Our bodies need fuel 24/7. Have you send your child to school without a “healthy” breakfast? Have you started a day without eating a nutritious breakfast? This is like trying to move a car with an empty gas tank.
If getting healthier was one of your new year’s resolution, it is still a good time to start shifting to healthier habits since we are still in the first trimester of 2017. The most important habit to develop is to wake up ahead of time in order to be able to enjoy a nutritious breakfast with your family. This practice also helps build family bonds and start your day in a happy attitude mode around your loved ones.
Here are the top three benefits you and your loved ones will get from having a daily healthy breakfast:
#1 Breakfast promote better moods and behavior because you are nurturing your body with the right fuel to think and act in harmonious ways. It is hard, specially for school age kids, to sit, focus or concentrate at any activity if they are hungry and their blood sugar is dropping rapidly. When blood sugar its a roller coaster with ups and downs, the same will happen to our body and mind.
#2 Breakfast helps keeping you and your children lean because it sets the nutritional tone for the day. Research has shown that people who skip breakfast or eat junk-food breakfast are more likely to be over-fat. When we start the day with a healthy breakfast, our body is more likely to stay on track all day long plus several studies have shown that we would also be more likely to eat healthier food throughout the day.
#3 Healthy breakfasts help building and maintaining brighter brains by activating the metabolism which plays a big role in the brain function. Our brain needs steady supply of good nutrients to function at its best and if we eat junky food to start the day off this automatically decrease our ability to think and concentrate. After a couple of hours of eating a junky breakfast or meal, we may experience hunger, lack of energy and consequently the inability to focus and think clear.
Incorporate healthy and nutritious ingredients into your daily breakfast plate. Add protein in order to activate your brain, fiber-filled carbs to provide steady supply of nutrients to your body, omega 3 oils which build smart brain cells, minerals such as calcium and iron to help your brain biochemistry to work better.
Here are some of our favorite breakfasts:
- Whole grain waffles or pancakes topped with blueberries and peanut or almond butter (if not allergies)
- Oatmeal (non-instant) with blueberries and yogurt
- Whole wheat banana-nut bread and yogurt
- Whole wheat tortilla wrapped around scrambled eggs and diced tomatoes, purple onions and spinach
- Veggies omelet, whole wheat toast and fruit
- Zucchini pancakes, add a cup of shredded zucchini to whole wheat pancakes
- A glass of almond, flax, or coconut milk, peanut butter and sliced bananas on whole wheat English Muffin ( I love Ezequiel brand commonly found at the frozen organic department of grocery stores)
- Healthy Cereal with milk or non-dairy milk substitute such almond, flax, or coconut milk. My daughter loves the brand “LOVE GROWN” “Original POWER O’S”and it has become our favorite cereal at home. This is an unsweetened, gluten & corn free cereal, non GMO, made out of navy, lentil and garbanzo bean. Its ingredients list are very safe and the nutritional label is compliant with our 3-6-3 guidance for nutritious cereals we posted in our earlier blogs.
Thank you to Dr William Sears, as his books and researches are one of the bests I have known so far!
by Karla Leal
Certified Health & Wellness Coach
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