This delectable breakfast bowl is filled with all sorts of deeply nourishing and grounding goodness.
Oatmeal is particularly balancing for vata dosha due to it's sweet, heavy, soft, and mucilaginous qualities. This slimy quality helps moisten and soften the GI tract, allowing food material to move through more efficiently and thereby supporting proper elimination.
In addition, oats are considered a high-fiber laxative as they are a great source of both insoluble and soluble fiber. This makes oatmeal an important ally for easily constipated vata, as fiber provides the needed bulk and weight to facilitate moving things along the GI tract. The soluble fiber in oatmeal also helps absorb the "bad" cholesterol in your bloodstream, which is your LDL cholesterol, making oatmeal a very heart-healthy choice.
Oats nourish rasa, also known as your lymph, which can easily be vulnerable to depletion in vata types due to their dry nature, and for others especially during the Fall season when the air element is dominant and cooler temperatures set in.
If that hasn't sold you vata types yet, oats also promote ojas ~ which is your deep vitality and immunity. To learn more about ojas and how to bolster immunity, see my article here.
Oats are considered a sattvic food, which means they foster peace and tranquility in the body and mind. They're grounding, healing, and pure. Having a belly full of oatmeal definitely makes me feel peaceful and content. Click here to learn more about sattva and its harmonizing force.
One of my favorite ways to eat Scottish oatmeal is by cooking it in almond milk with raisins, a dollop of apple sauce, and ghee topped with maple syrup, cinnamon, and a pinch of cardamon, ginger, and Himalayan pink salt. Sometimes I add chopped walnuts for some added protein, but on the days that I want to keep it super easy on digestion, I don't add the nuts.
I much prefer Scottish oatmeal over rolled or cut. I find these ground and milled oats much easier to digest. Having roots in Scotland, I also enjoy connecting with my ancestors.
Ingredients:
•1/4 cup of Scottish Oatmeal
•3/4 cup of Dairy/Nut Milk or Water (Milk makes it creamier)
•Sprinkle of Himalayan Pink Salt
(Option to add a handful of chopped nuts)
Directions:
Stir that together in a pot & bring to a boil.
Then simmer on low-med heat for 10 mins, stirring every few seconds.
Within that time I stir in a handful of Raisins to let them soak up the liquid to soften & plump up.
Remove from heat & add:
•2 tsp of Ghee (vegans sub with coconut oil or vegan butter)
•1Tbsp Maple Syrup
•Dollop of Apple Sauce
•Cinnamon, pinch of Cardamon, Ginger, Himalayan Pink Salt
Sometimes I add raw apple chunks and cook them with the oatmeal to soften and marry the flavors, but I make it this when I'm feeling saucy! (Also makes it even easier to digest.)
Get creative with your add-ins! You can do so much with Oatmeal.
Cooking your fruit with your meal helps make it more digestible. Adding raw fruit on top of a cooked meal can be a digestive nightmare for some, especially vata. Eating raw fruit alone as a snack is better for digestive harmony.
See my other articles here on more ways to help support vata dosha.
Don't really know what vata dosha is?! You'll find more on vata and the other two doshas here.