What’s for Breakfast?

When we start to take charge of our eating habits, breakfast is the meal that has many of us scratching our heads. Cereal or toast is so quick and easy, and ‘quick & easy’ is what’s called for in the mornings. But most breads and cereals are not a great way to start your day.

The problem with breakfast cereals

Grains are processed by high heat and pressure to produce the shapes, flakes and puffs of breakfast cereal. This destroys the nutrient content of the grain — despite what it says on the box — and these cereals can have an adverse effect on your blood sugar. The same applies to rice cakes and corn cakes.

My favourite story about cereal involves an experiment done in 1960 in Ann Arbor using rats and cornflakes. Eighteen rats were divided into three groups of six. One group were fed cornflakes and water, the next group were given the cardboard box that the cornflakes came in plus water, and the third group were fed rat chow and water. The third group apparently remained healthy, but the first two groups died. Can you guess which group died first? Yes, the group eating the cornflakes. It was healthier to eat the box! The research was originally proposed as a joke, but the results were far from funny, especially given our reliance on packaged cereals.

Breakfast has to set us up for the first part of the day. It needs to be nutritious and give us good sustainable energy so that we can function well. If you’re reaching for coffee and biscuits mid morning to keep you going, you didn’t eat the best breakfast for you.

The ideal breakfast will vary from person to person, depending on your metabolic type. Some people can barely look at food in the mornings and a light breakfast is more than enough for them. Others are ravenous and a heavier meal including meat, chicken or fish works best for them. People who do physical work obviously need a good start to the day, but many of us with more sedentary jobs also need to eat a substantial breakfast in order to think clearly and be at our best.

Breakfast is important and it’s worth getting out of bed a bit earlier to make sure there is time to eat properly. If that’s a struggle, you may need to reconsider the way you manage your mornings or the time you go to bed. For breakfast to give you sustained energy, it should contain some protein, some complex carbohydrates (high fibre foods such as veges, wholegrains or fruit) and some healthy fats (butter, cream, yoghurt, coconut oil, egg, nuts or nut paste, avocado, olive oil, and so on).

Besides processed cereals, other foods to avoid for your first meal of the day are foods made from sugar and white flour, such as bagels, croissants and white bread. (Muffins and pancakes may work if you make them and know what’s in them.)

If you prefer a grain-style breakfast and tolerate this well, look to oats, buckwheat, millet, rice, quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) or amaranth. Oats don’t need to be cooked, though you may prefer to in winter. They can just be soaked overnight to make them more digestible and nutritious. Our ancestors knew the importance of soaking. All grains contain phytic acid in the outer layer. This can combine with minerals such as calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc in the intestinal tract and block their absorption. Soaking rolled or cracked grains neutralizes the phytic acid and also promotes the production of enzymes which increase the vitamin content of the grain. A diet high in grains that have not been treated this way can put a big load on the digestive system. To soak grains, cover them with warm water (with a dash of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar) and leave for at least 7 hours.

Grains such as millet, rice, quinoa and buckwheat don’t contain gluten, so soaking is less important for them, but they need to be cooked slowly. If you put them in the crock pot or slow cooker when you go to bed, cover them with water and put the cooker on ‘low’, they’ll be ready in the morning. Alternatively, simmer your grain while you make dinner, and when it’s cooked and cooled, put it in the fridge ready for the morning.

Cooked grains can be eaten in a number of ways: add a little raw butter or cream plus fresh fruit, or cinnamon and a little honey. Grains can also be savoury with the addition of herbs, onion or other vegetables, and egg or left over meat, chicken or fish.

A good sourdough or wholegrain bread that suits you can be eaten with eggs, tomato, mushrooms, avocado, baked beans, and so on.

Despite what you may have learned about the healthy diet pyramid, for the sake of our health many of us need to limit the amount of grain we eat. If you have a grain-based breakfast, avoid bread or grain for lunch and dinner as well.

Remember that you don’t have to stick rigidly to the mainstream Australian view of breakfast foods. If you have a big pot of hearty soup on the go, that could be perfect for breakfast.

Those who prefer a light breakfast might be content with fruit, a good quality natural yoghurt and a few nuts.

Smoothies are also a good standby for people in a hurry. Pasteurised milk is a processed food that many of us do not digest well. Moreover, pasteurization depletes the nutritional value of milk. Fortunately we can now buy unpasteurized milk and most good whole food shops carry it. Many people who cannot tolerate pasteurized products can handle unpasteurized ones, and some people who cannot drink cows’ milk are fine with goats’ milk. If you have difficulty digesting milk, try these alternatives. Some people who can’t drink milk can eat cheese and yoghurt. See if you can find unpasteurized cheese in your area.

Of course some people choose to avoid dairy altogether and that’s fine, but don’t assume that processed soy or milks made from rice and so on are a good alternative. Many contain high omega-6 oils like sunflower oil, so read the labels. Some people may find that a little coconut milk (not the ‘lite’ versions) or coconut cream is a suitable form of milk in some situations. You can also make your own version of milk by grinding cashews or blanched almonds to a powder and blending with water.

Avoid the temptation to drink pasteurized skim and low fat milks. These are not healthy foods and they will not make you slim.

Once you have a base for your smoothie, you can be as creative as you like in what you add. Fruit, ground nuts and seeds, ginger, vanilla, cinnamon, cacao powder, maca* the list goes on. A touch of honey or a couple of drops of stevia will make it sweeter. Adding a raw egg yolk (we used to call these ‘egg nogs’) makes it a more nutritious drink, and you can’t taste the egg. You can also include concentrated green powders or kelp. Smoothies are a great way to disguise the taste of something that’s nutritious but not all that palatable.

So be creative and don’t limit your options. You can do way better than cereal. 


*Maca is a hormone balancing food made from a root vegetable grown in South America. It is golden colour and pleasant tasting. Since quality can vary, buy it from a reputable supplier.

 
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