Rethink Breakfast

When you think of breakfast what comes to mind? Is it pancakes with maple syrup? Eggs, bacon and toast? Or maybe a bowl of Cheerios, From Loops or Life Cereal? 

Before we talk about traditional breakfast foods and why we should avoid them, let's look at the word 'breakfast.'  Breakfast is simply a compound word that means exactly what the parts say: a break from fasting.  Assuming that you didn't snack after dinner and you got a good night sleep of 8 hours, your body was in a fasting state for 10 to 14 hours. That's half a day! Now it needs food to get moving.

So what are we feeding our bodies for breakfast? We've been told and taught all our lives what breakfast is. It is cereal, juice, bacon, eggs, toast, muffins, waffles and pancakes. This is simply traditional American breakfast foods. Why would we think any of this is bad for us?

The cereals, breads, bagels, pancake mixes that we purchase at the store are classified as ultra-processed foods. They contain high amounts of sugar, artificial sweeteners, colors, flavors, emulsifiers and other additives to make it taste good and last longer on the shelf. While eggs and bacon are ok on occasion, there is cholesterol, fat and excessive salt to consider with this breakfast option.

Since breakfast is said to be the most important meal of the day, why do we feed our bodies this ultra-processed food to get going in the morning? Well, for one, it is easy. Easy to grab a bagel and coffee on the way to work. Easy to pour our child a bowl of cereal in the morning before school. We sacrifice our health for convenience but we don't know we are making bad choices because we have been taught that these foods are 'normal' and 'good' breakfast options. Just look at the marketing on the boxes. . ."Fortified with 10 essential vitamins & minerals."  "Kid tested, Mom approved."

Boxed cereal has got to be one of the worst foods for you, yet an entire aisle is devoted to it in the grocery store. It is laden with starch, sugar, preservatives, and dyes. Sugar is highly addictive. . .even more so than nicotine. By eating cereals in the morning, and starch laden foods like bagels, muffins and donuts, we are programming our bodies to want more sugar throughout the day!

What if we changed what breakfast looked like? How would our body feel if we ate a big SALAD in the morning instead of a Pop Tart? 🤔 Would we have more energy through the day if we replaced the OJ with fresh veggie juice? Replaced the ultra-processed cereal with plain organic oatmeal?

Something to think about. . . .

​

---