Ask a Dietitian

Why should we eat breakfast? To “break the fast”. You have gone all night without eating so your blood sugars are low. Your body needs fuel to energize it and your brain needs fuel to allow you to think clearly. Research has shown that eating breakfast can improve a child’s performance in school. If that isn’t reason enough, people who eat breakfast are more likely to eat well for the rest of the day. If you aren’t hungry in the morning, think about what you have before bed. If you had a large bedtime snack it’s no wonder. Typically, if you skip breakfast you will be hungry mid-morning and may grab a muffin or doughnut. Then you go through lunch, maybe have a salad (to make up for the doughnut) and by dinnertime you are ravenous. It’s no wonder, you haven’t fed your body what it needs and now it will do whatever it can to be sure it gets enough calories to prevent weight loss, the survival mechanism. Why not fuel your body during the day when you need the energy to do your daily activities, rather than at night when you will be sleeping.

What you eat for breakfast does make a difference. So often breakfast meetings will serve greasy muffins, danishes, doughnuts, cinnamon buns and coffee. Nothing could be worse, low grade fuel and lots of sugar and caffeine to dehydrate you. Breakfast is not dessert, it is a meal. Think about quality and balance. Aim to include 3 food groups and have a hydrating fluid such as water, juice, milk or watery fruit.

A breakfast shake is a great place to start if you’re not a breakfast eater. Mix yogurt or soft tofu, orange juice and a banana in a blender and off you go. That is surely faster than stopping at a coffee shop and picking something up. My favorite breakfast is a fruit parfait with layers of fruit, yogurt and low fat granola in a flute glass. Here are some other great breakfast ideas. Try a new one each week, breakfast may become your favorite meal of the day!

• Spread peanut butter on whole-wheat bread and wrap it around a peeled banana.
• Breakfast burrito with scrambled egg and diced tomato in a whole-wheat tortilla.
• Lean meat and tomato on half a whole grain bagel.
• Latte, fruit and a healthy muffin
• Fruit, nuts and a glass of milk

• Pancakes or waffles topped with French vanilla yogurt and fresh strawberries. Watch for the Eating for Energy segment every Tuesday on BCTV’s Noon News Hour!