How many of you miss breakfast each morning? How many of you snack mid-morning? How many of you starve yourself until lunchtime, then end up eating for England?
Breakfast is the best meal of the day for setting your body up to deal with whatever comes its way. It kickstarts the brain and metabolism, after all you don’t expect a car to run without fuel do you.
As a kid leaving the house to go to school I was held to ransome unless I had porridge for breakfast, which made me more determined than ever to leave the house without having porridge for breakfast, but believe me, if you’d seen my mother’s porridge you wouldn’t have wanted to eat it either.
But the upshot of this was that by the mid-morning break I would be starving, and often the only thoughts in my mind during the lessons would be how to stop my stomach from rumbling loudly in class, and humiliating me. So I guess that morning lessons weren’t my strong point because I was running on empty, and concentrating on trying to stop my stomach growling to avoid getting laughed at.
Now however I’m older, uglier and wiser. For me breakfast is the best meal of the day, and I’ve found out that the more substantial a breakfast I eat in the morning, the less I eat during the rest of the day.
So this is how it works for me. After either the gym or swimming each morning the first thing I do is have breakfast. Breakfast consists of two or three (or more) different fruits chopped up, organic cereal without all the sugar and rubbish that most cereals contain, and organic low fat fruit yogurt. I make it a generous bowlful too, and it lasts me all the way through to lunchtime, and no stomach rumbling. And yes, I eat this sitting at my desk browsing my inbox and planning my work day while I’m eating.
But if you don’t have time to make your own breakfast what are the options available as takeout?
Burger King have something called the Enormous Omelet Sandwich, it’s big and filling, but at 740 calories and 46g of fat it’s a nutrition nightmare.
So you might turn away from that sort of breakfast and think that Starbucks can do healthier. Well if you select the ‘healthier’ option of classic blueberry muffin and vanilla whip frappuccino then you’ll be racking up a gross 864 calories. Makes the Enormous Omelet Sandwich look almost svelte doesn’t it.
Now Pret a Manger must be able to do better, well chose their All-Day Breakfast bowl of rhubarb compote, light Greek yoghurt and granola and an organic milk latte and you’ve hit 557 calories. Yet their egg and bacon croissant is only 483 calories.
Pop into Caffè Nero for a granola bar and frappe latte and you’ve hit 641 calories and 23g of fat.
As you can see from the above dietary horror stories, breakfast can be a minefield. But it’s not an insurmountable problem, if you really don’t have time to prepare a healthy breakfast before work, then at least have some fruit, or a low fat yoghurt, you don’t have to create a culinary masterpiece, just something that you like to eat, that will get your body going for the day, and won’t break the calorie bank all in one meal. The majority of the ‘take out’ breakfasts will put your blood sugar through the roof after eating, then you’ll plummet and desperately grab any sugary, fatty snack around to fulfil the craving, and rise and plummet again, and again, and again…
You know, whilst people mock the greasy spoon, they have got something right, a traditional bacon sandwich and mug of tea will only set you back about 300 calories and 11g of fat, and it’s a fantastically nutritious, filling, portable way to start the day, but not everyday.
And finally although I’d rather give up eating than pass under the golden gates, MacDonald’s now do porridge, and I bet it’s still nicer than my mother’s.
