There isn't much that I don't love about breakfast. If you can dream up a breakfast item, I probably have a deep infatuation with it or it holds a special place in my heart. Pancakes for dinner, fried eggs, sausage, bacon, waffles, kolaches, donuts, breakfast tacos, breakfast casserole, scones, bangers and mash, home fries, grits, croissants, eggs benedict (or sardou), quiches, etc, etc, etc. It is all delicious but most of it goes into the "treats" category or at least certainly not in the every morning category. Then there are things like fruit, yogurt, oatmeal, egg beaters, that make up the more every day fare.
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| It's a joke fruits.. you know I love you. |
I am on a somewhat new quest to discover faster and easier ways to get a better breakfast. For those of you that don't eat breakfast, stop being idiots. Coffee and diet coke do not count as a breakfast meal. Here are 10 fantastic reasons to eat breakfast every day, provided by TheDailyMeal.com.*
1. Brain-Boosting Powers
As you stare off into space at
your work desk, you may wonder why you can't focus on a darn thing. The
fact that you started your day off with just two sips of coffee may be
the reason. After a night of fasting, your brain needs a fresh supply of
glucose (blood sugar) for fuel. Without it, you'll have trouble
processing new information, have issues with physical understanding, and
won't remember much.
2. Get Essential Nutrients
Your morning meal is fortified
with nutrients that your body needs to function healthily each day.
Nutrients like folate, iron, B vitamin, fiber, and other essentials are
only gained through food, and while the body can always use its stored
recesses to make it to the next meal, that initial burst of essentials
is never provided without eating breakfast.
Making sure to get breakfast in
your system does more than keep you awake — it promotes a healthy heart
by preventing diabetes and lowering blood pressure. Those who skip
breakfast tend to have higher cholesterol levels, a major risk factor
for heart disease. Breakfast eaters tend to get less fat and more fiber
in their diets, which leads to less overeating and fewer unhealthy
snacks between meals.
Instead of loading up on a
heavy dinner, start your day off with a grand meal at breakfast time.
Doing so may help prevent metabolic syndrome disorders like obesity and
insulin resistance. A study in the International Journal of Obesity
examined the type of foods and specific timing of consumption that
resulted in metabolic syndrome characteristics in mice. Mice that were
fed a meal higher in fat after waking had normal metabolic profiles,
while mice that ate more carbohydrates in the morning and consumed a
high-fat meal at the end of the day showed increased weight gain and
other markers of metabolic syndromes. Researchers found that the time of
fat intake matters; when eating fat early, metabolism worked
efficiently and affected the animals’ response to different types of
food later in the day.
Even though skipping breakfast
is quite common, it is a form of disordered eating. Breakfast literally
means breaking the fast, and is necessary in order to jump-start your
body. An Australian study found that 13-year-old girls who did not eat
breakfast were on average more dissatisfied with their body shape and
had undergone more diet regimens then those who broke the fast with
regular morning meals. Since skipping breakfast is often about skipping a
meal for weight control purposes, it's is a disorderly way of eating.
To fight the common wintertime
colds and flus, you need to sit down and eat your breakfast. A study in
the Netherlands showed that eating a substantial breakfast boosts your
body's gamma-interferon, a natural antiviral that directly activates
immune cells. Skipping breakfast caused a 17 percent drop in
gamma-interferon.
Eggs, the incredible and
popular breakfast food, do way more than fill you up. No matter how they
are prepped, eggs are fantastic for your skin. Lutein, a carotenoid
antioxidant found in eggs, helps to preserve the skin's elasticity and
protects skin cells from free radical damage. Just one egg a day can
boost your lutein levels by 26 percent. There are plenty of other
breakfast foods that will do the job as well, like oatmeal, walnut
pancakes, and breakfast smoothies.
While eating breakfast alone
will not help you magically shed the pounds, it may help your emotional
relationship with food (and that invariably affects your weight).
Prolonged fasting can increase your body's insulin response, which
increases fat storage and weight gain. Breakfast also helps to prevent
overeating and attempts to sate desperate hunger with quick fixes like
doughnuts and vending-machine snacks.
A balance of carbohydrates,
protein, and fiber is the key to any healthy breakfast, and eating foods
with these components will increase your energy levels. Breakfast
replenishes your glycogen stores, which supply muscles with immediate
energy. Breakfast was found to supply around 25 percent of people's
daily energy expenditure, thus leading to a high-functioning day.
