What to Eat for Breakfast?

Of all the nutrition questions my clients ask me, these are the ones I hear most often (except for “What about chocolate” and What about wine”?…we’ll get to those later!)

Almost everyone thinks that oatmeal and fruit is the ideal breakfast…especially those who eat steel cut oats…after all, they are going the route of non-instant!

Let’s look a what constitutes a great breakfast;

1) It should meet a third of the days nutrient and calorie needs.

2) It should keep you going to lunch time with high energy and keep the blood sugar regulated.  In other words you should feel natural hunger by lunchtime but be experiencing symptoms of low blood sugar (shaky and want to slap someone or desperate for anything to eat!).

So what is a great breakfast?  Let’s compare 2 breakfast’s;

1 cup cooked oatmeal
1/2 cup milk
1 cup blueberries

This breakfast gives you;

455 calories
18% calories from fat- way too low
15% from protein- way too low, should be 30%
Gives you 20% of Vitamin C
You get 4624 IU of Vitamin A- way too low
66.5% calories from carbs- way too high, a easy way to gain weight!

This breakfast does not meet your need for calories or nutrients, is way too high in carbs, and too low in protein and fat.  My clients are puzzled that they do not eat much, eat oatmeal for breakfast, salads for lunch, yet they gain weight.  Remember CARBS make you gain weight, NOT fat or protein.

Now let’s look at an ideal breakfast;

Photo from CaveManForum

A 2 egg omelet with onions, peppers and mushrooms sautéed with 1 Tablespoon butter
4 slices turkey bacon
3 slices beefsteak tomatoes
1/2 blueberries

Here is a breakfast that gives you 577 calories

68% from fat- breakfast is always, for me, the highest one percentage wise in fat and protein. The other meals tend to have more vegetables so this balances out.

20% from protein- the exact amount you need at each meal.

Carbs are 11%- a tad low but again, the other meals tend to have more veggies.

You get 3607 IU of Vitamin A, 129 mg. of Vitamin C, 483% of needed Iron.

Now THAT is a breakfast that will last you all morning, leave you satisfied until lunch…but not so hungry that you are ready to eat chips or a smoothie just to get your brain functioning!  As you can see it gives you a third of the nutrients you need each day.

Personally I fry, scramble or make an omelet each morning and have turkey bacon or sausage and coconut milk yogurt and a small amount of fruit each morning..  But many people have asked for more breakfast ideas.  So for the next few weeks I am going to give different breakfast recipes so check back often…