Vegetarian Eating - Healthy Breakfast
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
It literally is the meal that "breaks your fast" after a night's sleep, and should be full of nutrition.
Eating a healthy breakfast will provide a sustained slow release of energy throughout the morning, and you will be less likely to reach for a snack.
Breakfast should be one of the easiest meals to fit into your healthy eating plan.
The basics are a piece of fruit, a drink, and some muesli, porridge or whole grain toast.
You may be eating something similar already, but you need to look quite closely at the ingredients.
Many packaged varieties of muesli contain a lot of fat and sugar, disguised with titles such as "fitness", "natural", "healthy", or "full of fruit".
The first thing to check for is added sugar, almost all have this, it is unnecessary and not what you need.
As a guide, less than 2 grams of sugar per 100 grams is a little, 10 grams per 100 is a lot.
One descriptor to avoid is "crunchy" - this usually means "coated with sugar", also check the ingredients for dried milk powder, which is also added as a sweetener.
The original muesli, formulated by Dr Max Bircher-Benner, was soaked with fresh fruit to make it easy to digest.
This was also what gave the muesli its sweetness and added pleasantly to the flavour.
The second thing to check for is the amount of fat, but this can be a little confusing because of the good fat/bad fat mix.
If the fat is due to high nut content, it will be good unsaturated fats.
Check for the amount of saturated fat - it should be less than 2 grams per 100.
There are some great muesli brands around, check the ingredients and find one that suits you, or make your own.
I started making my own when my usual brand was not available at the supermarket and have never looked back.
It means I can add exactly what I want.
It also means my muesli varies slightly week by week, sometimes there are more nuts, sometimes more cranberries - I like the variety.
As well as knowing that your muesli only contains good ingredients, the other advantage of making your own muesli is that it will be lower cost than the really good muesli brands that are around.
Some suggested ingredients if you want to try making your own - organic oats, barley flakes, rye flakes, sultanas, cranberries, nuts (walnuts, almonds, brazils), sesame, sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
Look for ingredients with no artificial preservatives at your local health food store, and be sure to store your muesli in an airtight container.
If you are excluding dairy products from your diet, add some fresh fruit to your muesli, or a small amount of fruit juice - it will taste delicious! Another breakfast trap is commercially produced bread.
Many people have become used to white sliced bread that is devoid of any goodness.
Even when you buy wholegrain breads, you need to check the ingredients; some just have a small amount of wholegrain added.
Many breads have added sugar - bread is a savoury food - it should not taste sweet! Remember to check the ingredient list for fat and sugar content.
It might sound like making shopping hard work, but once you know the brands to buy, you won't need to check again.
For a weekend breakfast treat, try some fresh mushrooms and tomato on wholegrain toast sprinkled with coriander or parsley, or fruit pancakes made from wholegrain flour and soy or rice milk.
As you learn how to substitute ingredients with vegan alternatives, your choices will grow.
It literally is the meal that "breaks your fast" after a night's sleep, and should be full of nutrition.
Eating a healthy breakfast will provide a sustained slow release of energy throughout the morning, and you will be less likely to reach for a snack.
Breakfast should be one of the easiest meals to fit into your healthy eating plan.
The basics are a piece of fruit, a drink, and some muesli, porridge or whole grain toast.
You may be eating something similar already, but you need to look quite closely at the ingredients.
Many packaged varieties of muesli contain a lot of fat and sugar, disguised with titles such as "fitness", "natural", "healthy", or "full of fruit".
The first thing to check for is added sugar, almost all have this, it is unnecessary and not what you need.
As a guide, less than 2 grams of sugar per 100 grams is a little, 10 grams per 100 is a lot.
One descriptor to avoid is "crunchy" - this usually means "coated with sugar", also check the ingredients for dried milk powder, which is also added as a sweetener.
The original muesli, formulated by Dr Max Bircher-Benner, was soaked with fresh fruit to make it easy to digest.
This was also what gave the muesli its sweetness and added pleasantly to the flavour.
The second thing to check for is the amount of fat, but this can be a little confusing because of the good fat/bad fat mix.
If the fat is due to high nut content, it will be good unsaturated fats.
Check for the amount of saturated fat - it should be less than 2 grams per 100.
There are some great muesli brands around, check the ingredients and find one that suits you, or make your own.
I started making my own when my usual brand was not available at the supermarket and have never looked back.
It means I can add exactly what I want.
It also means my muesli varies slightly week by week, sometimes there are more nuts, sometimes more cranberries - I like the variety.
As well as knowing that your muesli only contains good ingredients, the other advantage of making your own muesli is that it will be lower cost than the really good muesli brands that are around.
Some suggested ingredients if you want to try making your own - organic oats, barley flakes, rye flakes, sultanas, cranberries, nuts (walnuts, almonds, brazils), sesame, sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
Look for ingredients with no artificial preservatives at your local health food store, and be sure to store your muesli in an airtight container.
If you are excluding dairy products from your diet, add some fresh fruit to your muesli, or a small amount of fruit juice - it will taste delicious! Another breakfast trap is commercially produced bread.
Many people have become used to white sliced bread that is devoid of any goodness.
Even when you buy wholegrain breads, you need to check the ingredients; some just have a small amount of wholegrain added.
Many breads have added sugar - bread is a savoury food - it should not taste sweet! Remember to check the ingredient list for fat and sugar content.
It might sound like making shopping hard work, but once you know the brands to buy, you won't need to check again.
For a weekend breakfast treat, try some fresh mushrooms and tomato on wholegrain toast sprinkled with coriander or parsley, or fruit pancakes made from wholegrain flour and soy or rice milk.
As you learn how to substitute ingredients with vegan alternatives, your choices will grow.
