Have you ever thought about WHY breakfast is considered to be the most important meal of the day? Why is this the case? Why is it so important to eat a healthy breakfast?
Did you know that eating a healthy breakfast can help you feel more alert, decrease your risk of obesity, maintain your weight, and increase the level of attention?
Studies show that kids who skip breakfast are late from school more often and miss more days of school than kids who eat a healthy breakfast every morning?
HMR Multigrain Hot Cereal | Hearty Breakfast or Snack
Salient Features
Why Is A Healthy Breakfast So Important?
1. Regulates Your Moods
A healthy breakfast helps regulate your body and decreases your blood sugar from going up and down. This stabilizes your moods and maintains your energy throughout the morning.
Our body is just like your car.
If you are out of gas and run on fumes for awhile, the car will function, but not run as efficiently. Also, if you keep doing this you will create damage to the inside components of the car if you know they are damaged or not.
The same is true with our bodies. You can function every morning without eating a healthy breakfast, but your body will perform better if you eat a healthy breakfast.
As we are trying to achieve our goals during the morning and our bodies need some fuel and nutrients to function at your optimal levels.
2. Wakes Up Your Metabolism and Provides Vitamins, Minerals and Proteins To Our Body That Help Us Start Burning Calories
You know that feeling when you wake up from a really deep sleep?
You don’t feel alert and are almost still in a dream like state? Eating a healthy breakfast helps tell our entire body to WAKE UP! It gets the juices flowing and everything in your body starts to work.
Eating a healthy breakfast will enable you to start burning calories in the morning and have valuable vitamins and minerals going through your system to help support you during the day.
3. Eating a Healthy Breakfast Can Help You Maintain Your Weight
After not eating for the entire night, your body is in a mode to preserve your weight. If there is not additional food, your body does not want to increase your metabolism and literally shuts down.
Maintaining a healthy weight is linked strongly to being happy and healthy in your life and you can help with this by eating a healthy breakfast.
According to research, people who skip breakfast are much more likely to accumulate more body fat and eat more food than they need to at their next meal. They are also more likely to snack more often throughout the day.
4. Supercharge Your Brain
Eating a healthy breakfast actually helps super charge your brain with valuable nutrients that it needs. A healthy breakfast improves your memory and aids in retention which is great for kids who are in school and adults who are working at a stressful job.
5. Eating a Healthy Breakfast Is A Gift To Kids
Web MD reported an interesting study that was done by the American Dietetic Association.
Children who eat a healthy breakfast do better in all aspects of their school life from the classroom, to the playground.
The studies show that kids who eat a healthy breakfast have more concentration, eye-hand coordination and even better problem solving skills.
Top 12 Healthy Breakfast Ideas:
1. Plain yogurt mixed honey and fruit in a puree smoothie.
I make my healthy yogurt by using the Vita Mix processor I put in a few bananas, 2 tablespoons of raw honey, non fat unsweetened plain yogurt, and the fruit of your choice. My kid’s love blackberries, blueberries, oranges, pears, pineapple, and really any fruit. Blend it all together and VOILA! A delicious healthy breakfast.
- If you want to drink it like a smoothie, I often add almond milk or coconut milk to make it more of a drink.
2. Home Made Granola Cereal with Almond Milk/Coconut Milk/ Or Milk
A very healthy breakfast is home made granola cereal with almond milk. Filled with oats, nuts, brans and dried fruit, this cereal is a wonderful way to get whole grains into your diet.
- I make my own home made cereal and put it in the refrigerator. (Home made granola is very inexpensive to make and is not laden with chemicals and high fructose corn syrup that store bought cereal is). We typically enjoy granola cereal for 1 1/2 months before I make another batch.
- Add unsulfured dried fruit or fresh fruit to your cereal for added nutrients and a delicious taste.
My kids LOVE to have dried figs in their cereal. I cut them up in small pieces and call them SURPRISES. My 2 and 3 year old kids hunt in their cereal to find them and yell SURPRISE with delight each time they find one.
Click To View The Healthy Breakfast Recipe of Home Made Granola
#4. Home Made Granola and Yogurt Puree Mixed Together
My kids LOVE this healthy breakfast cereal. By combining home made granola and yogurt pureed with fruit (as described in #3), you have whole grains, nuts, yogurt, fruit, bran, and everything you need to start your day off right.
Home made cereal and yogurt makes a delicious change in your cereal for what milk has to offer.
