How often have we thought of breakfast as a redundant meal, when we do nothing but pile on calories? Wrong concept, a healthy breakfast not only takes care of your energy requirement throughout the day but also controls cravings, thus ensuring you do not put on weight.
The rush hour of the morning, kids going off to school, adults running to work, the sufferer is the breakfast, often skipped, more often underrated. The fact is that it is the one meal of the day when we should eat our best. Even though dinners make social events, they are the meal that should be kept the lightest, so as to abuse our sleeping body the least. Breakfast, on the other hand, should be a healthy, balanced, well rounded meal. It should be designed to give one’s body all the nutrition required to kick start the day, energy, to keep us going, iron and minerals and vitamins, to ensure all these nutrients get at least 12 hours to be digested and absorbed in our system for maximum benefit, (sleeping on heavy nutrients may not be such a great idea). Breakfast is important because it has been at least 8 hours since you last ate, and it is not at all healthy to keep one’s stomach empty for that long.
In fact, having a good, nutritious breakfast is the secret to staying healthy, say the latest medical researches. Skipping breakfast could be a sure way to getting diabetes, heart problems or both, not to mention obesity. In fact eating first thing in the morning helps stabilize the blood sugar levels. Besides, those who eat breakfast are less likely to have cravings during the day and hence will not overeat at any time.
One has a whole world of choices to pick from, a healthy breakfast could be very English (in which case it has least amount of oils and fats), heavy in juices and grilled veggies, or rich in marmies and spreads, or better still, easy as a smoothie with everything thrown in.
If time is the constraint, some amount of preparing can be done in the night, to save on precious minutes in the morning. Cereals are a good idea for those who don’t have the time or the energy to cook in the morning. Coupled with skimmed milk or juices, it takes care of energy, cereal goodness and all other nutrients too. In fact many ready to eat cereals are fortified with more vitamin and iron, and hence are more nutritious than any other food. To make sure that you are eating sensibly, avoid too much sugar or caffeine (preferably not more than one cup of coffee).
Here are some great ideas for a nutritious all round healthy breakfast, especially for people on the move. Choose whole cereals, maybe a whole wheat bread or cereal, paired with a protein food. For instance, a whole-wheat toast with eggs or low fat cheese with fresh juice or some other fruit, like a banana, and low fat milk. In fact a better option would be low fat yogurt with some fresh fruits. Cold meats are also a great idea, with a boiled egg and a slice of whole grain bread. Eggs are an all time good idea for a healthy morning food, more so if they are boiled or poached, hence less on oil. Poached or boiled they are also low in calories (75 kcal per egg)
Another good idea is pancakes, which can be made using whole meal flour instead of ordinary refined flour. These can be had with honey instead of maple syrup. Then the dish becomes much healthier, and to some, tastier too. The presence of wheat flour, egg, milk and honey takes care of all the nutritional requirements of the morning. Peanut butter could also be a good accompaniment, healthy and tasty too.
To go international, here are a few great breakfast ideas.
„¯ Dice cottage cheese with your favorite fruit and toss with lemon juice, salt, pepper and some honey. Wash down with buttermilk (thinned yogurt)
„¯ Leftover pita bread rolls with stuffing of scrambled egg and salsa.
„¯ On a Sunday mood, try kneading a bit of dough, roll out with a pin and some dry flour into 6¡¨ rounds, and stuff with minced cottage cheese with chopped green chilies, salt and some curry masala. Fold over to make a bundle of this stuffing with the dough and again roll out into 4¡¨ rounds. Sprinkle with oil and grill till brown on both sides. Accompanied with low fat yogurt, makes a wonderfully Indian breakfast dish. A great, tasty way to start a healthy day.