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Plant Based Breakfast Ideas For Better Low Sugar Habits

Plant-based breakfast ideas encourage our better low sugar healthy habits that help our bodies protect us against inflammation and preventable lifestyle diseases like Type 2 Diabetes.

Plant-based can be delicious and filling like a Three Sisters dish where the trifecta effect is proteins, carbs, and fiber.

Three Sisters makes for great plant based breakfast ideas.
Net healthy plant-forward 3 Sisters dish with butternut squash, corn, and black beans. Imagine starting your day with this trifecta!

Eating more plant-based foods also help our warming planet and climate change causes.

And when we align all of those intentions with farm-to-table delicious eating and seasonal food preferences, we’re restoring our Ayurvedic body balance…

Some simple examples are: we want to eat and drink lighter, cool foods like cereals, smoothies, and cold brew beverages on warm days. And prefer comfort, warm porridge and potato food on cold days.

With rapid climate change these days, we often flip flop back and forth daily and seasonally. We use our internal body cues and external clues to keep us balanced.

It’s good to be aware how all this healthy information helps us.

And the good news is there’s a plant-based fix for all of us.

Below are some plant-based breakfast ideas that can get you excited about your health, energy, and planet with unusual climate changes… plus help you lower your sugar intake.

An evolving earth appreciation drink like this is full of surprises like blueberries showing up at certain times.

Like an Earth Day layered drink helps us appreciate all the constantly changing stratospheres in our planet. And this is a metaphor for our lives where nothing stays the same.

Lowering Your Sugar in Breakfasts

Firstly, if you started out like I did as a sweet tooth (or still are one 😋), you know there’s definitely hope if you want to change your tastes from sugary sweet to lower sugar, healthy plant-based breakfast ideas…

Many years ago, I had a guest coming over for the holidays that I learned was diabetic. I knew I had to come up with a sweet option for this special guest. That was the only option for this former party planner (where finding a way was the only way and “once a food planner, always a planner”).

I sympathized because I couldn’t imagine going through life without sweets! 🍭

So around town I drove and picked up a bag of diabetic cookies (substituting refined sugar with maltitol). If you’re not familiar, monk fruit sugar is commonly used today as the new maltitol ingredient. I use monk fruit sugar often out of healthy preference. You don’t have to be diabetic.

And anyway, I fell in love with those diabetic cookies. I figured the guest would be as excited as I would to have an after dinner dessert with the rest of us.

Those were the days when AllRecipes was one of the very few online sites you could find recipes besides OG Martha Stewart and offline cookbooks that never grow old.

There weren’t diabetic recipe sites.

…And so, when the holiday dinner rolled around, I mentioned the cookies to the diabetic guest, and I learned something very profound I’ll never forget when he declined the sweet offer…

💡The sweet taste was no longer even a category for this person who hadn’t had a sweet bite since his diagnosis.

That was an eye-opener. Because previously I thought people were born with a sweet tooth or they weren’t (and could do nothing about their sweet sentence). And I definitely was in the first category. 

When I started upon my own journey to reduce daily sugar intake, I was reminded of those lessons.

I then knew I could gradually wean off of sugar as others had (like the diabetic guest) from changing habits.

And if I knew that sooner,  I probably would’ve done so sooner.

And that’s like how most of us are with our areas we want to change: we don’t know what we don’t know. 🤔

When I gradually took in less sugar, I found I craved sugar less.

I didn’t have to do the heavy lifting all myself.

My body helped me and it helps all of us when we don’t keep overfeeding our sugar cravings.

…A light cookie with a sweet tea flavor without extra sugar will do the trick. It doesn’t have to be the portions served at restaurants.

And baking your own sweet goods can save you because you don’t have a large box sitting around tempting you.

You can simply make less and then you’ve taught yourself that working for a sweet is a reward.

You satiate your sweet craving with a tiny bite that’s also the most delicious bite.

💡In economic terms, that’s: the marginal utility wears off with each bite.

