Healthy- cereal free breakfast

Disclaimer: The information written below is based on my personal research and experience.

I wanted to share my usual breakfast idea with you.  A while ago my family went gluten-free after I realised that my youngest son couldn’t tolerate gluten – even through breastmilk. It turned out to work brilliantly for us and after we cut it out we learnt that gluten was causing us a fair few aches, indigestions and causing my skin problems. Nowadays gluten free breakfasts are easy – you just buy gluten-free cereal! It tastes just as good, in most cases is organic and in most cases has less sugar added. More recently we have been trying to significantly reduce our sugar and carbohydrate intake and concentrate on a high (HEALTHY!!!) fat diet. This involves a lot of nuts and seeds, avocados, organic or grass fed fatty meat, fish and lots of veggies and fruit.

The problem with carbohydrates is that they don’t give us much nutrition and once we consume carbohydrate rich foods, our body turns them into sugar giving us quick burst of energy – followed by a sugar low and feeling hungry again. What’s more, our bodies can’t process the big amounts of sugar we feed them so they store it in fat. One of the reasons our bodies produce fat is to protect us from the chemicals we consume (I mean the nasty food additives mostly found in all processed foods) – our bodies will produce fat to surround the chemicals that are dangerous to us – sugar counts as one of those chemicals. Another reason for our bodies to produce fat would be if we go hungry on regular basis, fat would be produced to keep us from starving. On the other hand, healthy fats provide us with stable energy without the extreme highs and lows making us feel satisfied for longer and because we are avoiding sugars and other chemicals, there is no need for our bodies to produce extra amounts of fat. Interestingly, when we consume healthy fat -our bodies don’t store it, they use it up as energy.

Once I tried to cut out all pasta, potatoes, rice and grain from our weekly menu I realised how a typical diet focuses on carbs and makes it difficult to adjust and change. However, with time, research and listening to my body I came up with plenty of alternatives and we are doing pretty well staying off carbs and sugar.

Today I would like to share a very quick and easy breakfast “recipe” with you. If you are not looking to cut out carbs and sugar from your diet- I hope you will find this as a nice occasional change to cereal and toast:). I am using a banana, which contains some amounts of carbohydrates and natural sugars, but since it’s a natural food I can’t see it causing harm and if you wish – you can leave banana out. I also add (organic) full fat natural yoghurt.

Why seeds and nuts?

Chia seeds- are full of calcium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, manganese and they contain omega 3 and 6 fatty acids.

Sunflower seeds- are full of vitamin E, copper, selenium, phosphorus, manganese, magnesium and others.

Almonds- contain vitamin E, phosphorus, manganese, magnesium, copper, fibre, biotin.

Walnuts- are full of omega 3 fats, copper, manganese and biotin.

Dried coconut- contain B vitamins, potassium, copper, zinc, magnesium, iron and calcium.

They are all good for our hearts and protect us from cancer. They are full of healthy fat so keep us satisfied for longer.  Definitely a good way to start a day!

You can put it all together in any way you wish.

Sliced banana with the yoghurt in the middle…

A whole banana with yoghurt on a plate…

yoghurt topped with chopped banana, nuts and seeds…

My children love to sprinkle their own seeds on top and I am happy that they are learning to make healthy food choices :).

Banana and seeds breakfast

• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Ingredients:                                                                                       

• banana
• natural yoghurt (preferably full fat-organic)                 
• 2-4 tbs sunflower seeds
• 2-4 tbs flaked/sliced almonds
• 2-4 tbs chopped walnuts
• 2-4 tbs flaked or desiccated coconut
• 1 tbs chia seeds

Directions:

According to your preferences: chop or slice the banana into a bowl or onto a plate. Add the desired amount of natural yoghurt and sprinkle seeds on the top. Enjoy your healthy, energising breakfast!