Jeff's Thoughts

• The Healthy Way to Start Your Day

  8 January, 2013

  They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I believe firmly that what you eat for breakfast affects you for the rest of the day, either positively or negatively.  One quick walk down the cereal aisle, you will see that cereal companies do not have your best interests at heart. With sugar being the second ingredient in most breakfast cereals, I take the belief that breakfast cereals are something that should be had once a week as a treat and not as our stable food that builds a generation (maybe that could be part of the reason why as a generation we are getting fatter). Eating any sugary food sets the body up to not only be storing bodyfat but to rely on that next sugar hit as the energy levels are sent into a roller coster ride. This sets up dangerous sugar spiking peaks and then troughs which sends you looking for that mid morning coffee or snack to lift you when your blood sugar levels drop (it is not uncommon for people to say that “I always need my pick me up coffee in the morning). People live day to day moving from one sugar hit to the next relying on more coffee and more sugar over the years while the whole time their bodyfat is increasing.

  When you wake up in the morning you want to turn on your digestive system and have a low sugar food causing the body to turn on its natural bodyfat burning hormones. So this is where I am looking for protein and healthy fats to start the day. Protein forces the digestive system to work harder to break it down than the refined sugary cereal option and therefore wakes you up more, so eggs or meat in the morning are the best options, with a handful of nuts.

  So if you want to trim up and also have the side effect of getting healthy, throw your breakfast cereals out and start eating protein in the form of eggs, beef, chicken or fish. Add some greens and a handful of nuts and you really are off to a good start. Eggs are a great source of protein but buy organic eggs from hens allowed to feed on insects and green plants as they can contain omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in the beneficial ratio of approximately one-to-one; but commercial supermarket eggs can contain as much as nineteen times more omega-6 than omega-3.

  Remember to also relax when you eat breakfast. When you are relaxed your digestive system works best. However when you are rushing and your flight or fight mode is on (sympathetic nervous system) your digestive system is slowed down and you will not digest your food well. Find the time in the morning to take 5 – 10 minutes to sit down and relax to eat your breakfast. Do not eat it on the run, otherwise even your good choices are not fully reached.  So the healthy way to start your day – eat protein, create the time to relax and who knows, maybe one day you wont have to reach for that coffee.

   

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