletic Brewing is a certified B-Corp company that brews non-alcoholic beers. Their brewing process results in less than 0.5% alcohol, which is about the same percentage as commercially made kombucha. They have a non-alcoholic version of crowd favorites like various hazy ipas, goldens, witbiers, sours, and more.

Other Drink Replacements

Kombucha:

Kombucha is a fermented tea drink started from a scoby, which stands for a symbiotic combination of bacteria and yeast. According to TCM, kombucha strengthens the immune system, has tons of probiotics that provide oxygen to the body, and is a natural detoxifier. While alcohol and caffeine move energy upwards in the body, causing heat, kombucha draws energy inwards and down, cooling the body. Kombucha on a hot summer day can provide nutrients and cool the body.

Rishi Botanicals - Milwaukee, WI

Juiced! Cold Press Juices - Milwaukee, WI

Tapuat Kombucha - Sister Bay, WI

References

Alcohol and Traditional Chinese Medicine - Chicago

Non-Alcoholic Mint Julep Cocktail Recipe | Kin Euphorics

Recipes – Ghia

Cocktails – Curious Elixirs

Does Athletic Brewing’s Non-Alcoholic Beer *Actually* Taste Good? [2023 Review]

All Non-Alcoholic Beer | Athletic Brewing Co.

Do Curious Elixirs Hit The Spot For The Sober Curious? We Review - The Good Trade

How to Treat Addiction With Acupuncture and TCM.

Alcohol: Yea or Nea? | Wildwood

Top 3 Coffee Alternatives : Can TCM help you Replace Coffee?

Caffeine from a Chinese Medicine View - Fertile Care For Women

Coffee & Traditional Chinese Medicine | Altitude Acupuncture

ABOUT | TAPUATCHA

TCM Kombucha - Floor Tuinstra

The benefits of kombucha according to Chinese medicine

HoneyBee Sage Wellness & Apothecary

Unwinding Your Belly

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, summer is the season between the expansive yang energy of spring, and the inward yin energy of fall and winter. There are a few weeks at the end of August and the beginning of September where we are in what TCM calls late summer or “Indian summer”. This season is all about grounding yourself and digesting or processing your emotions. Emotions often have a physiological effect on the body and can be felt in the belly. The term “go with your gut” implies that intuition can be determined by feelings in the gut, and there is deep truth to this phrase. In “Unwinding the Belly: Healing with Gentle Touch”, Allison Post and Stephen Cavaliere discuss the effects breathing from the belly have on processing and understanding emotions. Late summer is the perfect time of the year to learn these techniques to support the body as the seasons change.

The spleen, stomach, and pancreas are associated with late summer, and there are many ways to support these organs. This includes: proper diet, maintaining balance, exercise, and breathing. Post and Cavaliere also suggest that there is a connection between the belly organs and intuition, and that the notion of intuition is, in a sense, the recognition of emotions and external stimuli felt within the belly. They encourage the following ideas:

• Listen to your body. Since late summer is the time before fall where energy turns inward, now is the time to begin the process of turning inward and processing your emotions.

• The center is essential with health, both emotional and physical, because the center houses the organs responsible for absorption and transportation of nutrients and feelings.

• It is important to nourish our bodies the best we can so that our organs can function their best and so that we feel our best.

• Understanding when the body is responding negatively to an improper diet and then changing your diet to better suit the body is the beginning of reconnecting to our center.

• Emotions are the connection between the brain and gut. The belly digests emotions as well as food and can be either nourished or damaged by what lies there.

• Emotions that we feel in our stomach- butterflies are excitement or anticipation, heartbreak is heartache, fear is felt as the rapid beating of the heart or the desire to urinate, worry eats at the stomach, and jealousy wastes the liver.

• If unresolved negative emotions are held inside too long without resolution, internal tissues, muscles, and fascia become stiff and blocked, inhibiting these organs from functioning their best.

• Unresolved emotions can cause stress, high blood pressure, and even the hardening of arteries.

• Positive feelings like excitement, joy, love, and happiness are also felt within the belly.

• The initial attempt to alter emotions is to change our thoughts, but you can not think feelings away, you have to feel them.

• Exercise the core to strengthen the core.

Post and Caveliere also teach the benefits of breathing from the belly, and how when we hold emotions in, we tend to constrict our breathing as well. Opening up our breathing, breathing fully and deeply, and feeling the belly expand brings all the feelings stored there to the forefront. They believe that changing the way we breathe is another way to reconnect to our core and the benefits are vast.

In her experience, whenever Allison Post met with a patient who was experiencing difficulties with digestion, movement, connecting with her body or emotion, or with healing, there was also an issue with the way the patient was breathing.

• Bringing simple awareness to your belly and how it feels immediately relieves tension and stress.

• Imagine constricting air flow and panting through life, and then imagine allowing yourself a strong and healthy air flow. Breathing is synonymous to living.

• Inhibiting breath is learned, and relearning how to breath is an essential step towards becoming comfortable in your body again.

• Breathing from the belly increases pressure below the diaphragm, creating a vacuum in the lung cavities. This causes air to rush to fill the void, providing ample oxygen.

• Panic breath occurs when the diaphragm is pulled upwards on the inhale, creating a weaker vacuum, filling just the top part of the lungs, allowing insufficient oxygen.

• Using touch is a technique to learn the feel of your belly and the points of tension or where you have difficulty filling with breath.

• The circuit of healing: stimulating the skin accesses subtle energies within the body. The nerves in the skin contain information about the internal stress levels of the body. This information is sent from the fingers to the areas of the brain that process these internal levels. Gentle touch creates a feedback loop between the body and the brain.

• Give yourself time to learn your body, rushing it can break the circuit.

• Delve deeper and stimulate the abdominal lymph nodes. Place your hands to the side of the navel and feel the vertical creases that lie on each side of the torso. Gently press deeper to stimulate the lymph nodes, all the while breathing deeply.

• Stimulating this spot releases waste stored in the nodes, working like a filtration process.

How to belly breathe:

• Lie on your back with your knees up, either on your bed or the floor. Make sure your knees are elevated, but not being supported by the hips.

• First, draw attention to the way you are currently breathing. Are your breaths deep or shallow, do they flow or get stuck in your throat?

• Next, bring your attention to your spine, and connect your breathing to the way your back feels on the floor.

• Then, place your hands on your belly, index fingers pointing towards each other, but keep your elbows on the floor. Inhale and feel your belly rise against your hands, then exhale and feel your hands gently fall.

• Attempt with each inhale to breathe in more air, and feel the expansion from your hips to your rib cage. Try to inhale and exhale without expanding the chest.

• Inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth.

In these days between the busy and the slow, take the time to reconnect with your core, breathe deeply, and let yourself feel everything you have been holding inside. Feed your body the proper nutrition to allow proper digestion of both nutrients and emotions. The better you feel physically, the easier it will be to process your emotions. Try bringing attention to your breathing, and see what awareness comes to the forefront of your consciousness to allow yourself to heal.

References

Cavaliere, Stephen and Post, Allison. “Unwinding the Belly: Healing with Gentle Touch.”

Pulsifer, Jeremy. “Late Summer: The Fifth Season”. Retrieved from https://www.yinovacenter.com/blog/late-summer-the-5th-season/.

“Eat with the Seasons: Late Summer”. Retrieved from https://fiveseasonstcm.com/blogs/traditional-chinese-medicine-101/eat-with-the-seasons-late-summer.

“Late-Summer Health: The Chinese Medicine & Taoist Way”. Retrieved from https://www.wuweiwisdom.com/late-summer-health-tcm-taoist-tips/