Breakfast is a meal in its own right and is very important in your day. This is the meal that will break the night’s fast and give you fuel for the day. And yes, breakfast should ideally cover around 20% of daily needs! So why deprive yourself or eat the same thing every day? Fill up on ideas with our 5 healthy breakfast ideas to start the day off right. Across the Atlantic, breakfast is a sacred moment. With cinema, TV series, and travel, the American breakfast has become the promise of a moment of ultra indulgence. Which is for us a moment of everyday life and for us much more unique. The American breakfast includes:
- pancakes
- honey or maple syrup or spread
- smoothie
- granola
- fruit salad
Why avoid sugar for breakfast?
Because we are discussing healthy breakfast ideas, it is better to have a light hand on the sugar because it is what causes the famous 10 or 11 am craving. Without even realizing it, you can ingest up to 20 small white squares by following the model of a “balanced breakfast”: a cereal product, a dairy product, a drink, and possibly a piece of fruit.
White bread or corn-flakes, jam, fruit juice, yogurt… All of these products contain sugar, sometimes in large quantities. However, science has shown its many harmful effects: weight gain, fatigue, irritability, skin problems, diabetes, etc.
Worse, sugar calls for sugar. The more you ingest, the more you crave. In fact, in reaction to the rapid rise in the level of glycemia in the blood, the pancreas produces insulin to lower it… Up to hypoglycemia. And bam, which usually results in a craving for sweets. A real vicious circle, with the risk, over time, of developing insulin resistance and therefore type 2 diabetes.
First steps towards a healthy breakfast: limit sugar
Of course, glucose is necessary for our body to function: it is the fuel for the brain and muscles. But the excess sugar turns into fat and can lead to weight gain, disease.
To minimize our daily intake, we can start by eliminating the added sugars present in processed industrial foods (which almost all contain them) or in hot drinks, pastries, etc. that we sugar ourselves.
Know that the most difficult is this phase of “detoxification” of sugar: once the habit is lost, you quickly find this disgusting taste.
If you can’t do without it, at least prefer the more natural and therefore less refined forms: honey, agave syrup, maple syrup, coconut sugar, muscovado sugar.
What is the difference between natural sugar and refined sugar?
In itself, nothing: the effects are the same on health. But natural sugars are present in foods that have not been drained of their nutrients and properties! For example, fruits are full of vitamins, minerals that industrial cakes do not contain. Honey is antibacterial, helps fight against coughs, unlike white sugar from beets, which provides nothing other than a sweet taste.
In short, rethinking your breakfast outside of habits and clichés is a first step in improving your health and your energy level!
Healthy Breakfast Ideas
What To Eat As A Healthy Breakfast?
1. Eggs
A balanced salty breakfast will be rich in protein and fat. It may also contain carbohydrates, provided by whole grains. Therefore, the first and foremost of the healthy breakfast ideas are eggs, which are often a part of a paleo diet.
Eating salty in the morning has many health benefits:
- Lose weight or maintain a healthy weight.
- Be full in the long run.
- Regulate your hunger so as not to snack in the morning.
- Reduce your food consumption throughout the day.
- Reduce your sugar intake.
- Regulate blood sugar and insulin production.
- Improve muscle mass gain in those practicing bodybuilding.
In fact, by eating salty food in the morning, you automatically consume more proteins and fats than with a sweet breakfast, thus a healthy and balanced breakfast with eggs.
Examples of salty, balanced, and healthy breakfasts
To start, I will detail several balanced, healthy, dietetic, simple, and relatively quick recipes for your breakfasts. This allows you to determine which ones are right for you.
Recipe 1: Avocado Toast, Eggs, Cheese
For this recipe, all you need to do is purchase the following ingredients:
- 2 slices of wholemeal bread, with cereals, rye, or small spelled.
- 2 organic eggs raised in the open air.
- 1 lawyer.
- Goat cheese (optional).
Instructions to follow:
- Toast your bread in the toaster.
- Meanwhile, heat a pan over high heat with a little coconut oil.