💡In nutrition terms, that’s: intuitive and mindful eating helps you appreciate your food as part of daily joy and helps build a healthy relationship with food.

And in my first tries, making it through those habit forming days where I reached for a low-sugar cereal over cookies was sobering but still doable. One step forward, two steps back.

But I knew deeper down I could go a day without sugar.

And the opportunity arose where I chose to fast from sugar with a church-wide fast event. This was for our spiritual growth. We could choose anything that was addictive to us.

I was in a Bible book club then studying the book of Isaiah and learned that the people in that day were addicted to idols that caused their problems.

And without a moment’s hesitation, I picked sweets as the first thought that came to mind.

From the sweet fast experience, I learned I didn’t even crave sweets when I had an intention and was determined for a desired outcome.

But I was still stunned at what happened.

Because that was a new concept to me: what… not desire sweets!?…that would’ve shocked all my closest friends as I always had a piece of candy or something sweet on me even when I wasn’t aware.

It’s no surprise that when I was younger, I was a sucker for mosquitoes that loved my sweet blood.

And then in 2021, I started baking weekly. I added less and less sugar into my bakes. And sometimes not using refined sugar or monk fruit sugar at all and only using whole fruits, spices, and other healthy natural powder ingredients.

It was hard for me to add spoonfuls of sugar when I knew how harmful sugar is for both the body and mind.

And that became my healthy way out of sugar when my skin became inflamed with eczema during the uncertain early days of the pandemic when I was also building up a pantry and starting to home cook more.

Eczema was my wake up call.

It was my body’s warning to me that I took seriously.

And the effect was a much lighter consequence than a destroying gut microbiome outcome, Diabetes or other chronic disease diagnosis.

I used healthy teeth as one of my motivators for a comeback to heathy eating.

…As a kid I loved eating spoonfuls of white sugar straight out of the glass sugar jar. I always had cavities, and that thought alone makes me run to celery or carrots.

And yeah that was many decades ago, but that’s pretty much what we’re doing when we buy processed sweets or sugary sodas. It’s not our fault because they’re in our face all the time.

And in America and the Western world cultures, that’s just a gimme.

Plus, Vata bodies love sweets! Others do too, but it’s a given with a Vata. We were born with this desire that we can turn into a healthy one.

And you and I can survive on fruit and natural powder only sweets that are loaded with polyphenol antioxidants. I haven’t met a fruit yet that didn’t have antioxidant vitamins. 😊

This works over fighting willpower that never works. Because what you tell yourself “no” to only builds energy more toward the thought.

If you’re jonesing for southern-style Devils Food Cake, you’re not going to head for white cloud Angel Cake without a higher intervention. ☁️

Distraction and replacement are sweet answers for sugary and processed snack food cravings.

You can turn to plant-based foods, like popcorn for potato chips… and get into an activity that takes your mind off food, like a fasting habit or gardening.

If someone tells me they have a sweet tooth craving they think they could never satiate or change, I know that’s not true. It’s all made up in the mind.

You can live with a lower, healthy amount of sugar every day. That starts with your first meal where you break the fast or breakfast.

Easy Low-Sugar Plant Based Breakfast Ideas For Starters

For starters, opt for a protein. You can start with a protein shake if that fits your preferences like a layered drink that has protein powder.

As you age, your body need to increase your intake of essential amino acids to compensate for muscle loss.

Add a healthy fat like avocado that’s great when you break a fast, first thing at breakfast, or if you’ve been fasting overnight or longer.

During my catering work days, we always had a Crudite platter available for vegetarians. Raw veggies are a great way to prime the stomach first and add some roughage fiber that the gut needs.

Raw carrots, bell peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, celery, and asparagus are great examples.

They’re easy to put together on a plate. And if you need a dipping sauce, you can always use a Greek yogurt with dill as a savory healthy beginning.

And if you take vitamins, you do better taking fat-soluble Vitamins A, D, E, and K with some fat in your body. So it’s better to take those after or with your meal where you’ve had some avocado, oil, nut, or seeds in your system.