An apple a day may keep the
doctor away, but a healthy breakfast may keep the reaper at bay, too.
Studies show that people who lived to be 100 years old were consistent
breakfast eaters, or consumed breakfast more often than non-breakfast
eaters. Also, those who eat breakfast regularly are less likely to
develop fatal habits like smoking and excessive drinking. And thanks to
all of the benefits of breakfast, the body has an increased chance of
warding off disease.
So why are we not eating breakfast again?? I know that sometimes it's hard to take the time to prepare a real, healthy breakfast. A lot of good for you breakfast items include fresh fruit that needs to be washed and prepared or items that just aren't handy or easy to make. Before I had Landon I would rather be sleeping an extra 15 minutes in the morning than making and eating breakfast, so I always grabbed something to eat later at my office or a lara bar for the car. Or sometimes I grabbed nothing and was shoving chocolate in my face by 10:30am. Good times.
Since I first became pregnant with Landon I have made breakfast a priority. When L began eating people food we started sharing our breakfast, but sometimes I make her breakfast in ways that provide her with the fat that she needs. I don't need more fat in my diet. Trust me. This is when I started looking for some quick and easy alternatives that I could have ready when she is ready to eat. This will be a journey that starts now, so more trial and error to come. Let's start with a basic: Oatmeal.
Ingredients in a packet of Quaker Instant Oatmeal - Apples & Cinnamon Flavor:
Whole
grain rolled oats (with oat bran), sugar, dehydrated apples (treated
with sodium sulfite to promote color retention), salt, cinnamon, calcium
carbonate, natural flavors, oat flour, citric acid, guar gum, vitamin A
palmitate, niacinamide*, reduced iron, pyridoxine hydrochloride*,
riboflavin*, thiamin mononitrate*, folic acid*.*One of the B vitamins.
Ingredients in a cylinder of Quaker Oats:
Rolled oats
Reading ingredient lists is a big eye opener, but especially here. The more on an ingredient list, the further away your food is from whatever it started out as. I used to be under the impression that the only way to make plain rolled oats taste good was with brown sugar, milk, butter and raisins. Even though that would still be better (in my opinion) that the packet full of ingredients above (what are "natural flavors" by the way?) it isn't a consistent healthy breakfast. Here is how to get flavor and convenience by using original Quaker Oats. This is also more cost effective, which is a huge bonus
Better for you, Basically Instant Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
Here is what you need:
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| Microwave safe tupperware with top, measuring cup, Quaker Oats, small packet of unsweetened apple sauce, & Cinnamon. |
I use a piece of Tupperware that I can store and cook in to make this extra easy. The ones you get takeout soup in are perfect because when you cook this in the microwave, it will bubble up a few inches.
Measure out the serving amount you want of the oats and put it in the tupperware.
For the Apple and the Cinnamon flavor I had to think long and hard... then I decided to use APPLES AND CINNAMON. Seriously. I can't figure out why all of those ingredients above are in the packet. Sprinkle the amount of cinnamon you want directly on your oats. You can leave it sitting there and shake it up later when you make it or shake it up now.
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| Cinnamon |
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| After Cinnamon Shake |
If you were doing this at home you can make a double batch and have breakfast ready to go for two days. If you are doing this on the go, use a permanent marker to write the heating directions on the top of the tupperware. Permanent marker comes off of plastic easily with dish soap.
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| Directions on the top. |
For the Apple flavor I love using unsweetened Applesauce. I add it after the oatmeal has cooked and if you refrigerate your oatmeal for a day and it gets pasty, just add it back in before you heat it back up in the microwave. I used a Central Market Organics Unsweetened Applesauce, but most have similar ingredients: Organic Apples, water.
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| If you were on the go this is all you would need to take with you. Just add water. |
So we have gone from Instant Apple & Cinnamon Oatmeal with a seventeen ingredient count (water makes it 18) to a more cost effective "Instant" (1.5 - 2 minutes is still pretty instant) Apple & Cinnamon Oatmeal with the following ingredients: Rolled Oats, Cinnamon, Apples, & Water.
A much better way to eat breakfast. If anyone else has some quick, healthy, and easy ways to start the morning, send them my way. Something tells me I am up for some trial and error in the coming weeks.
Have a great Labor Day Weekend!
-RT
*The "10 Reasons to Eat Breakfast" used above were pulled from a online article from The Daily Meal and compiled by their special contributor, Lauren Gordon. The full article is available here.
