Is your Breakfast choice good enough for a king?

We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but do we really understand why and are we making the correct food choices to break our fast? The saying eat like a king in the morning, prince in the afternoon and a pauper at night should have relevance to the way we eat today, although due to the fast paced lives we now lead, this is sometimes difficult to adhere too. Yet Breakfast as a meal is taken least seriously within modern society, and if aiming to lose and maintain healthy body weight, it is imperative a breakfast be included into the daily eating pattern.

Breaking the fast after slumber not only allows us to refuel our body and prepare it for the day ahead, it is also the time of day in which metabolism is at its most efficient. Metabolism which is the motor engine of the body is at its peak in the morning and as the day progresses it slowly starts to diminish to lower levels of activity. Therefore it makes sense to eat big in the morning and at lunch, as ingested food is efficiently burnt and utilised as energy. Not to mention the obvious fact that we are more active during the day making it easier to utilise the energy we ingest from our food.

As the time of day passes, metabolic rate decreases, however we can always give metabolism a bit of an extra boost by incorporating structured physical activity during the day. What if you train in the morning? Then you have to ensure that you have a big breakfast post exercise, as your metabolic rate will be working at double its normal rate, meaning that you will have to have enough food to keep you going throughout the day. Problems arise were morning exercisers tend not to prepare well, by having a hearty breakfast to replenish energy levels, which only leads to lack of dietary control during the day as well as the urge to eat more highly energy dense, highly processed foods such as sweets, burgers, crisps and such like.

Based on the current information it is clear that our breakfast choice has a large impact on how we perform not only in the morning but also throughout the rest of the day. We are conditioned to associate breakfast with breakfast cereals. Have you ever wondered why? Especially when looking to other cultures’ breakfast choices, breakfast cereals are not the first preferred option. To understand why breakfast cereals have been placed as the best meal option for starting the day, it is important to look at the history of the breakfast cereal industry.

Breakfast cereals have been a strong feature as the preferred breakfast option due to the market leader and founder of the breakfast cereal industry Kelloggs. American society in the late 19th century suffered much from dietary excesses to the extent that this period was referred to as the “Great American Stomach Ache” as a result of the high prevalence of digestive disorders due to a diet of high meat consumption. As a result of this, RTE (Ready-to-Eat) breakfast cereals were born due to the collision of cultural and dietary forces coming together . Sylvester Graham, a seminal figure within the history of the beginnings of the breakfast industry, mixed dietary reform with moral purity and goodness. He postulated that in order to cure this belly ache individuals had to eat raw fruit and vegetables twice daily, have limited water and meat and incorporate cereal products made with whole grains within their daily diet.

Dr John Harvey Kellogg a surgeon with an interest in the dietary reform movement was a second generation member of the Seventh Day Adventist in Battle Creek Michigan Sanitarium. The sanitarium was a health resort that focused on healthy living principles that was advocated by the Seventh Day Adventists. Dr J.H Kellogg was taught to believe that eating meat enhanced animal propensities leading to ungodly acts such as alcohol drinking and sexual deviance, and so was an avid follower of Graham’s scriptures. In 1895 he produced the first flaked breakfast created from flaked wheat, which was marketed as a health food throughout the sanitarium’s food company.

One of Dr J.H. Kellogg patients C.W. Post (founder of the Post Cereal Company) suffered badly from digestive disorders, but was also a shrewd marketer, and he was the genius behind using aggressive promotional marketing campaigns and segmentation strategies to associate the building blocks of a healthy lifestyle with flaked corn breakfast cereal that were positioned on the market as medicinal products. However although it was John Harvey Kellogg who created the flake it was his brothers collaboration with C.W Post that led to the creation of the Kellogg’s Company and founded the breakfast cereal industry.

Yet are today’s breakfast cereals made by the big producers the best option for you and your family? There has been much research and information stating that many breakfast cereals on the market today, are not the best food choices for breaking the fast. They have been found to be high in sugar and salt, especially those marketed towards children and described as ready to eat foods which fall in to the highly processed category. Some cereals are no different from a packet of crisps or a bar of chocolate with respect to the effect they have on blood sugars and their nutritional content.

However in many super markets the breakfast aisle is dominated by the market leaders, who claim that many of their products are a quick and healthy alternative to a substantial breakfast, whilst in actual fact one has to question whether this is truly the case. 

The idea of convenience and health are the main reasons as to why breakfast cereals are so popular and successful. There is less preparation time required before consumption, but more importantly the marketing strategies such as buy one get one free and collaborations with major film and media companies, are used by many of the market leaders and are some of the most aggressive and sophisticated marketing strategies designed to draw us in.

Yet we as consumers are not daft, more of us take the time to read health claims made by many of the healthy breakfast cereals. However it is important to know that many of these health claims stated on cereals are based on research carried out by scientists working for food science labs funded, in many cases by cereal companies themselves. Naturally there is a vested interest in research outcomes to support the positive health claims made on the product.

Therefore the best breakfast choices are those that allow you to stay fuller for longer. I don’t know about you but I always remember the 10 am tummy rumbles at school after having my cornflakes in the morning and experiencing reduced attention span as I clock watched till break time. The best cereal options for breakfast are porridge, whole-wheat muesli and good old Weetabix. Be weary of some muesli’s as they can be laden with sugar, thus defeating their health benefits.

In my opinion the best breakfasts are those that are less processed, such as boiled, poached or scrambled egg. For those of you that have time in the morning a quick omelette can be nice especially if you add some vegetables and spices to jazz it up. 

Natural yogurt with some fruit and nuts or even added to your muesli is a good wholesome start to the day. 

There’s nothing wrong with having grilled (not fried) sausage, bacon and beans or even a wholegrain bagel with a thin layer of cream cheese or cottage cheese and smoked salmon. Bring back the days when kippers was popular breakfast option, good for the heart and brain. I come from a household were having sardines or even mackerel for breakfast is a common occurrence, however this may not be to everyone’s taste, but the choice is yours.

The bottom line is that you don't need to have cereal for breakfast, you can eat whatever you wish. Start thinking outside the box when it comes to your morning mealtime options. Why eat processed foods fortified with vitamins and minerals when you can eat a variety of wholefoods for breakfast that make you feel fuller, aid to better dietary control, as well as achieve your daily recommended amount of nutrients. Therefore changing your mindset about breakfast can result in making you and your family more productive throughout the day but more importantly contribute towards maintaining a healthy weight and better eating habits. 

So the next time you pour yourself a bowl of cereal for breakfast ask yourself is this really fit for a king or more suited for a pauper.