Black bean quinoa cereal. Both ingredients have protein. Add cocoa powder if you want brownie bite tastes and top with chia, flax, hemp, sunflower, etc.

Greek yogurt sundae. Add your whole fruits like banana and berries.

Sprinkle with your favorite nuts like sliced almonds, walnuts, or pistachios. Don’t be shy with your seeds. Cantaloupe and melon seeds loaded with vitamins are a nice vitamin addition too.

Oatmeal with apples or applesauce. If you’re leaning toward a little sweet taste, add Ceylon cinnamon (our Ayurvedic Vata go-to spice). This will set you up for a sweet bite without tipping the scales.

Chocolate avocado mousse. This is a great one you can blend up in seconds with dark cocoa and a ripe avocado.

Tasty anti-inflammatory chocolate avocado mousse recipe below. 👇

Main Points

Be easy on yourself.

Be open to give the plant-based breakfast ideas a try. Pick a few more of your favorite healthy ingredients such as a banana or an avocado and let your creative breakfast imagination go wild!

Don’t give up. Not creating a deadline or rules can be the magic formula that eliminates the pressure.

Change your words and thoughts. Say, “Yum this tastes great even when it tastes odd to you.” That helps your mind to agree with you when you’re trying to be healthy.

Then next time, introduce a new healthy food or spice. Let the odd new tastes take over until they win you over.

And if you want to learn how to add fasting to your sustainable healthy habits to eliminate snacking, sweets, and extra pounds, check out the free IF guide.

If you still have a sweet hankering, you can enjoy your plant-based breakfast ideas with a decadent aroma tea like the chocolate mint black tea I’m sipping on. 🧉 And you can pair with a healthy start.

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Anti-Inflammatory Chocolate Avocado Mousse

Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 5 minutes
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • 1 ripe avocado
  • almond milk
  • unsweetened 70% cocoa (natural, not dutch processed)
  • raspberries
  • shredded coconut

Instructions

  • Blend milk, avocado, and cocoa.
  • Zhugh with raspberries. These are anti-inflammatory ingredient pairings.

Notes

To make this healthy version is 3 main ingredients: ripe avocado, almond milk, and unsweetened cocoa (garnished with raspberries and shredded coconut).

Earth Day Layered Plant Based Cold Brew Coffee

Earth Day drink is in order for earth day that’s year round! 🌱

This special earth day drink is an evolving and refreshing drink good for mornings and afternoons.

You can see it start with defined drink layers. One layer that you can choose is organic cold brew coffee.

This Earth Day drink is a daily earth day reminder.

As the iceberg ice cube melts, it’s blending into the Earth Day drink that now looks like the ocean. 🌊

It’s starting to get green. This is a lot like our icebergs melting, creating warming and climate change.

Btw, this is an outdoor-allergy-free drink. 😊

It’s plant-based kind you want around daily as a reminder.

This plant-based drink can be the new reminder.

Arbor Day was an annual day and event to plant a small tree that was a reminder of our earth.

And when you take it in and of the freezer you are reminded.

This greening effect is the same drink put back in the freezer and brought back out the next day with a little more water (less ice cube).

Blueberries are showing today.

You can make your own Earth Day drink as a reminder of your health, earth, and life. 🌱

Earth Day plant based layered beverage.
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Earth Day Layered Plant Based Cold Brew Coffee

This planet-reminding changing drink is a fun and delicious beverage.
Course beverage
Cuisine American

Ingredients

  • black cocoa
  • cold brew coffee
  • plant-based milks (almond milk, cashew milk, etc.)
  • gluten-free flour (coconut or almond flour)
  • blueberry tea
  • blueberries
  • Pandan (gel works best)

Instructions

  • Layer and freeze each layer before adding another layer.
  • Layer 1: milk
  • Layer 2: layer with black cocoa, gluten-free flour, and milk (or cream) that's more creamy and good for beverages.
  • Layer 3: cold blueberry tea
  • Layer 4: cold brew coffee (or coffee of choice)
  • Layer 5: milk
  • Add a few blueberries if you like.
  • Make plant-based pandan ice cube. Add pandan mixed with water and freeze
  • Add the ice cube to the top frozen layer.
  • Bring drink out to regular room temperature about 10-15 minutes before you want to consume if semi-frozen and 30 minutes or longer if frozen solid. Watch your planet beverage change before your very eyes! For kids, you can swap cocoa or chocolate milk for the coffee layer.

