Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But what should go into it to make it good and nutritious.

Breakfast means quite literally, breaking the fast. When we wake up in the morning, our bodies are starving for nutrition after the night-long deprivation. Depriving your body of its morning dose of nutrition is one of the worst things you could do to your body. A person who does not eat a regular healthy breakfast is likely to spend the morning struggling with sluggishness, diminished ability to concentrate, irritability and, as the day progresses, bouts of hunger that are fended off by quick, calorie-rich foods. Skipping breakfast sets the ball rolling for an unhealthy lifestyle, where the meals keep getting heavier to cope with the body’s starvation in the morning, and the stage is set for weight problems, see-sawing blood sugar levels and heart disease.

Of course, eating just anything for breakfast is not enough. One must eat a healthy breakfast; one that packs in all the nutrients that the body needs to keep going through the day and one that would not make a person feel hungry immediately after the morning meal. Follow these simple guidelines to ensure that your breakfast is power-packed.

Morning dose of carbs

A breakfast that comprises sugary cereals or sweet pancakes and waffles is not going to give your body the nutrition that it requires. Sugar will certainly wake your brain up and get it going for a while, but only until you hit the post-sugar slump. Your body needs sugar to wake up in the morning, but that does not mean you eat sugar-laden food. That will only cause a quick crash in your energy levels later. Instead, fill up on food rich in complex carbohydrates such as whole grain toast, wheat flakes or oats. Complex carbohydrates are the main source of glucose, which your body needs to function normally. Glucose does not cause rapid shifts in your energy levels like plain sugar does.

The carbs-protein balance

Along with the essential carbohydrates, be sure to include protein in your breakfast as well. While carbohydrates give the body the immediate dose of energy it needs, proteins break down more slowly and thus are a more long-lasting source of energy. They keep your body from needing to refuel too quickly.

Add a fruit

Fruits are a source of vitamins, minerals and fiber and should be made an essential part of the morning meal. People are often not very hungry as soon as they wake up in the morning. It is a good idea then to start the morning with a fruit. But simply eating that is not enough and one must follow this up with a proper breakfast within an hour or so. As far as possible, try and eat the fruits whole, as they lose much of their valuable fiber when juiced.

Control your portions

There is an old adage that says one must eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper. Do not take it literally! Breakfast should ideally be nutritious but light. It should not be so large or heavy as to cause discomfort or distention. A heavy breakfast can lead to slump in energy and be counterproductive. This is particularly true when leg work or physical activity is limited after breakfast.

Cut the fat

This is an obvious fact but needs to be stated nonetheless. It is a common practice to want to eat fried or fatty foods in the morning to feel full quickly, but it does more harm than good. If you are deep-frying food in too much oil you are undoing all the good that is in them. While it is often not possible to keep breakfast completely fat free, make sure there is as little fat included as possible.

 

Nuts and seeds are some of the best sources of essential minerals such as magnesium, zinc and iron – all of which our body requires to function optimally. Some nuts such as walnuts and seeds such as flax seeds contain omega-3 fatty acids, which are important for the proper functioning of the brain. So feel free to sprinkle some chopped walnuts, pistachios and almonds in your cereal or add some flax and sesame seeds to your wheat dough. However, consume these in moderation as nuts can be extremely calorific. So a breakfast which combines good sources of carbohydrates with proteins and is light but filling, besides being very nutritious would be an ideal one.

How to make the most of your breakfast

1. Try and prepare the materials for your breakfast the night before. You will find that it is much easier to make and eat breakfast when we do not need to do the prep at the same time.

2. If you have had a late dinner, you might not be hungry at your usual breakfast time the next day. Do not force yourself to eat – have a fruit or drink some milk, but make sure your breakfast is packed for you to take to work so that you have something healthy to eat, when you do get peckish.

3. For the mornings when you are too busy to cook a meal, have a box of whole-grain and fiber-rich cereal ready. All you need to do is take some in a bowl, pour milk on it and eat.

Breakfast beverages

Besides the usual tea or coffee, you could try some of these other beverages as well, for breakfast.

– Low fat milk or Soya milk

– Green tea

– Vegetable juice

– Fruit smoothies or milk shakes

– Buttermilk