- Cook your eggs, fried or scrambled, according to your preferences.
- Cut your avocado into slices, then put it on your bread.
- Then place an egg on each toast.
- According to your taste, add salt, turmeric, black pepper, goat cheese, squash seeds, to your toast.
Recipe 2: Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Vegetables
Here are the ingredients to plan:
- 2 organic eggs raised in the open.
- 3 slices of bacon.
- Vegetables of your choice: spinach, tomatoes, asparagus, mushrooms.
- Coconut oil or olive oil.
Instructions to follow:
- In a large pan with a little coconut or olive oil, brown your vegetables over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes, to soften them.
- Then add your bacon, to make it lightly browned.
- Separately, or in the same pan, heat your fried eggs.
- Serve the whole thing on your plate by adding salt, black pepper, flax seeds …
- If you wish, you can add a slice of toast.
Recipe 3: Omelette with Mushrooms and Arugula
You will need the following ingredients:
- 3 organic eggs
- Coconut oil, for frying.
- Grated cheese.
- ¼ red onion, chopped.
- 4 large mushrooms, sliced.
- Salt and pepper.
Instructions to follow:
- Crack the eggs into a bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix the eggs with a fork.
- Melt the coconut oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and onion to the pot, stirring until tender.
- Pour the eggs into the pan, cover the mushrooms.
- When the eggs are almost cooked, add a little cheese.
- Using a spatula, gently lift the edges of the omelet, then fold it in half.
- Once golden, serve the omelet on your plate.
- Ideally, accompanied with a few arugula leaves or salad.
2. Homemade Muesli
Remember, I was talking about making your own Muesli (a mixture of oatmeal, seeds, and fruit) because, in fact, commercial mixtures are full of added sugars!
We are starting to find preparations made from natural flakes mixed with dried fruits, but they are overpriced! As you are never better served than by yourself, the idea is to concoct your own recipe.
- 8-10 teaspoons of oatmeal or small spelled (if gluten is not a problem), buckwheat, chestnut, quinoa, millet
- 5 teaspoons of applesauce or mashed potatoes (no added sugars!)
- 20 ml (a glass) of vegetable milk (soya, oats, hemp, almonds, hazelnut)
- A handful of oilseeds (almonds, cashews, hazelnut) or 2 teaspoons of seeds (sesame, squash, flax (ground), chia, hemp)
Mix everything in a bowl, and enjoy right away. To choose your plant-based milk, check on the label that there are no added sugars. For almonds, cashew, oat, hazelnut, etc. it is much more economical to make them yourself.
If you don’t like it when it floats a little, prepare your breakfast bowl the day before and place it in the fridge to let the flakes absorb the vegetable milk overnight.
3. Banana pancakes (gluten-free and milk-free)
Next on our list of healthy breakfast ideas are banana pancakes. I reserve this breakfast for the mornings when I don’t have time to sit down and when I have to take my meal with me. Indeed, these pancakes freeze very well and can be taken as a healthy snack (rather than a packet of cakes).
- 2 very ripe bananas
- 75 g buckwheat flour (or semi-whole rice, or chestnut)
- 50 g of cornstarch or arrowroot
- 1/2 sachet of gluten-free yeast or 1/2 teaspoon of edible baking soda (no more, otherwise the taste may turn bitter!)
- 200 ml of vegetable milk (soy, almond, coconut)
- Coconut oil (for cooking)
Mash the bananas and mix everything, until you obtain a thick paste but quite liquid.
Heat the pan over high heat with a little coconut oil. Pour a good ladle of dough in, spread it a little by turning the pan and cook until small bubbles appear on the surface (it takes a few minutes). With a wooden spatula, turn the pancake over and let the other side brown for 2 to 3 minutes. Do not hesitate to lower the heat a little after one or two pancakes so as not to burn them.
To be enjoyed hot, warm or cold, plain or covered with a thin layer of oilseed puree (peanut, almond puree, etc.), compote without added sugars, fruit coulis, etc.