Crow Pose Yoga For Stability

Crow Pose is one yoga pose that can help you feel strong along with the messages you feed yourself. Learn about how in this article.

Do good and Be kind are heart action messages worth taking into the day!

Maybe when you start your balance pose initially, you’re not able to hold the Crow Pose without your feet or toes touching the mat or floor.

…But as you practice regularly, you’ll be able to! 🐦‍⬛

Crow Pose could be a goal this week that gets your mojo back to blood flowing activity and to keep moving and growing. 🥅

Building Strength Stability

If you want to become stronger, gaining arm strength is one impactful way. Strength represents resilience that’s needed to get through tough times… and build stability and progress.

One starter exercise way is to be in your push up pose. Alternating legs, pull one knee at a time closer up to your shoulders one side at a time.

Then like a push up, push straight up and down. Your hiked up leg is extra body weight to use as muscle weights for your arm. 😉

Then switch leg sides. After a weekly habit of doing arm strength building exercises, your muscle memory will remember (fostering stable reinforcements) and that’ll help you in your Crow Pose…

If only you could see how cool you look!

This exercise I just described (that I’m not sure if it has a name) helps you get to used to vertical arm strength that Crow Pose needs. Chataranga pose is another.

In good form, vertical arms will support your body along with your strong ab muscles. And speaking of the gut, I share below some strong food ways that complement your pose.

…But let’s not got ahead of ourselves. For starters, you may want to see where you’re at with your Crow Pose today. So give it a try today (or now) and fail forward or beam in your Crow!

Keep reading 👇 for tips…

Crow Pose For Beginners (Or Starting Again)

As a beginner, you can have a yoga block in front of you for strength and moral support. Set the soft-place-to-fall security block on the floor on the lowest setting side where your forehead would fall on… don’t worry, as this likely won’t happen.

The placebo effect is a confidence booster. 🤸🏻

…And that way you can enter the pose confidently without fear of injury that can stall your progress or hold you back unintentionally.

Especially when you want Crow Pose to build your confidence (and not build a fine line wall divide that keeps you stuck).

And when you move into your first Crow Pose moments, you can feel like you can handle the world in all its cruel ways that can sometimes make any of us feel like we’re broken down. Stay at peace. ✌️

When you look up and out with a grin on your face knowing you’re able to support yourself, the weight of the world crumbles into the mat.

Plus, you’re building up arms that are becoming more chiseled. 😊

And after you’ve mastered Crow Pose, you can advance to a taller Crane Pose or take a slight bend (detour break) into Side Crow.

There’s always a next or side step. Before you know it, you’ll be flying! 🕊️

Side Crow Pose and Crane Pose

In Side Crow Pose, you crouch down and tip your body to the side where the back of your upper arms catch your legs and side buttock. So you get a different muscle workout and perspective.

And if you want to lengthen taller and gain more stability in your moves, you can try a more advanced pose: Crane Pose.

Cranes are the tallest flying birds. They’re powerful so the pose matches the yoga pose name.

What I like about these two other poses is what they’ll tell you more about your core and arm muscle state.

Many women think they’ll build Popeye arms with regular 10 lb weights, but that’s not the case.

We underestimate ourselves and what we can lift. If you can lift your travel carry-on luggage up to the compact overhead bin, then daily 10 pound weights should be no problem.

If you look more compact, then you could have more muscle that’s lean mass which means it will become denser or smaller.

