What you eat for breakfast can set the tone for the rest of your day. Your breakfast can even lift your mood… if it’s packed with the right nutrients! Breakfast does matter—even if you’re lacking time and/or hunger. Breakfasts that are high in sugar, low in healthy fat, and low in protein should not be your go-to breakfast choice. Yes, we’re looking at you, traditional muffins, cereal, and bagels!
Carbs, for one, aren’t necessarily bad, but you want to make sure they are right kind (think carbs from sweet potatoes, not a donut). Eating a nutrient-dense, low-carb breakfast with healthy fats and protein will provide you with energizing fuel to get through the day! Let’s look at some of the specifics:
Studies have proven that eating a protein-focused breakfast can:
- Reduce hunger hormones
- Improve your sense of satiety
- Steady emotions
- Reduce your likelihood to reach for a snack.
Research also shows us that intermittent fasting (condensing your eating window to 8–10 hours in a day) can have hormone-balancing effects. On the other hand, regularly skipping meals, minimizing calories, and eating processed foods has the opposite effect. Chronic “roller coaster” blood sugar (or blood sugar that is too high or too low) can create a hormone disaster, leading to moodiness, brain fog, insomnia, decreased brain function, and the inability to handle stress. If you’re fasting, you do not want to break that fast with quick-energy junk foods. Eating a traditionally sugar-rich, carb-heavy breakfast can make you gain weight.
Another factor here is your morning hunger level. Many people are not very hungry at breakfast time, so they gravitate toward those high-sugar/low-carb foods we have been talking about. However, limited hunger is not a good excuse to start your day with food that won’t sustain you. If you are not very hungry, eat your protein and healthy fats anyway—just don’t eat a lot of it if you don’t have to!
Limited hunger is not a good excuse to start your day with food that won’t sustain you.
Your breakfast can set the stage for a beautiful day, so do it right! If you need help losing weight, managing your blood sugar, or balancing your diet, please contact our office today.
