Eating a sweet breakfast might sound what dreams are made of, but not if you are looking to lose fat, reduce the risk of disease, live a long life and reduce the risk of diabetes oh and increase productivity and focus, then you might want to consider a sweet breakfast.
When I talk about a sweet breakfast I am thinking of high GI, high carbohydrate choices. Examples include toast and sweet jam, croissants and jam, banana bread, and honey on toast.
Eating sugary breakfasts like these cause your body to actually store fat rather than burn it.
The reason it does this is to help balance the sugar in your blood, and for good reason. If you have very high blood sugar you are susceptible to a multitude of very undesirable health concerns including
Blurred vision
Headaches
Erectile dysfunction
Numbness and cold sensitivity in feet due to nerve damage
Damage to the vessels of your eyes, causing vision damage
Delay in healing
Blurred
Skin infections
Extreme hunger
Frequent peeing
Damage to your kidneys and blood vessels
Stomach and intestinal problems such as chronic constipation or diarrhea
Genital infections
For this reason, when you load your body with a high concentration of sugar, ie a sweet breakfast, your body begins to work to reduce the sugar in your blood and store it to prevent these symptoms.
The body stores this sugar as fat as a measure to save you from suffering adverse and sometimes devastating symptoms. Your body is simply trying to take care of you and keep you as safe as possible.
What's more, this response of fat storage is not limited to eating only a sweet breakfast. Eating a breakfast high in refined and overly processed carbohydrates such as white bread, croissants, and refined cereals such as cornflakes, have the same effect as those simple carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugars, causing a sugar high.
The speed at which a food is processed and distributed into the blood is referred to as the Glycemic Index or GI.
Foods with a high GI cause a surge in blood sugar levels, causing the body to store this almost immediately into fat.
Foods of a low GI value however have a much more balanced and gradual effect on the body. As the sugars of the food are released gradually there is no need for the body to spring into action and balance them as they are already pretty balanced. The body is able to use these sugars on expending energy and is less likely to store them, resulting in little to no fat stores accumulating.
Isn't the body clever?
So what to do and what to eat at breakfast time.
The number one tip I give to my clients is to PLAN their breakfast. Don't get intimidated by the word "plan", it just means pre-think it so when you come downstairs in a hurry to get to work you know what you are eating and don't even consider a convenient grab-and-go sweet breakfast.
Some really easy suggestions are
👉 Dense Wholewheat bread with almond butter (make sure the butter just contains almonds, not extra sugar or oil as that will defeat the purpose.
👉 Hardboiled eggs. There is nothing easier than keeping hard-boiled eggs in the fridge so you can grab and go.
These are my fastest food option and they help me thrive. Cook up a batch and keep it in the fridge for unto 3 days. I suggest not peeling them till you need them to avoid smelling out the fridge.
👉Protein Isolate smoothie
I generally have 2 breakfasts every day to keep my metabolism revved up, one being protein isolate. However, if you are unable to do 2 breakfasts (this is principally for weight loss), then whizz up a smoothie using some protein isolate.
Smoothies can be a savior. You really can put anything in them. Frozen berries, soy milk, oat milk, cows milk, Supergreen powders, collagen...
Experiment with them, but as I said before having a plan.