Think of a compact ball of yarn versus a loose skein that yarn is usually sold in. On the shelves, it’s soft. But if you take it home and unravel the yarn and make a tight ball 🧶, then it becomes hard like a rubber ball.

We want our muscles to have shape, tone, and hard compactness that a rubber ball represents. In between, it can be like a squishy stress ball.

Our arm muscles are easy to scope out, but the hidden body muscles that give us the most trouble and least strength are the ones we don’t use or stretch often. And in yoga, you can discover those small areas in poses.

Balancing Food Macros to Support Crow Pose Moves

If you’re like many trying to lose weight, be sure to amp up your protein so your body stays full longer. Proteins burn more calories.

Taking a step further, the body burns fat for energy after it runs out of glucose. And that’s why I’m so gung-ho on intermittent fasting for metabolic flexibility. On and off switching teaches the body who’s boss. 😊

As we age, we lose muscle. Our protein macros help make up the deficit, for especially women. We can include large doses of protein foods with specific amino acids to help us restore what’s lost.

Protein food sources also keep us feeling full that saves us time from taking time to eat so we can spend more time doing other activities we want to get to.

If you’re like me, after graduating from baby milk as nutrients, I started out life with sugary bowls of cereal and milk as a breakfast meal. That was what I woke up to, growing up. Protein wasn’t a priority.

With cereal, it’s not the sugary sides that’s the biggest problem… it was the starting with cereal as a meal. Cereal wasn’t and isn’t filling enough and also begs us wanting more sugar in our veins.

But as a snack treat to fulfill sweet cravings, low-sugar cereals are better and I prefer them over sweet alternatives like cookies (my love 💕). Many cereals are fortified with macros and minerals while cookies are mostly empty calories (unless you bake them with healthy goodness like I do these days).

Gluten-free coconut flour, cocoa, shredded coconut, cinnamon, coconut oil, and water make this cookie batter.

But in my earlier years, I was in double trouble working in catering food management at the Doubletree Hotel known for their large paper weight-dense cookies. 🍪

And that’s how I started my breakfast morning at 8 am…

But decades later with better intentions and experiencing a season of excess sugar bothering my skin with eczema, I changed my ways. I didn’t think I could ever switch to starting mornings with a savory meal.

I mean, forget protein like lean meats. But I let health motivate me and after many bites, savory foods grew on me.

…So I started adding proteins from leftover meals. Because eggs, tofu, and chicken aren’t necessarily the favorite first thing meal when your gut isn’t even awake yet…

And if that’s you…don’t give up on yourself! The a-ha change I made also made me realize that I could ignore my cravings (like unproductive thoughts) if I wanted to and focus on building healthy habits.

Protein substantial foods are also a better stomach cushion for coffee (that’s acidic).

…And you too can start the habit if you want!

Trust your feelings will follow. 💖

That’s how you can change tastes effectively for your health and build in more protein ma-crows in your life, so you can support your Crow Pose and other bird pose yoga areas calling you!

Yoga moves calling for strength can be the canary in the coal mine indicator to add more daily muscle and protein to your body and diet. 🌱

And doing a daily Crow Pose could just be the starting reminder.

Intermittent Fasting Guide (And My Journey)

FREE Intermittent Fasting Guide
FREE Intermittent Fasting Guide

Today, I wanted to let you in on my intermittent fasting journey (and provide an Intermittent Fasting Guide) as that may help yours if you’ve begun, or maybe you’re curious what it’s ALL ABOUT.

If either sounds like YOU, I created a FREE Intermittent Fasting Guide with you in mind that you can download. It’s called The Start and Sustain Intermittent Fasting Lifestyle Guide… and it also comes in handy when you start IF and then take a short break.

That’s exactly what I did in 2023 during the holiday season, and then realized what I was missing from the benefits I saw on and in my body earlier in the year. I took a quick selfie for comparison…

…Um, that’s a bit of skin showing there! 👙 Oh and believe me, I’m not someone who bares all skin in case you’re wondering why this photo doesn’t fit along with my food and other healthy lifestyle inspo ones.