I love this breakfast when I’m on the go and/or have to get up early. I then enjoy these pancakes with the good taste of bananas, which I let thaw overnight.
4. The Chia Pudding
Chia seeds are a very good source of protein, well known to vegans who use it, in particular, to replace eggs in preparations.
- 2 tablespoons of chia seeds
- 20 ml of vegetable milk (soy, almond, coconut)
- Fresh fruit cut into pieces(preferably berries)
- Optional: a pinch of vanilla powder
The day before, combine the chia seeds, vanilla, and vegetable milk in a bowl. Refrigerate overnight. In the morning, the seeds get swelled and are surrounded by a kind of gel: this is perfectly normal. Cut the fruit and sprinkle your chia pudding with pieces, and possibly oilseeds or other seeds, and you will have a delicious, fresh, and satiating chia pudding. Prepare to be blown away.
Chia seeds are beneficial in many ways. They can drastically improve your digestive health. Similarly. one of the main benefits is that chia seeds provide many nutrients with very few calories. If you want information on Chia seeds and why we recommend them as one of the healthy breakfast ideas, check out this article
5. Homemade Granola and Fresh Fruit
The fifth healthy breakfast idea is homemade granola. It is a well-known fact that fruits and vegetables are indispensable allies to health. Rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, they are essential for preserving our body and reducing the risk of cancer, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.
Homemade granola recipe: (prepare the day before)
- 280 g of oats or spelled flakes, rye, quinoa, or a mixture
- 170 g of coarsely chopped seeds and nuts: almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios, walnuts, pecans, macadamia, cashew, linseed, sunflower, sesame.
- 2 tablespoons of oil: sunflower, or walnut, hazelnut, rapeseed, olive, coconut according to taste
- 2 to 3 tablespoons of a sweetening liquid: honey, maple syrup, agave syrup
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 0.5 to 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
Mix the preparation well and spread it out on a preheated baking sheet or in a dish. Then bake for 30 min in an oven at 150° (mix in the middle of cooking if the preparation is in a dish for even cooking).
Finally, keep the preparation in a glass jar and serve the desired amount in the morning. Add fresh seasonal fruit and enjoy.
What to drink for breakfast?
As you can see, fruit juices – even fresh and squeezed by your hands – are not very interesting from a nutritional standpoint. A little lemon juice diluted in a large glass of water at room temperature (because the heat destroys vitamin C) is preferred.
Should you drink tea or coffee?
People prone to anemia should avoid tea near meals, or even tea because it prevents iron absorption. For coffee lovers, prefer to prepare this one with an Italian-style coffee maker, a French press, an espresso machine, or even a Chemex. Rather than a simple coffee maker that makes sock juice, or a pod/capsule machine that also makes bad coffee-besides being an ecological disaster. Coffee should be consumed in moderation.
Conclusion
So here are our suggestions to start your days at home in the best way! Our healthy breakfast ideas not only help you keep your diet balanced but also aid in weight loss, keeping the large amounts of sugar found in most of the refined and processed foods away. The metabolism is most active between six and nine in the morning. It is therefore advisable to eat high-quality food during this time. Above all, proteins and carbohydrates should be consumed.
Eating breakfast regularly is linked with a person’s well-being as those who skip it are more likely to be overweight, obese, and have a higher waist circumference than breakfast eaters. Missing breakfast means the intake of all the beneficial nutrients is reduced as it is not compensated in other meals. The desire for sweet and greasy foods decreases noticeably when you are full.
People who eat breakfast in the morning, therefore, consume fewer calories on average during the day than those who do not eat breakfast. It is therefore not true that a day without breakfast makes you leaner.
Those who have to get up early are fighting for every minute of sleep. But it’s worth sacrificing a few minutes of sleep in the morning for a healthy breakfast. The gentle start to the day reduces the release of stress hormones and offers the body and mind the opportunity to get in the right mood for the day. The day starts much more relaxed if you don’t jump straight out of bed and onto the train.
Good health is a gift; while maintaining a strong defensive immune system against chronic diseases, it helps one stay energized for the day ahead!