They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But not if you’re doing intermittent fasting. So suppose you don’t eat your first meal until noon or even a little later, a time when most people are thinking about what kind of sandwich they’re going to have for lunch.
Sure, you can break your fast with a healthy low-carb lunch. But if you love breaking your fast with typical breakfast fare, what can you eat that won’t spike your blood sugar levels? Here are a few outside-the-box options.
Best Alternative To Oatmeal
Many health experts consider oatmeal to be one of the healthiest breakfast foods. Consider this summary from MedicalNewsToday.com: “Oatmeal is one of the most nutritious breakfast foods. It may help a person lose weight, reduce their risk of heart disease, and lower their blood sugar levels.”
But oats, according to the Environmental Working Group, is one of the leading sources of glyphosate residue in food. The EWG “found the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer in every sample of popular oat-based cereal and other oat-based food marketed to children.” Glyphosate was declared a probable human carcinogen by the World Health Organization’s main cancer research arm in 2015.
If you like oatmeal but oats don’t like you back, consider this alternative: teff. Not to be confused with Teflon, the non-stick synthetic polymer in frying pans, teff is an ancient grain indigenous to Ethiopia. An excellent source of plant-based protein and iron, teff contains only 6 grams of net carbs per serving.
This Is Your Brain On Eggs
Remember that anti-drug public service announcement from the late 1980s, “This is your brain on drugs,” which showed a skillet overcooking two fried eggs. The message was that if you use drugs, your brain will become fried gray matter and you’ll become a blustering idiot. But maybe there was some truth to that campaign. Perhaps eating fried eggs does in fact cause brain damage. The overcooking of food causes oxidative stress and excess free radical damage, which in turn is associated with a risk of cognitive disorders such as Parkinson’s- and Alzheimer’s Disease.
If you want an eggcellent (pardon the pun) breakfast experience, boil or poach the eggs to prevent oxidation. Unfortunately, the most popular method of cooking eggs—scrambled—may cause oxidation.
Low-Carb Pancakes
Pancakes are one of those foods that are enjoyable to eat but after you’re done eating them, the pleasure can quickly turn to regret. The high-starch flour combined with syrup spikes blood sugar.
And what quickly goes up must go down and then some. Within a few hours after eating pancakes, your blood sugar levels can dip lower than before your first bite. This leads to fatigue and a desire to eat something else because the carbs are quickly metabolized.
A healthier way to eat pancakes is to use alternative cooking oils and flours. Using coconut oil has become popular because of its high smoke point and stable saturated fat content. However, for some people with a genetic predisposition to heart disease, it’s the high concentration of saturated fat that’s the problem.
Coconut flour only contains one gram of saturated fat so it’s healthier than coconut oil for those who can’t metabolize saturated fat well. But even if you eat coconut oil by the spoonful and don’t have any markers indicating that you’re at risk for heart disease, if you’re closely watching your carbs and sugar intake, there’s a healthier alternative: almond flour.
Almond flour is higher in protein than coconut flour and contains only one gram of naturally-occurring sugar. In comparison, coconut flour contains three grams of sugar and nine total grams of carbs. (Both coconut flour and almond flour contain four grams of net carbs.)
Conclusion
Just because your first meal of the day might be taken during normal lunch time, it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your favorite breakfast foods in a healthy way. The Standard American Diet (SAD, indeed) typically includes high-carbohydrate, low-nutrient density breakfasts with a side of high-sodium processed meat.
Other healthy break-your-fast ideas include bone broth, sauteed or steamed veggies and a moderate amount of fruit. Enjoy them at any time of the day.
What are your favorite healthy breakfast ideas? Leave a comment below...