The word says it all: breakfast is the meal that breaks the overnight fast between dinner and the start of your day. A good breakfast refuels you after the night, and for many people it makes it easier to manage hunger and make better food choices for the rest of the day.
What makes a good breakfast?
Any breakfast is better than a sugary pastry on the run. Choose foods that provide nutrients and keep you full, and aim for variety, just like your other meals:
- Wholegrains such as wholegrain bread, oats and wholegrain cereals. A serve or two is plenty; many of us eat more refined cereal than we need.
- Protein such as eggs, fish, lean meat, beans and nuts.
- Fruit and vegetables.
- Dairy or alternatives such as milk, yoghurt and fresh cheeses like ricotta, cottage cheese and feta.
Breakfast ideas
- Eggs, boiled, poached or in an omelette with healthy fillings. The Heart Foundation says healthy Australians can enjoy eggs as part of a balanced diet; if you have high cholesterol or type 2 diabetes, it suggests up to 7 eggs a week.
- A poached fish fillet, or tinned sardines, tuna or salmon on toast.
- Baked beans or ful medames, a Middle Eastern bean dish that makes a hearty, healthy winter breakfast.
- Wholegrain cereal with milk or yoghurt and fresh fruit (go easy on the sugar).
- Hot oat porridge topped with a little dried fruit or nuts.
- A slice of wholegrain toast with protein or fruit.
- Yoghurt with fruit or nuts.
- Fruit smoothies.
If you really don’t like eating first thing (I’m the same!), split breakfast into two smaller meals. Have a hard-boiled egg at home, then an hour or two later take a break and snack on an apple and a handful of nuts such as pecans or walnuts.
Recipe: Bircher muesli
As a young doctor, Maximilian Bircher-Benner became convinced of the healing power of fruit and vegetables. Between 1895 and 1900 he experimented with raw food diets on himself, his family and his patients, and developed the now internationally famous Bircher muesli. His main ingredient was raw apple, not the cereal or yoghurt of today. By the 1940s it was a popular family supper, and by the 1950s and 60s cream and sugar had crept in, along with factory-made muesli full of dried fruit, all against Bircher-Benner’s ideas.
Serves 1. (When I costed it, it came to about $1.38 a serve; prices will vary.)
Ingredients
- 1/2 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and grated
- 1/4 pear, peeled, cored and grated
- 1/4 cup quick rolled oats
- 15 ml orange juice
- 20 g natural yoghurt (reduced fat)
- 7 g flaked almonds
- 5 ml milk
- 1/4 mango, peeled and sliced
- 1/4 banana, sliced
- Pulp of 1/2 passionfruit
- Pinch of ground cinnamon
Method
- Toast the almonds gently in a dry pan on the stovetop.
- Place the grated apple and pear in a bowl, add the oats, cinnamon and orange juice and mix to combine. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Fold through the yoghurt.
- Spoon into a bowl, pour over the milk, top with mango and banana, drizzle with passionfruit pulp and scatter with the toasted almonds.
The benefits of a good breakfast
- Steady energy through the morning
- Better concentration, memory and problem-solving, especially in children
- Easier appetite control, so you’re less likely to overeat later in the day
- A chance to fit in fibre, calcium and other nutrients that are harder to get later
- Less chance of getting short or snappy with people from low blood sugar
Keep these on hand
For mornings when you just don’t feel like cooking, keep a range of easy foods within reach:
- Boiled eggs (keep them in the fridge and eat within a week)
- Nuts
- Whole fresh fruit
- Tinned sardines, tuna or salmon
- Tinned beans, which can be turned into an array of dishes
So come on, no excuses: have a tasty, healthy brekkie!