But the photo really does hone in on my gut ab area (as deep as I can show) and is the healthy reason why I started intermittent fasting in the first place.

I was feeling discomfort in my gut in the upper stomach area where the esophagus meets the stomach (aka the lower esophageal sphincter).

Despite doing all the healthy tips regularly like sourdough, veggie fiber, and ACV, I could feel a dull feeling in the stomach gut area when the optimal feeling is no nagging ache (or even better, feel nothing in those areas). An uneventful inside body feeling day is a good day.

You’ve probably felt similar if you ever experienced heartburn, GERD or acid reflux. Last summer’s heat didn’t help either (hottest recorded in history).  That kicks up the Pitta. And, not the kind of fire-in-the-belly you want! 🔥

Even though my stomach case was mild, it’s probably what most people feel who experience heartburn in daily busy and stressful work lives. 🙋🏻‍♀️

And as someone who once-upon-a-time lived a stressful corporate work life (and works on feeling good and better all the time), I don’t believe you should suffer more than a minute necessary. So, I had to figure it out!… I couldn’t just let it slide. And maybe that’s how you are too in your health areas…

But, lemme backup just a minute so you have some background info…

I started cooking and baking virtually all my meals after the pandemic. So, I knew which ingredients were put into each healthy dish or snack (that I ate 90% of the time). I often show some of the celebrational weekly meal tables, healthy bakes, and dishes weekly here in my blog articles.

…That comes from the side of me that worked a decade in catering party planning, where food is love.

And soft serve ice cream is love.

soft serve ice cream chocolate recipe.
You can make chocolate soft serve as self-serve at home. Recipe below. 🍫

But most my eating ways were healthy (…with a lot less sugar for this former refined sugar addict!). And I was intentionally feeding healthy foods to help a happy gut as that’s where most of the happy hormones (serotonin) are produced.

But I could still feel the gut discomforts even though everything else was running smoothly. And after researching, listening to health interviews, and putting it all together… I came to the conclusion that it’s not the type of food that’s the problem, it’s the food itself.

Every food ingredient on the planet seems to be in question in some way these days. The only purer ones are the whole ones. And where there are edible food skin nutrients, that’s where the invisible poisons are too.

Even with good intentions to eat more healthy, our daily healthy foods are tainted.

The year prior, I was writing articles for wellness national publications on health and the Blue Zones, the oldest groups of people alive on the planet to date. So I was researching daily and comparing their food and healthy lifestyle ways with my own.

And I realized their B.Z. cheese is not our cheese process, and their bread is not our bread. Starting at the flour.

What we source and bring back home from grocery stores is processed, stripping out the gut valuable nutrients.

…So even with healthy and anti-inflammatory eating intentions, disappointingly we’re still off-setting so much food damage that’s out of our control.

From garden to grocery store, the good nutrients contain some harmful pesticide sprays and/or preservatives to make food shelf life last longer.

…And that means all of us have imperfect guts. And then we add plastic packaged food products, antibiotics, and daily stress into our lives… and that all compounds to the gut issues…

Or in some cases, leaky guts, bloating, IBS, etc. The list is long. And the gut stretches taller than you and me both. With over 15 feet, there’s all kinds of growing bug opportunities where we want to tip the scales to the good ones daily. Doing this impacts so much of our health and daily energy.

And long story short, all this is to say that’s why I started intermittent fasting regularly in 2023 for healthy preventative gut reasons and to help let the body naturally repair the gut.

