It’s not cliché. Breakfast is probably the most important meal of your day.
After your night time fasting – with a lot of cellular breakdown and turnover happening – you’ve got things to rebuild, my friend.
And rebuilding requires building blocks – protein, carbohydrates, fats.
For how to do fasting the healthy way, check out this post.
But to break your fast, let’s get your body set up optimally for the day.
For your typical breakfast, we want to aim for these key goals:
- high protein
- good fiber
- easy to digest
- easy to prepare
Here are my top healthy breakfast ideas.
All of them meet the factors listed above and always deliver on the yum factor.
BREAKFAST IDEA #1 = smoothie
I am NOT talking about Jamba Juice – 16 ounces of sugar highs.
When you’re rushing off to work and have 5 min to whip up breakfast, a smoothie is the easiest way to get what you need.
With a personal blender you don’t even need to clean up and you can take it to go.
But do not just randomly put the entire fridge in it.
When people tell me their smoothie recipes, by the end of their list, they have a very high calorie liquid drink that will spike blood glucose.
Here’s the simplest ingredient list for a healthy smoothie:
- 1 cup of berries (ideally frozen)
- 1 – 2 cups water or unsweetened nut milk
- 2 tbsp protein powder (~20 g)
- 1/2 – 1 banana (optional, fresh or frozen)
- 1 small handful of baby spinach (optional)
Here’s my smoothie recipe in case it helps.
A couple very helpful food notes …
– Buy berries organic because they are a very heavily pesticide-sprayed crop.
– Frozen organic berries are as nutritious as fresh, more affordable, and obviously last longer.
– Choose blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries because they have more fiber than strawberries (which are also a common source of food sensitivities).
– Buy clean protein powders – meaning, without added ingredients. For example, pumpkin seed protein powder should say only that in the ingredient list.
– Avoid oat milk. Even without added sugars, by nature it’s a drink made from a grain and in larger quantities it’s a lot of liquid sugar.
Here’s what NOT to add to your breakfast smoothie:
- other fruits (especially melons)
- a lot of fat (nut butters)
- a lot of raw dark greens
WHY?
– Fruits are very easily digested into glucose and fructose, so more fruits in a smoothie mean a higher sugar load.
In comparison, berries are very high fiber, so they don’t create sugar spikes.
– Adding tablespoons of nut butters (peanut, almond, etc) can quickly add up fat calories for this one meal.
– Dark greens like kale – when eaten raw and in large amounts – have a negative effect on the thyroid gland over time, decreasing thyroid hormones and slowing down metabolism.
I’ve seen women end up with hypothyroidism after following green smoothie fads for months.
And one last note…
Smoothies are not juices!
When you put all the ingredients in a blender, all the fiber remains.
Fiber is the sponge that prevents rapid sugar absorption.
The goal is always: avoid sugar spikes at all cost.
When you juice fruits or veggies, the fiber is left behind and you have only raw juice.
Juicing might sound “healthy,” but you’re drinking a glass of liquid sugar.
BREAKFAST IDEA #2 = chia pudding
If there was such a thing as a super food, chia seeds would probably be it.
High protein. High fiber. Healthy fats.
2 tbsp chia seeds = 8 grams of protein
(Compare that to 1 egg with 6 grams of protein)
A basic chia pudding for one person can include:
- 4 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 cup unsweetened nut milk
Sprinkle on healthy options like:
- chopped apple or your favorite fruit (one)
- sliced almonds or crushed nuts
- coconut flakes
- maple syrup or raw honey
You can make the base of the pudding in advance or the same morning if you plan ahead to give 10 min for the seeds to plump.
Here’s my chia pudding recipe in case it helps.
One option to get some extra protein is to add chia seeds to greek yogurt, maybe 2 – 3 times per week.
In this version, you simply hydrate the seeds with a little water, let them plump up, then mix them into 1 cup of yogurt.
BREAKFAST IDEA #3 = savory combinations
This is a Mediterranean style way to grab healthy stuff and make a super quick yummy breakfast.
For the base you can choose one or more protein options like:
- boiled or poached eggs
- hummus
- beans
And for additions choose options like:
- avocado
- cucumbers
- bell peppers
- tomatoes
- olives
BREAKFAST IDEA #4 = oatmeal
This last option is one that gets really bad misinformation on social media. And it drives me crazy, because details matter.
You will hear a lot of people say that “oatmeal” is a sugary food that will cause glucose spikes and is therefore bad for you.
They are talking about the flattened, flakey processed version of oatmeal – aka quick oats or rolled oats.
That form of oatmeal has had the “beep” rolled out of it. By beep, I mean fiber.
It is a processed grain that will absolutely, rapidly break down into glucose and will 100% cause a rapid sugar spike in your blood.
So please avoid that kind of oatmeal!
But real oat groats are the original grain that has fiber and minerals and a little bit of protein.
You can buy whole oat groats or (easier) steel-cut oats. Steel cut means the oat groats were simply cut into smaller pieces in a steel mill.
That is not a processed food. It is still a whole grain.
I’ll share how to soak and cook grains for proper digestion in a future post.
For now, here’s my simple steel cut oatmeal recipe.
You can use similar toppings as chia pudding.
The only caveat with oatmeal is that you need to add protein somehow, because it’s the lowest protein content of all the above ideas.
You can mix in some protein or collagen powder. Or if you’re super hungry, have a smoothie with it.
There are obviously many more healthy breakfast ideas on the table, especially with internationally-inspired dishes.
Hopefully these ideas help you start your day off well!
PS, I mentioned unsweetened nut milks.
A lot of people ask me for nut milk recommendations. First, almond and macadamia are good options.
But my best recommendation is – if you buy raw almonds (ideally organic), then nothing will beat making almond milk yourself.
It’s SO easy, you’ll wonder why you keep buying cartons of blah nut milk.
Here’s my nut milk recipe in case you want to experiment.
If not, when buying nut milks, read the ingredients and at least avoid:
- added sugar
- carrageenan
- natural flavors
- vegetable oils (canola, etc)
