You probably have heard it from the nutrition experts before – Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!” What most people don’t realize is that it contributes significantly to your fats and calories intake. Breakfast mistakes continue to contribute to one’s weight gain when the fats are burned off by our lifestyle habits.
Here are some slip-ups that can potentially make your breakfast choices unhealthy.
Breakfasts on the go
When you are constantly on the move, you need to be eating on the go – which means that it can be hard to be selecting healthier choices of food. Very often, these food choices can be limited to a packaged energy bar, muffins, pastries, bread made from refined flour etc. These choices are inevitably loaded with sugar, salt & fats and provide very little or no nutritional value at all.
Morning beverages can be the culprit
Never underestimate calories from fluid intake! An upsized (aren’t they supposed to be “value for money” these days?) serving of smoothies, coffee, fruit juices and energy drinks can potentially set you back by 300 calories or more! So it’s not hard to imagine the total amount of calories one is taking from the upsized beverage. Rule no. 1: Do not upsize your choice of beverage. Watch the sugar and creamer added to your cup of coffee or tea as well. Lastly, it is actually a better choice to eat cut fruits compared to drinking juices as it contains more fibre and lesser calories.
Not having enough breakfast
Fruits in general contains lots of fibre and minerals, however, having them for breakfast alone may not be sufficient to last until the next meal. This can potentially cause one to binge eat for lunch. A nourishing balanced breakfast should have a good choice of complex carbs, protein and fibre – this can enable one to feel full for a longer period of time.
Meal that is mostly carbohydrates
In Asia, breakfast choices tend to tilt towards having carbohydrates only. Try replacing kaya toast, fried noodles and roti prata with wholemeal bread, a bowl of oats, wholegrain cereals or muesli without added sugar for a change. This can be further fortified by adding protein items such as a hard-boiled egg, low fat milk and unsalted nuts or seeds.
Healthy foods that aren’t really so healthy
Certain food items can be “labelled as healthy” purely as a marketing gimmick. These items can instead be filled with sugar, fats, salt content that are identical to any other unhealthy food items as well. It is therefore important that one takes time and effort to read the nutrition labels and ingredients list carefully before making your grocery shopping choices.
Making the wrong choices for breakfast can indeed be detrimental to one’s effort of maintaining our optimum weight. However, having something to eat for breakfast still beats having no breakfast at all. Just make sure that you know how to choose wisely and take advantage of the most important meal of the day.
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