Research confirms that starting your day with a healthy breakfast is important for health and weight loss.
Breakfast Boosts Body and Brain Function In the morning, after not eating all night, your blood sugar level is low and your body and brain are literally running on empty until you eat breakfast. It doesn’t have to be a lot but it’s important to eat something to fuel your metabolism and keep your blood sugar from sinking even lower. Some people do fine with a little fruit, yogurt or cereal to start their day. Others do better with a heartier breakfast.
Eating Breakfast Improves Overall Health and Wellness People who eat breakfast tend to have lower cholesterol levels and better blood sugar regulation than breakfast-skippers. This lowers your risk for chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
Breakfast Eaters Weight Less Than Breakfast Skippers Breakfast eaters are usually thinner than breakfast skippers. They also tend to eat fewer calories daily. A healthy breakfast will nourish your body, energize your brain, speed up your metabolism and sustain you until lunch, making you less likely to overeat later in the day.
Healthy Breakfast Strategies
Find The Breakfast That Is Right For You Experiment with the kinds and amounts of food that feel right for you, energize you, and sustain you until lunch. Don't force yourself to eat something you don't like. Remember, food is supposed to be pleasurable! Try a healthy breakfast smoothie for a change of pace.
Limit Simple Sugars These set off blood sugar swings that can put you into a vicious cycle of craving high calorie foods. Avoid overly processed, junk-filled, mass-produced options like packaged muffins, donuts, and sugary cereals as much as possible.
Eat Healthy Homemade Baked Goods If you enjoy bake goods for breakfast, make sure they are homemade with high quality ingredients and whole grains. Healthy Homemade Muffin Tips
Include Some Healthy Protein And Fat This can be satisfying and help if you're trying to lose weight or are feeling fatigued. Eating healthy protein and fat will keep you feeling full longer. Options include natural peanut butter or almond butter on whole grain toast or english muffin, full fat organic yogurt, eggs, nuts/seeds, organic cottage cheese, fish, turkey sausage, or high quality cheese.
Have Some Fruit Try to include a serving or two of fruit at breakfast to get you well on your way to meeting your 5-7/day fruit/veggie daily requirement.
Don't Skimp At Breakfast This is not the meal to count calories. You want to feel satisfied, but not too full. Your body will burn off what you eat in the morning, unless of course it's a dozen bagels and 10 lbs. of cream cheese. Common sense still applies!
Take Time To Enjoy What You Eat Digestion and metabolism can't work properly when you're stressed out, multi-tasking, and eating on the run. Try to give yourself at least ten minutes to enjoy your breakfast before rushing into your day. Here are some of my favorite Quick and Healthy Breakfast Options.
