Have you every skipped breakfast and found in the afternoon you’re feeling tired, sluggish and can’t concentrate?
Well, there is a reason breakfast has been labelled by researchers as ‘the most important meal of the day’ and I agree.
Our lives can be busy, and it can be so easy to skip breakfast or grab a fast-food pastry. But eating a healthy breakfast each day can help to keep your hormones balanced, energy lifted, and mood stabilised. It can be as simple as eggs on sourdough rye toast or high protein granola with hemp seeds and yogurt.
After your body’s been in a fasting state overnight it needs to be fueled with nutrients, so it can function to its optimal efficiency. In the morning, the brain needs glucose in order to start thinking and concentrating and that’s not from a sugary muffin – it’s from carbohydrates. As well as protein to help with satiety so you stay full for longer and to provide you with sustained energy for the day.
So, how can you think or concentrate if your body is starving because you haven’t had breakfast?
The quick answer is you can’t!
Research shows a well-balanced, nutritious breakfast will get you off to a good start for the day and you’ll be more likely to want to be more physically active, experience better mental health and make positive choices to maintain your health.
So that sugary milk drink or a piece of toast isn’t going to cut it. You need protein, good fats, high-fibre foods, and complex carbohydrates that provide a gradual supply of energy for the body. They provide a kickstart to your metabolism and digestive system, create sustained energy, switch on your brain and balance your hormones.
Here are some foods you can use to increase the nutritional value of your breakfast.
Protein includes eggs, lean meat, legumes, protein powder, hemp, and chia seeds.
Complex carbohydrates include rolled oats, brown rice, whole grains, quinoa, banana, and vegetables.
Good fats include avocado, flaxseeds, LSA mix, macadamia nuts and tahini.
High-fibre foods include kiwifruit, slippery elm, psyllium husk, inulin, oats, flaxseed meal and PHGG.
The nutrients you obtain from the breakfast you eat is what sets you up for the rest of the day and a high sugar food or having nothing can mean that by 3pm you are hitting that energy slump hard. Which can only mean one thing, you’re craving a sugar fix to quickly increase your energy.
This can end up a vicious cycle because cortisol and insulin become overused which can lead to abdominal weight gain and blood sugar problems.
Make breakfast a meal you look forward to, pay attention to and enjoy.
After all, you are breaking the fast and, as you can see, that is a particularly important thing to do and why breakfast is ‘the most important meal of the day’.
Let me know what are your go-to delicious and nutritious breakfasts?
To your health and wellness
Marianne x
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