4 Healthy Breakfasts

Oatmeal is one of the best cereals to include for breakfast. It's a source of complex carbohydrates and fiber capable of acting on the intestinal microbiota.

Written and verified by el nutricionista Saúl Sánchez.

Last update: 22 March, 2021

Preparing healthy breakfasts isn’t as difficult as you might think. You just have to choose fresh products and avoid sweets or ultra-processed ones with a high sugar content. These products can negatively impact anyone’s metabolism and body composition.

Please note that breakfast isn’t a mandatory meal. Gone is the myth that said it was the most important meal of the day. If you wake up with no appetite, it doesn’t matter if you don’t eat till lunchtime. What’s more, this practice can be very beneficial for the body.

Healthy breakfasts

However, if you’re someone who wakes up hungry, but, at the same time, you want to take care of your health, then we’re going to bring you 4 healthy breakfasts that are easy and quick to prepare. You’ll be sure to get a correct supply of essential nutrients with them.

1. Porridge

Oats are the best cereal we have today. They’re a source of carbohydrates with a low glycemic index, capable of maintaining stable glycemia, and so it doesn’t have an aggressive impact on the pancreas.

In addition, this food has a higher protein concentration than other members of this group of products, even though they’re still proteins of low biological value.

But where oatmeal stands out is in its fiber content. It contains a type of soluble fiber, beta-glucans, which has been shown to have a positive impact on the intestinal microbiota, favoring the growth of bacteria that inhabit the digestive tract.

Thanks to them, the nutrient absorption processes become much more efficient. It’s even possible to improve immunity due to a reduction in the permeability of the intestine itself.

Finally, we must highlight the presence of B vitamins and essential minerals in oats. These nutrients ensure the proper functioning of the physiological reactions that take place daily in the body.

Keep in mind that a bowl of porridge isn’t only milk and cereal; many more ingredients can be added to make it even more complete from a nutritional point of view. An excellent option is to include blueberries in the recipe.

These have a large number of antioxidant compounds, anthocyanins. There’s evidence to show that these phytonutrients are capable of neutralizing the formation of free radicals, reducing the incidence of chronic and complex pathologies.

2. Scrambled eggs

You can’t talk about healthy breakfasts without mentioning scrambled eggs. Both alone and accompanied, they’re an excellent option to start the day, since they have a high nutritional density. They provide essential vitamins and minerals for the body.

Eggs stand out for their protein content, which is of high quality. In addition, egg yolk is composed of fats and phospholipids, essential elements to fulfill structural functions.

Don’t be scared off by the presence of saturated lipids inside, as these have been shown to be harmless unless subjected to very aggressive heat treatments.

In addition to this, it should be noted that eggs are a good source of vitamin D. This micronutrient is capable of improving bone health and modulating the levels of inflammation in the body. In fact, its intake is related to a lower incidence of chronic diseases.

However, its presence in the diet is normally low, and so maximizing the intake of eggs is a great idea. The best way to ensure that adequate levels of this vitamin are maintained is through regular exposure to sunlight, which stimulates endogenous synthesis.

3. Yogurt with nuts

Dairy consumption has been a controversial topic in recent years. There are experts who defend that this class of foods could favor certain inflammatory mechanisms, at least in predisposed subjects from a genetic point of view.

However, science is in favor of including dairy in our diet. Especially the fermented ones are capable of providing many health benefits, thanks to their probiotic content.

The latter are nothing more than live bacteria capable of colonizing the intestinal tract, generating a benefit for the host. According to research published in the journal Gastroenterology Clinics of North America, these microorganisms reduce the incidence of inflammatory diseases of the digestive type, which has a positive impact on health.

Having healthy and diverse microbiota allows our body to increase the immune system’s functioning and efficiency. It could also have a positive impact on the person’s body composition, reducing the risk of developing obesity or being overweight.

For this reason, the regular presence of yogurt in the diet is recommended. Kefir is also an excellent option.

How to supplement yogurt

Adding nuts to yogurt improves the lipid profile of the product in question. To the saturated fatty acids, we add others of the unsaturated type, which enriches the food from a nutritional point of view.

Likewise, nuts have good protein, mineral, and vitamin content. They even have antioxidants with anti-aging properties to their credit.

Don’t forget that you can also add oatmeal, chopped fruit, or seeds to yogurt with nuts. In this way, you’ll increase its caloric value, but also its content of essential nutrients for the body.

4. Toast

Although bread isn’t the best food around, it is possible to make a good healthy breakfast around it. The first thing to take into account is the type of bread you choose. It’s essential to avoid the industrial versions, as these usually have added sugars.

However, artisan bread made with sourdough stands out for its content in resistant starches, elements that have been shown to benefit the intestinal microbiota and help reduce the incidence of metabolic diseases such as diabetes.

Also, bread made with seeds or cereals other than wheat, such as rye, can be a great option.

In addition, it’s crucial to choose the ingredients that will accompany the bread wisely when preparing your toast. It’s best to choose products with a high protein content, such as cheese, peanut butter without added sugar, ham, or turkey.

Highly processed sausages such as chorizo should be avoided, as they have nitrites inside that could be counterproductive for health in the medium term.

You can even add a splash of olive oil to the toast, taking into account that this will increase its energy value. Sliced tomato is another product that combines well with bread and is ideal for placing on top of it. It’ll provide phytonutrients, such as lycopene, which can help to reduce cardiovascular risk.

Should you have breakfast?

With the rise of intermittent fasting, many people wonder if it’s a good idea to eat breakfast, or if, on the contrary, it’s a better option not to eat caloric foods until lunchtime.

The truth is that there’s no universal answer to this question. The first thing you should do is to listen to your body. If you wake up with an appetite, then any one of the healthy breakfasts we’ve mentioned today will be ideal.

However, if you really don’t feel like eating at all, then it’s not a problem if you just have a coffee or water and wait until lunchtime before eating.

In the case of people who want to lose weight, for example, avoiding breakfast every day could be a wise move. In this way, you ingest fewer calories per week, and, at the same time, you create positive metabolic changes for your body in the medium term.

In any case, the implementation of intermittent fasting should always be supervised by a specialist. This avoids unnecessary side effects such as dizziness, which can appear in certain situations when you don’t carry out this practice well.

Healthy breakfasts to start the day well

The healthy breakfasts that we’ve proposed are suitable for any member of the family. They will all provide essential nutrients for your body’s proper functioning, and thus reduce the risk of suffering deficiencies.

They are also balanced breakfasts, which means that they offer the right amount of each of the essential nutrients. In other words, they aren’t restrictive.

However, there are many other excellent options that you can consider. We’ve given you some ideas, but the possibilities in this field are endless. Remember that the essential thing here is to prioritize the consumption of fresh food over the industrial ultra-processed variety, in order to guarantee variety in your diet.

Finally, don’t forget that having breakfast isn’t an obligation. Listen to your body first thing in the morning and only eat if you’re hungry; don’t eat just for the sake of it. Experts have shown that fasting can be beneficial in certain circumstances, and it can be a valuable exercise to put it into practice on a regular basis.

Whatever the case, when eating something first thing in the morning, the most important thing is to avoid sweet food that contains large amounts of simple sugars. These ingredients significantly affect metabolic health, producing weight gain in the medium term.