#5. Home Made Healthy Muffins with Fruit
Healthy muffins are one of my favorite healthy breakfast ideas. If you are in a hurry and need to eat and get out the door, having a supply of healthy muffins in the freezer is a lifesaver!
When we wake up in the morning, I just pull out the healthy muffins that we plan to eat that day from the freezer and put them in the microwave for about 20 -40 seconds. VOILA! A delicious whole grain healthy muffin that is packed with protein, vitamins, minerals and whole grain fiber. Since it is so filled with goodness, it also fills you up throughout the morning.
Try to freeze a batch of one of these healthy muffins recipes so you always have a healthy breakfast on hand in a pinch!
- Healthy Apple Muffins
- Healthy Mango Banana Muffins
- Healthy Blackberry Coconut Muffins
- Healthy Bran Muffins With Carob Chips
- Healthy Carrot Muffins
- Healthy Chocolate Chip Blueberry Muffins
- Healthy Pumpkin Muffins With Carob
- Healthy Banana Muffins With Peaches and Strawberries
#6. Omelette With Spinach, Avocado, Cheese and Onions.
(I also will often have two strips of bacon with no nitrates. No nitrate bacon can be purchased from most health food stores and is a healthier way to eat bacon…….. but lets face it……..it is still bacon!)
One of my favorite healthy breakfast meals is a delicious 2 egg omelette. We have some type of “egg dish” every Saturday morning and this healthy breakfast is one of my favorites.
- Simply sautee the spinach in olive oil and season with pepper and sea salt for literally 1-2 minutes.
- Saute the onions in olive oil until they turn brown. (I like them even when they blacken)
- Grate the cheese and slice the avocado.
- Put the cheese, spinanch, avocado and onion inside of the egg and enjoy!
#7. Whole Grain Pancakes with 100% Real Maple Syrup and A Fruit Puree
Pancakes can actually be a really healthy breakfast recipe if they are made with whole grains and you use 100% pure maple syrup, versus imitation high fructose options.
You know how you can eat a stack of pancakes made with white flour and you still don’t feel satisfied?
With whole grain pancakes you can make them be light and fluffy (by combining several whole grain flours) yet be quite satisfied with only 1 or 2 pancakes.
Try the Living Healthy Mom healthy breakfast recipe for whole grain pancakes is:
3 Grain Banana Pancakes
More Information: Maple Syrup Health Benefits
#8. Whole Grain Waffles with 100% Pure Maple Syrup
There are so many wonderful waffle recipes that are ideal for a healthy breakfast. Waffles freeze very well also and are great to use if you are in a hurry in the morning.
#9. Toasted Whole Wheat Toast with Almond Butter and Fruit
This is a quick and easy healthy breakfast that provides a complete protein to start your day right. Almonds have amazing health benefits and combining the toast with fruit you are receiving everything you need to start your day off right.
I love this healthy breakfast idea when I am really in a hurry to get out the door. I can make it in minutes and off we go!
You can use almond butter, cashew butter, hazelnut butter, macadamia butter, or pistachio butter. Each nut has it’s own health benefits and ironically peanut butter is the least healthy of them all.
Click to buy nut butters on Amazon
#10. Healthy Bread Pudding Using Whole Wheat Bread
Bread pudding can be served as a healthy breakfast or a dessert, depending on what is put on top. When you make bread pudding, you could have enough for several healthy breakfast meals that will provide a wonderful alternative to your normal breakfast.
Recipe for: Heavenly Healthy Bread Pudding With Whole Wheat Bread
11. Healthy Cookies or Breakfast Bars For When You Are in a Pinch
When you make whole grain cookies and/or healthy breakfast bars with natural sweeteners, they can make a healthy breakfast, a healthy snack or a healthy dessert.
Try these healthy breakfast cookies:
- Healthy Cashew Whole Grain Biscotti
- Grandmas Hearty Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
#12. Carrot Juice with Kale and Beets
Of course a wonderful addition to any breakfast in the day is a glass of freshly juiced carrot juice. I am a big believer in juicing and we drink carrot juice as a family every morning.
Please note, you loose a good portion of the health benefits when you buy big jugs of carrot juice in the store.
Our ritual is that we wake up and I make carrot juice. I also blend together carrots, kale and beets. I sometimes add other vegetables, but these are the staples. We drink our juice and then we eat our healthy breakfast.
Article: How I Helped To Prevent Flus and Colds By Juicing
Please share in the comment section what your favorite healthy breakfast i