It’s a great way to lose bad habits like snacking, sugar, overeating, drinking too late, drinking too much, etc. And a great opportunity to let your body detox reset, sleep more efficiently, and lose weight. If you want to discover more about the benefits and strategies, get the free guide.

soft serve ice cream chocolate recipe.
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Chocolate Soft Serve Ice Cream (Egg Yolk Method)

Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • 6 egg yolks
  • 3 cups milk
  • 1/3 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/4 cup fine sugar (monk fruit sugar alternative)

Instructions

  • Add milk and cocoa powder to a pot, and heat until you see a light boil (a few small boil bubbles). Then turn the heat off.
  • Take the pot off the heat and let cool for a few minutes.
  • Add your egg yolks to a separate mixing bowl and beat with sugar to emulsify until pale or lighter yellow color.
  • Add slightly cooled mixture to egg yolks and constantly stir with quick motions (prevent curdling).
  • When combined, set in refrigerator to cool down for about 15 minutes or longer.
  • Prepare ice cream maker machine and bowl if you will be using one to set the soft serve ice cream. Take bowl out of freezer for about 30 minutes if it has been in the back of the freezer. Freezer temps vary but you want the bowl cold enough but e.g. not with frozen icicles on the sides but not water condensation. Tip: for the balance, have the bowl a little less cold because you can always freeze the ice cream back up in the freezer. And soft serve is more creamy, watery, and soft than ice cream.
  • Alternatively, if you are not using an ice cream maker/bowl, be sure to stir the ice cream every half hour or so to remove any forming icicles.

Upper Gut Acidic Heartburn Symptoms

Upper gut is not something we daily talk about but we can feel if we have heartburn.

Temporary upper gut issues can often be helped with alkalizing foods like swiss chard here and other veggies.
Looks like rhubarb but it’s actually swiss chard… a super healthy spring veggie from a farmer’s market where you get in-season, fresh, organic produce 🥬

We tend to oversimplify body symptoms of the gut when we’re trying to fix the upper gut. Some upper gut symptoms are easily fixable within a few days of diet changes, and that’s what this  blog post article is about.

The lower gut has different symptoms and needs…

Such as bloating symptoms that are usually a discomfort-pain in the lower gut or abdomen.

Similar to a headache, bloating can have many causes including diet with disagreeable foods or food sensitivities, chronic inflammation, and diseases.

Eating less food while increasing more fiber, can help for simple bloating stomach fixes.

An even simpler fix is if you aren’t drinking enough water… and as soon as you fill up, you start feeling better.

For upper gut diet-related cause issues, you can change your symptoms from your eating habits in a few days. Some people call this an elimination diet.

…And moving toward more alkalizing foods may be what you need to do (and eat more of) to restore balance in the gut.

One type of upper gut issue already mentioned is heartburn that’s usually coming from a Pitta imbalance and a relatively easy-fix.

Many hard-charging personalities have this symptom often. And that can be exacerbated by stress and the wrong foods. If acid is coming back up the esophagus, then that’s referred to as GERD.

So then, changing diet is a good habit, challenge, and a healthier fix over popping daily antacid pills that look like candy.

Below I’ll give you some better food diet ideas.

But just to be more clear on this (as parts of the body can get confusing)…

Basically, if you have a dull or discomfort in the upper abdominal area where your esophagus meets your stomach, or you burp often, then heartburn-gas symptoms is more likely what you’re dealing with.

Gas gets trapped anywhere in the stomach that comes from air that we intake when we eat foods. And many foods we eat are acidic and stimulate stomach acid.

And…

Two things that are commonly missed in our daily diets:

❌ Often, we’re eating the wrong foods for our situations. We’re eating too many acidic foods that make the heartburn worse. We hear that a food is healthy and we order that when we need to shift gears to alkaline foods such as more veggies (plant-forward).

❌We’ve eaten and because certain food don’t agree with us, we may misdiagnose the feelings as a food allergy or sensitivity when it’s not the food itself… it’s the combination order we are eating the foods.

Our bodies look at digested food differently than we do with our eyes. If we set a reminder to think “our eyes are bigger than our stomachs” (as the saying goes), then we can do ourselves a favor.

Our bodies process what lands in our stomachs mixed with everything still unprocessed (looking a lot like a dump truck if we could see inside).

And, you may be surprised to know that many super healthy, anti-inflammatory foods are acidic making heartburn worse.😳

But let’s be clear… for daily health, energy, and our longevity efforts, we want to eat a diverse selection of anti-inflammatory foods. They are hands-down the best especially if we’re smart about our eating combinations.

