Breakfast: The Most Misunderstood Meal Of The Day

Thanks to slick advertising, breakfast is a meal that is very defined in the minds of most people. The mere mention of the word conjures up images of toast, cereal or porridge and juice which, on closer inspection, are not the best ways to start the day. Read on to find out why.

The rise in popularity of processed breakfast products in the standard Western diet can be traced back to two main events in history – the Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution.

For most of human history, our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate – and thrived on – an incredibly diverse, nutrient-dense diet. This changed when their descendants put down roots and began to grow a limited range of crops (mainly grains) that had long shelf lives and were convenient to transport. Living off the land in this new way, meant that carbohydrate intake soared as both protein intake and quality reached an all-time low – a tendency that persists to this day.

The Industrial Revolution, on the other hand, provided the technological means to turn wheat into flour, rice and corn into boxed cereal and whole fruits into juice. It also led to the creation of companies and ever-longer working hours for the workforce, thus creating the need for convenient – and highly processed – breakfast products.

It is important to note that the practice of processing is not necessarily unwise, providing the end result is nutritious and able to offer sustenance. This is not the case with bread, breakfast cereals and juice, to name a few, which have to be synthetically fortified in an attempt to replace lost nutrients. It is this lack of nutrient density in general (and a lack of high-quality proteins and fats in particular) that leads to mid-morning dips in energy, a yearning for true nourishment and repeated snacking as a result. Over time, this leads to a range of deficiencies, obesity and suboptimal health. Interestingly, the most nutrient-dense foods happen to be offal, shellfish and red meat, all of which are often deemed detrimental to health.

Contrary to popular belief, humans did not evolve to eat grains – including those in a whole, unprocessed form – in large quantities. In addition to their poor nutrient status, they contain substances – like phytic acid – which impair the uptake of what little nutrients they contain. Indigenous tribesmen painstakingly soaked, sprouted and fermented grains before consumption and studies now show that this ancient practice offers the best chance for nutrient absorption, however small this may be.

The standard Western diet prioritises convenience over health and it is now clear that it is responsible for the epidemic of chronic disease that we face today. Eating in this manner is known to provoke (and sustain) an inflammatory response – an important factor in the development and progression of disease.

Differing opinions on what constitutes a template for a healthy breakfast – even amongst healthcare practitioners – makes an already complex situation worse. It is, therefore, essential to keep an open mind and cultivate a desire to experiment with less commonplace alternatives than what you have become accustomed to.

In my work with clients, I recommend that breakfasts in particular – and all meals in general – should have the following characteristics:

Truly nutritious: The recommended daily allowances (RDAs) on food labels are the barest minimum required to keep a person alive. They were developed by measuring the nutrition status of the general public (most of whom are not in the best of health) and calculating the averages for each nutrient. For the average person to attain optimal health, they would need far greater amounts than the RDA and yet more if they are living with a chronic illness. It is also worth bearing in mind that sensors in the mouth and small intestine detect the presence of nutrients in the foods we eat and assess the levels of concentration of these nutrients. This valuable information is relayed to the brain which then triggers the desire to continue eating if nutritional needs are unmet, often leading – paradoxically – to simultaneous weight gain and malnutrition. The foods that I recommend are extremely nutrient-dense, thus enabling you to thrive within the context of your illness rather than merely survive.

Easily absorbed and utilised: All grains including wholegrains, popular breakfast choices (like rice, corn and oats found in boxed cereal, granola and muesli) and pseudocereals (like buckwheat found in gluten-free products) contain anti-nutrients – like phytic acid, as mentioned previously – and require soaking, fermenting and sprouting (before cooking) to make them more digestible. That said, even after taking great pains to prepare them in this way, they are still not species-appropriate foods for humans due to their poor nutrient status, inability to fuel our bodies sustainably and inflammatory nature.

To give you an idea of proportions and portion sizes, take a dinner plate and divide it into two halves in your mind’s eye. Next, divide one of the halves into two quarters. This should give you three segments in total – one half and two quarters.

The largest segment should be filled with non-starchy vegetables in as wide an array of colours as possible. This is important because each colour represents a different nutrient and the darker the colours, the greater the concentration of nutrients.

The breakfast below is my personal favourite because it is both delicious and ticks the boxes mentioned above. Its creator, Melissa Joulwan, has very kindly permitted me to share it with you.

Serve with vegetables prepared to your liking in as wide a variety of colours as possible.