Khaberni - In a world filled with complex and rapidly changing health advice, the slogan "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" is simple, and more importantly, it is supported by experts.
Dr. Sami Gill, a certified nutrition specialist, asserts: "Everyone agrees that it's probably best to have a nutritious breakfast." It prepares you for your day, helps regulate energy levels, reduces feelings of hunger, and aids in focus, alertness, and productivity.
While there is no one right way to fuel your body in the morning, there are many ways we can go wrong, from sugar-loaded breakfast cereals to pre-packaged smoothies and breakfast bars. Dr. Gill shares the worst breakfast choices and the healthy alternatives you can make to set yourself up for the day.
Ready-Made Breakfast Bars
Breakfast bars are convenient and tasty, often giving the impression that they are healthy with claims on the package like "100% natural," "vegan," and "light," with a focus on ingredients like oats, nuts, and fruits.
However, most often, they do not live up to these claims, warns Dr. Gill, who is also a spokesperson for the British Nutrition Society. "Many brands contain a lot of added ingredients to improve taste and texture."
These include emulsifiers, flavorings, and sugar, which may be labeled on their packages as golden syrup, brown rice syrup, date sugar, or coconut sugar. She points out that "using other names for sugar disguises the fact that it contains added sugars."
Researchers fear that these artificial ingredients may cause problems in our guts. Emulsifiers, in particular, have been linked to intestinal disorders, while studies on animals have shown that they may play a role in bowel cancer.
Replace them with homemade oat bars
If a ready-made breakfast suits your morning, Dr. Gill says the healthier choice is to prepare breakfast bars yourself in advance. They can be made by mixing just three ingredients: oats, bananas, and peanut butter.
The Big Bowl of Cereal
Dr. Gill says, "Choosing breakfast cereals may be confusing." This is how a quarter of the UK population starts their day, but their ingredient list and sugar content vary drastically, meaning what you pour into your bowl could have impacts on your health.
She states that sugar-coated cornflakes are high in sugar and low in fiber (often containing the equivalent of 3 sugar cubes and only 0.5 grams of fiber per 30-gram serving), which is disastrous for our guts.
Research suggests that excessive consumption destroys beneficial bacteria in the gut, while fiber is crucial for the gut because it feeds the bacteria that live there.
Nevertheless, some low-sugar cereal options contain nearly no fiber (such as plain puffed rice), while some sugary options, like sugar-coated shredded wheat, provide a decent amount of fiber.
Replace them with porridge
Dr. Gill says, "I always recommend choosing a plain option rich in fiber and then adding your own toppings." Porridge, or if you're in a hurry, plain wheatabix and shredded wheat are all safe options.
You can then add honey or fruit to sweeten these less flavorful options, but more importantly, you can control the quantity.
"You can add seeds and nuts for more fiber, protein, and healthy unsaturated fats. One of my favorite recipes is porridge with mashed banana and peanut butter."
Pre-Packaged Smoothies
Leaving the peels of fruits and vegetables when preparing a smoothie can increase the fiber content by up to 50%.
Dr. Gill explains: "Pre-packaged smoothies contain the liquid and solid parts of the fruit, the fruit juice, and its pulp after being mixed together." Although this seems nutritious, the blending process reduces the amount of fiber provided by the fruit and increases its sugar content."
Although they still offer some fiber and compounds beneficial for gut health, such as plant compounds called polyphenols, there are more beneficial ways for the gut to start your day.
Replace them with a homemade smoothie made from oats and nut butter and seeds.
She says, "The homemade smoothie is the optimal choice because you can make it more nutritious by using all edible parts of fruits and vegetables, including the juice, pulp, seeds, and peels."
Peels are a rich source of fiber, polyphenols, vitamins, and minerals.
"If you add other ingredients like cow's milk, oat milk, nut butter, or chia seeds, you're also adding extra fibers, proteins, and healthy fats to your smoothie."
Juice
Dr. Gill notes that fruit juices provide a concentrated source of sugar, especially fructose, which may cause symptoms such as bloating, gas, and diarrhea in people with sensitive intestines."
This drink is also rich in free sugars, a type that should not be consumed excessively as it contributes to weight gain and tooth decay. The common advice is to limit free sugars to 30 grams per day, but a single 150 ml serving (the recommended serving size) can contain up to 18 grams.
However, this does not mean that fruit juice cannot be part of a healthy diet. She adds, "In fact, studies have shown that drinking orange or apple juice is associated with reduced inflammation levels and improved heart and vascular health, like cholesterol levels."
Replace it with 100% fruit juice or fruit tea.
Instead of having a "fruit juice drink" or "fruit beverages," which often contain a lot of sugar, always choose 100% fruit juice, as Dr. Gill says.
She explains, "Juice beverages are not 100% fruit juice; they are enriched with other ingredients such as sweeteners, colors, and flavors. To reduce the amount of sugar, you can mix fruit juice with half the amount of water, or drink water infused with fruit, or fruit tea."
Commercially Flavored Yogurt
Dr. Gill notes that "commercially flavored yogurt is usually rich in sugar and other added materials such as emulsifiers, flavorings, thickeners, and sweeteners." This means that these yogurts are not only ultra-processed foods, but they could cause problems in our intestines.
While yogurt contains natural sugar in the form of lactose, this represents only about 5 grams of sugar per 100 grams. Dr. Gill says, "Any quantity beyond that is considered added sugar." Common types of yogurt contain up to 20 grams of sugar per 100 grams.
Dr. Gill says replacing plain yogurt and adding your own flavors will make a significant difference in your gut health. Greek yogurt is high in protein and low in lactose (natural sugars) compared to regular yogurt, while "natural" yogurt contains more beneficial bacteria for the gut.
Eating two servings of yogurt a week also helps protect against bowel cancer, due to the probiotics it contains encouraging a broader range of beneficial bacteria to live in our intestines, which reduces inflammation and carcinogenic chemicals, as scientists believe.
Dr. Gill suggests adding healthy compounds to give a distinctive flavor and additional health benefits to the gut, such as fruits, nuts, nut butter, seeds, and dark chocolate chips.
