Break your fast
How often have you raced out of the house in the morning without time to eat breakfast? It’s easy to skip breakfast when you are short on time, but there are many reasons why we should take time to eat breakfast and ‘break your fast’
The benefits of eating breakfast
Eating a healthy breakfast such as wholegrain cereals or breads, fruit and yoghurts has many health benefits such as:
- A healthy breakfast will improve your nutrient intake for the entire day, adding more fibre, vitamins and minerals to your total nutrient intake and minimising your fat consumption levels.
- Regularly eating breakfast appears to contribute to a long-term reduction in weight gain in both children and adults. One of the key habits of people who have successfully lost and maintained weight is eating breakfast regularly.
- Breakfast will help put you in a good mood and prevent mood swings and irritability that often results from low blood sugar levels and hunger.
- Breakfast is particularly critical for children, helping to improve their behaviour, concentration, memory and learning ability at school. It also helps them to meet their daily energy intake requirements for growth and development. These benefits have also been proven in adult studies and it has also been shown that skipping breakfast impairs mental performance in the early afternoon, whether lunch has been eaten or not.
- As any athlete will tell you it is important to fuel your body. As we fast overnight the fuel stored around our muscles is gradually used, and therefore needs to be replaced in the morning if we are to get the most out of our muscles and have sufficient energy to perform at our best.
- Breakfast foods such as wholegrain cereals are high in fibre, which will help relieve constipation and increase regularity to give you greater comfort and a flatter tummy.
- Breakfast is an opportunity to model good eating habits to your children. Kids copy from example; establishing regular eating habits for children is vital for their future health.
Tips to encourage breakfast eating
- Make time to have breakfast. Try preparing as much as you can the evening before, or getting up 10 minutes earlier. If you are dashing out the door and realise you have not eaten grab a banana or Up & Go to eat on the way.
- You don’t have to eat as soon as you wake up. Often we don’t feel like eating as soon as we get up. Eating breakfast within an hour of waking is fine. Alternatively have a small snack to begin with then a larger one an hour or two later.
- Get enough sleep. A bad night's sleep or regular sleep deprivation can make us lethargic and disinterested in many things, including breakfast.
- Add variety. With the same breakfast every morning your day can resemble Groundhog Day, so start the day with a bit of variety.
- Portion size. There is a saying: "Eat like a king for breakfast, a queen for lunch and a pauper for dinner." However this may not suit all of us. If you have a physical job it is sensible to have a large breakfast as it provides you with the energy you need to get through your physically demanding day. However, if you sit at a desk all day, you may be better off having a smaller breakfast and grazing throughout the day on small amounts of food.
- Don’t overeat at night. The amount of food you eat before bed will affect how hungry you feel in the morning. Try and have your meal finished by 8pm at the latest and avoid snacking after dinner.
- Make it tasty. Anything is easier to do if it is something we like. Try eating things you really enjoy (even if they are a bit naughty) until you get into the habit of eating in the mornings. Then gradually replace these with more healthy options and save the treat breakfast for once a week.
- Persist. It takes 3-4 weeks to form a new habit.
Breakfast Ideas
- A wholegrain cereal, with low fat milk and sliced fresh or tinned fruit.
- A delicious smoothie made from low fat milk or soy milk and fresh fruit.
- Low fat yoghurt sprinkled with natural muesli.
- Bircher muesli and fruit.
- Pancakes topped with fruit and yoghurt.
- Poached or hard boiled eggs on wholegrain or wholemeal toast with a glass of fruit juice.
- An omelette.
- Wholegrain or wholemeal muffins with your favourite toppings such as avocado, tomato and low fat melted cheese.
- Toasted fruit bread.
- Wholegrain or wholemeal toast with a variety of toppings such as avocado, baked beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, marmite, peanut butter (or other nut spread).
- Crumpets, bagels, French toast, waffles
- Chilled liquid breakfasts like Up & Go are great for eating on the run.
- A piece of fruit and a glass of milk.