Grapefruit With Honey, Ginger & Cardamom

How to Make Grapefruit with Honey, Ginger & Cardamom

• SERVINGS: 1
• PREP TIME: 5 MINUTES
• COOK TIME: 0 MINUTES
• SKILL LEVEL:

  EASY
• MEAL: BREAKFAST
• STYLE: WESTERN
• PREPARATION: RAW
• EAT IN: SPRING, AUTUMN-WINTER
• FOR OCCASION: CLEANSE

CLINICAL AYURVEDIC REVIEW

Simple, cleansing, sweet, tangy, and tart, this recipe is our favorite weight loss breakfast for Kapha dosha. Enjoy the fresh, clean juiciness of biting into a plump slice of grapefruit, with the spicy zing of ginger and fresh liberating aroma of cardamom.

Many individuals follow a philosophy, "Breakfast is the most important meal." Instead, heavy Kapha predominant constitutions have the liberty to choose a light breakfast. If a Kapha person isn't hungry at breakfast time, they may eat a simple dish or skip breakfast altogether. A lighter meal helps wake up your body after a long, cozy night of sleeping. The morning is the best time to metabolize unwanted pounds and start the day off feeling clean and fresh.

Cleanse & Detoxify

January can make you feel frozen. The chilly, dark days seem to freeze your body's workings, causing stagnation and congestion just when you need a post-holidays system sweep. Sunshiney citrus fruits are rectifiers of the stuck qualities of the wintertime body, with their brilliant hues and zesty flavors, offering a just-in-time refresher to kick out lodged toxins. This snack recipe accentuates the supportive nature of grapefruit and its bright way of flushing out the impurities and letting the affirming light of good health in.

In Ayurveda, the secret of the grapefruit lies in its powerful flavors, sour and bitter. These cleansing tastes stimulate the flow of bile, diluting and flushing it out of the gallbladder and into the small intestine. Stagnant bile tends to collect and thicken in the gall bladder, where the liver stores the bile after producing it, forming problematic sludge and stones. The sludge inhibits the drainage of bile, congesting the liver. Sour and bitter flavors encourage the bile to move and flush toxins out of the liver to the relief of your newly cleansed liver cells. Support the movement of bile and you directly reduce Pitta, making your spine feel cool and relaxed. Bile helps to move along the poor choices of holiday celebrations, freeing your whole body to truly move on into the new year.

Improve Fat Metabolism

Bile is an oily substance. The removal of bile from the liver directly lowers cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blood. Bile is the main pathway of cholesterol metabolism in many animals. Grapefruit improves fat metabolism, lowers cholesterol, and reduces insulin levels. Grapefruit also gives your metabolism a kick-start, increasing thyroid activity.

Raw honey is the only safe sweetener for Kapha, or for those who tend to experience congestion, sluggish digestion, and are overweight. Like grapefruit, honey increases fat metabolism. Ginger gives this recipe an "agni" kick meaning it stimulates energy, igniting the digestive fire. Honey and ginger together heat the blood. You may notice how the two ingredients direct sensation to the frontal lobe of brain, the cerebral cortex, awakening the mind's ability to concentrate and analyze. Ginger also stimulates the heart. Lastly, cardamom and the grapefruit's bitter rinds clear the stomach of Kapha stagnation.

Grapefruits are contraindicated for high blood pressure or when using anti-depressants. If you take thyroid medication, please check with your doctor before adding grapefruit to your diet.

AYURVEDA'S GUIDE TO VITALITY & WHOLESOME NOURISHMENT

Your Ayurvedic diet is tailored to your individual body and your specific imbalances. With an Ayurvedic diet you feel joy and satisfaction because what you are eating truly nourishes and balances you. Disease results from diets and lifestyles that are incompatible with your nature. By eating a personalized diet matched to your body, you experience optimal health. See How it Works.