​Get a Boost with Breakfast
After as many as 12 hours without eating, your body is starting the day with an empty tank. It needs the boost of breakfast to optimize both physical and mental performance. And eating breakfast goes beyond that – it may help control your weight. Research has found that eating breakfast regularly is associated with success at keeping lost weight off in the long term. While some might think that cutting the calories of breakfast will help with weight loss, scientists have suggested that skipping breakfast might make the body more likely to lay down fat and gain weight.
It’s also been shown that eating breakfast is associated with eating a more balanced diet overall. Not only that, but it really does boost memory and concentration during the morning.
Start with the food groups
The highest priority at breakfast is to refuel, so try to start with a grain food, packed with starchy carbohydrate. Toast or breakfast cereal are the obvious ones, but you can add variety with bagels, oatmeal, English muffins, or pita breads. Aim to choose wholegrain at least half the time.
Other food groups, meat and beans, fruit, and the milk group, add extra nutrients such as protein, vitamins and minerals. The fruit and milk groups also contain carbohydrate in the forms of the fruit sugar, fructose, and the milk sugar, lactose. This means they will also help with refuelling. Vegetables don’t usually feature much at breakfast, however tomatoes, peppers and onions form the basis for a great weekend breakfast of huevos rancheros.
Easy, tasty ideas
A common reason for not eating breakfast is boredom with the usual cereal or toast. Try these ideas to add some extra zing:
Just not a breakfast person?
If you have trouble facing a traditional breakfast soon after getting up, you might find it easier to start with the fresher taste of fruit, whether it’s a bowl of tropical fruit salad or an apple grabbed as you run out the door. Some people also find drinks easier to manage early in the day – try a fruit smoothie, 100% juice, or even a coffee based on low-fat milk to start the morning.
Another option for people not keen on traditional breakfast food is more savoury flavors. You might try hummus or smoked salmon on a bagel, or even leftovers from the night before.
Lastly, consider foods you can eat on the way to work, from a to a rolled-up tortilla with light spread and jelly. And you can top up, or start breakfast if you don’t manage anything earlier, when you get to work. If possible, keep some whole grain cereal, fresh fruit or low-fat yogurts at the office, to make sure you don’t go hungry when you make it to your desk.
No excuses
Be sure not to give in to the usual reasons why people skip breakfast: lack of time and boredom. Even if you are limited to a couple of minutes for cereal or toast during the week, reward yourself on the weekend with a more indulgent concoction of fruit pancakes or blueberry muffins. And save a few muffins for a deliciously quick breakfast on more rushed mornings.
It’s also been shown that eating breakfast is associated with eating a more balanced diet overall. Not only that, but it really does boost memory and concentration during the morning.
Start with the food groups
The highest priority at breakfast is to refuel, so try to start with a grain food, packed with starchy carbohydrate. Toast or breakfast cereal are the obvious ones, but you can add variety with bagels, oatmeal, English muffins, or pita breads. Aim to choose wholegrain at least half the time.
Other food groups, meat and beans, fruit, and the milk group, add extra nutrients such as protein, vitamins and minerals. The fruit and milk groups also contain carbohydrate in the forms of the fruit sugar, fructose, and the milk sugar, lactose. This means they will also help with refuelling. Vegetables don’t usually feature much at breakfast, however tomatoes, peppers and onions form the basis for a great weekend breakfast of huevos rancheros.
Easy, tasty ideas
A common reason for not eating breakfast is boredom with the usual cereal or toast. Try these ideas to add some extra zing:
- Smoothie, maybe with frozen berries or a banana, low-fat yoghurt or milk, and a spoon of honey or other sweetener
- Fruit or berries topped with granola and plain yogurt (with a drizzle of honey if the fruit isn’t sweet enough)
- Slice a hard-boiled egg into a pita bread with a sprinkle of shredded reduced-fat cheese – perfect to take when you’re on the run
- Bagel with reduced-fat cream cheese and ham or smoked salmon
- Oatmeal topped with chopped dried fruit and a spoon of maple syrup
- Warm a tortilla topped with a slice of ham in the microwave, then wrap around scrambled egg
- Wholegrain English muffin topped with tomato, low-fat shredded cheese, and a sprinkle of mixed herbs, and put in the microwave to melt the cheese.
Just not a breakfast person?
If you have trouble facing a traditional breakfast soon after getting up, you might find it easier to start with the fresher taste of fruit, whether it’s a bowl of tropical fruit salad or an apple grabbed as you run out the door. Some people also find drinks easier to manage early in the day – try a fruit smoothie, 100% juice, or even a coffee based on low-fat milk to start the morning.
Another option for people not keen on traditional breakfast food is more savoury flavors. You might try hummus or smoked salmon on a bagel, or even leftovers from the night before.
Lastly, consider foods you can eat on the way to work, from a to a rolled-up tortilla with light spread and jelly. And you can top up, or start breakfast if you don’t manage anything earlier, when you get to work. If possible, keep some whole grain cereal, fresh fruit or low-fat yogurts at the office, to make sure you don’t go hungry when you make it to your desk.
No excuses
Be sure not to give in to the usual reasons why people skip breakfast: lack of time and boredom. Even if you are limited to a couple of minutes for cereal or toast during the week, reward yourself on the weekend with a more indulgent concoction of fruit pancakes or blueberry muffins. And save a few muffins for a deliciously quick breakfast on more rushed mornings.