The old adage goes that ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day’ and although this sentiment has been around for a long time, the truth is that breakfast is not an essential meal for those who maybe struggle to eat first thing in the morning and by eating breakfast where you otherwise wouldn’t, this can actually have the potential to create weight gain if added to the other meals we would normally eat during the day. Remember, the only way to lose weight is to be in a calorie deficit, so the best way to eat to create this is the pattern with which allows us to stick to an intake that allows us to be in a deficit, whether that includes breakfast or not, and control hunger and cravings.
It appears that if you like to eat in a certain way, and that way helps control hunger, then for most people (we’re not talking about athletes or those who might exercise early in the morning who might require some energy), whether to include breakfast when looking to lose weight is really down to personal preference.
But what about those people who wake up hungry, who see sleep as a magical portal that quickly passes time to their next meal and just love to have breakfast, what is the best food you can have for breakfast? Well, like any other meal of the day, we want this meal to be nutritious, containing our essential macro and micro nutrients, and to have high levels of satiety, helping to keep hunger at bay and prevent cravings.
The foods that we include will depend largely on the diet strategy being employed. For those on a low carb approach, we want to include foods that contain a good amount of protein and healthy fats, which are both awesome for their potential to be filling and being nutrient dense. Using complete protein sources such as eggs are a great way to start the day and combining this with healthy sources of fats, especially those with plenty of fibre like nuts and avocado. Getting enough fibre in is also important as it helps keep the gut healthy, helping with digestion of proteins but can be missing from a low carb approach, so using a good fibre powder, combined with some powdered greens or fruits such as Now Foods Phytofoods or Fruit and Greens are a low carb way to ensure micronutrient needs are met.
For those who are using a diet approach that includes carbohydrates, wherever we include these in the day is again down to personal preference, however for those who like them at breakfast, it makes sense to again go for carbohydrate sources that are high in fibre, have high volume and filling effects. In this category, oats are the obvious number one choice and a high quality whey protein can be added to provide protein, and nut butters used to add healthy fats to provide a quick convenient and nutrient-dense packed meal to start the day and keep hunger at bay.
The truth is that the best breakfast is the one that is going to help us feel full, is something we enjoy and provide a lot of essential nutrients, and help to control our blood sugar levels effectively whilst providing enough energy to get us to our next meal. As a very general guideline we suggest a breakfast with a complete source of protein, containing between 20-40g of protein, a good source of unsaturated fats and fibre rich sources of carbohydrates – the amounts of which will depend on your goals and overall allowances. The simplest way to do this is to take your calculated allowances for the day and divide it by the number of meals you are having and eat that much at each meal. However, if you like a bigger breakfast then include more at the start of the day and reduce amounts later on in the day or do the opposite if you prefer carbs and fats later in the day or before bed.
Paul Rimmer (BSc, MSc, PhD).