But if you’re experiencing the effects of a high acidic stomach, you want to pause or reduce some of those specific foods until your symptoms disappear. For example: EVOO, grains, starches, and most animal proteins. It’s a balancing game (as is most everything good in Life 😊).

Finding the alkalizing balancing foods that are going to keep your stomach more neutral but filled with nutrients, is the perfect balance.

In acidic situations, choose from a smaller food list, like plenty of vegetables and proteins, such as eggs, tofu, chicken breast, and seeds. Try to eat the same things for meals. Remember, it’s only for a few days or until your symptoms go away.

The BRAT diet (bread, rice, apples, toast) was what we used to eat when we had a sour stomach but we can do better than that in macro nutrition with veggies, lean, and plant-based proteins.

And if you want a soft protein alternative to eggs or tofu, try:

Cottage cheese with peaches or Greek yogurt with berries (but not common grocery store pasteurized cheese or milks, or nut-milk alternatives).

Bananas also make good cushions in the stomach, and they are both prebiotic and probiotic. Another superfood carb is apples that are still the Queen fruit all around.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence they’re abundant year-round and there so many varieties blooming every season.

Then with avocado as the King fruit (my name for 🥑), you could add to your protein meals as the fat. It doesn’t always have to be healthy EVOO which is actually an acidic no-no, but great any other time.

And instead of 2 cups of coffee a day, switch one cup to green tea. And maybe an herbal tea later in the day when you aren’t seeking caffeine. Cold brew coffee is also less acidic than regular warm coffee brews.

If you’re a Vata, and you get an acidic Pitta stomach often, changing your “food as medicine” diet to less sweet alternatives can be one of the habit challenges. But definitely doable if you have your mind set on making positive changes.

Just remember, most fruits are okay for sweets, so that’s the saving grace. And it’s better to end on that sweet note.

Because also how you start your food day will matter. Like many, I used to start my breakfast with cereal or sweetened oatmeal. Over time, I replaced those less filling options with a vegetable-protein-fat macro-full meal.

…That may sound like a heavier mid-day lunch or dinner (as it did to me once-upon-a-time), but that combo is a better healthy start and will help with your lose weight goals and energy levels as your body is pleased with your healthy considerations… and will reward you with feeling better.

And when you’re not facing any upper gut acidic issues, if you want to add other healthy bread, starches, or desserts, that’s your choice. But, better to add those later in your meals and day than at the start.

…In my working with catering events for about 10 years, I got used to the idea of 3-4 course dinner meals with appetizers called hors d’oeuvres. But that’s a bit heavy for everyday eating. Would you agree? 

One of the simplest platters we served was Crudite. It was a plate of raw veggies such as carrots, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, and colorful bell peppers.

And this can be part of the lighter home dinner fare. Instead of a creamy, ranch-type dressing to accompany, you can eat veggies plain or add a Greek yogurt with a dash of Worcestershire sauce (for a healthy sour cream copycat) or vinegar that’s going to help your gut. Or spices like coriander and fennel.

And if you want to kick it up a notch, when your upper gut is back to its norm, you can make a stuffed bell pepper with very little prep needed as a plant-based full meal…

Cook your whole grains like quinoa or wild rice, and then stuff at the bottom, layering with legumes, veggies, and your fave herbs like fresh cilantro or parsley.

In one of the Blue Zones with the oldest living people, they have a dish called “three sisters” (corn, squash, and beans). You could do that…

And also enjoy with a lime soaked-yellow corn tortilla (or sprouted toast) if you want to stay on the longevity-healthy theme.🤸‍♀️

Stuffed bell peppers is a great way to stuff with proteins, whole grains, and more veggies!
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Avocado Green Smoothie

Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • 1 ripe avocado
  • plant-based milk (almond, cashew, oat, coconut)

Instructions

  • Blend and enjoy!