With a healthy breakfast you charge yourself for the rest of the day. It is important to eat something in the morning: you give your body enough energy to start and get through the day. But it is important that you choose a healthy breakfast. In this article I explain why it is good to start your day with a low carbohydrate breakfast.
Low-carbohydrate breakfast: a good start to the day
Are you one of those people who skip breakfast? Frequently heard arguments are: I do not have time for it, I am not hungry at all, without breakfast I can better lose weight, or "I have breakfast with coffee." But if you do not take breakfast, you deprive your body of the fuel to be well absorbed. start. And with weight loss it does not help either, it works against you earlier. Breakfast means that your body will burn fat!
The standard breakfast of many people consists of:
- yogurt with muesli
- rusk
- one or more sandwiches with toppings
- fruit
- Croissants
- muffins or donuts
- fruit juice
- breakfast bars.
The majority of these breakfast products contain many carbohydrates and sugars.
Carbohydrates and sugar per 100 grams:
Breakfast product Carbohydrates Of which sugar
Muesli 60 to 70 grams 15 to 20 grams
Rusk 70 grams 10 grams
Butterham 13 grams Jam: 60-70 grams
Gingerbread 65 grams 45 grams
Breakfast bar 65 grams 20 to 30 grams
And of course these are only averages. There are products with more or less sugars and carbohydrates.
A breakfast with lots of carbohydrates provides a sugar dip
As you can see, you feed your body with a standard breakfast for the most part with carbohydrates and sugar. Not only is that a pretty unhealthy start of the day, you will soon arrive in a sugar dip after breakfast. The carbohydrates ensure that your blood sugar level rises quickly. The body reacts by producing insulin. This lowers the blood sugar levels, makes you feel weak and tired and you get hungry again. A low-carbohydrate breakfast is a good alternative to prevent the sugar dip.
"Healthy" breakfast products
What if you choose products that are known as healthy?
Manufacturers notice that people pay more attention to their health, try to pay attention to their weight and do not want to consume more sugar. They respond to that. There are more products on the market that are sweetened with substances other than sugar.
Many products with little sugar contain sweeteners again
This way you can also start the day with a low carbohydrate breakfast. But it is important to look at the packaging to see what they are sweetened with, because you do not want to replace one evil with another evil. These artificial sweeteners are bad for your body, they are purely chemical substances. These often cause you to get more tasty appetite. Check the packaging and pay attention to the following sweeteners: - acesulfame-K
- aspartame
- glucose fructose syrup
- saccharin
- maltodextrin
- sucralose.
There are of course also breakfast products that are healthy and that have little added sweeteners. But most ready-made products are not healthy. It is often this way: the faster to eat, the more is added to it. Think of drinking yoghurt, instant oatmeal and breakfast bars.
Although breakfast is important, it is better to opt for a different type of diet, namely low-carbohydrate and protein-rich breakfast.
The benefits of low-carbohydrate breakfast
There are many health benefits associated with low-carbohydrate eating. Your body uses proteins and fats as fuel, instead of carbohydrates. This ensures that you are well satiated, do not suffer from major fluctuations in blood sugar levels and you can also lose weight. And that while you get all the important vitamins, fibers and minerals.
A low-carbohydrate breakfast stimulates fat burning
By eating a low-carbohydrate and protein-rich breakfast, you will experience even more benefits. Eating protein at breakfast stimulates fat burning. If you eat carbohydrates, your body burns first and the fat burning does not start. This is done by eating protein.
Maybe you wonder if a breakfast based on proteins is filling enough. The fact is that proteins and fats fill better and longer than carbohydrates. It takes longer for your stomach to digest proteins, which will make you feel full for a long time. So you can hold it easier until lunch, without having to grab snacks. Much easier than if you eat carbohydrates that cause the known sugar dip.
Your body will use proteins and fats as an energy source during the low-carbohydrate diet. Sources of proteins and fats are:
Protein: Meat, poultry and fish. Dairy, such as yogurt and cottage cheese. Eggs, nuts and seeds, legumes.
Fats: Olive oil, linseed oil, coconut oil, fatty fish (salmon), nuts, seeds and avocado.
You certainly do not have to remove all carbohydrates from your diet. However, it is important to ensure that the carbohydrates you eat are healthy. So eat complex carbohydrates that do not affect your blood sugar too much.
Besides proteins and fats, fiber is also an important part of a healthy way of eating. Fibers stimulate the functioning of the intestine and ensure that you stay well saturated. Fibers can be found in brown rice, quinoa, vegetables and legumes.
What fits in a low carbohydrate breakfast?
Because most people are used to taking a lot of carbohydrates at breakfast, it can be difficult to think about what you should eat. Here are some tips to be able to properly decide what fits your diet.
Oatmeal: advantages and disadvantages
You see that oatmeal is now enthusiastically promoted as a healthy breakfast product. And it is certainly healthy too. But oatmeal is full of carbohydrates. The advantage is that they are complex, so slow carbohydrates. So if you want to have a low carbohydrate breakfast, oatmeal is not the best choice. Be sure not to take oatmeal for breakfast every day.
The benefits of oatmeal are: it is healthy and contains many valuable vitamins and minerals. Because it concerns slow carbohydrates, your blood sugar level remains stable and gives you long-term energy. Also, oatmeal contains a lot of protein, so you stay full for a long time. Here you can read more about the health benefits of oatmeal.
The disadvantages are that oatmeal consists of about 60% carbohydrates. Do you want to eat healthy but also lose weight? Then you can not eat oatmeal in the first weeks. If you want to add it to your diet afterwards, try to limit it to a maximum of 2 times a week. And then choose unprocessed oatmeal.
Yogurt and cottage cheese
There are different types of yogurt to choose from and all contain healthy nutrients. Here too you can best start from yogurt that has been processed as little as possible. So no flavors or yogurt with less fat. Sugars or chemical sweeteners are often added to low-fat yoghurt. Precisely fat yogurt is healthy and is pure nature. Greek yogurt in particular contains a lot of protein, 6 grams per 100 grams.
Cottage cheese is also very healthy. Some variants (eg full organic curds) contain twice as much protein as yoghurt. With 8 grams per 100 grams of protein you start your day really well!
Smoothies
Are smoothies good for breakfast? That depends on how you prepare your smoothies. Smoothies are made with vegetables, fruit and water or yogurt in different proportions. The fruit in a smoothie can provide a lot of fast carbohydrates. The intention is that you let the smoothie consist for the most part from vegetables. The fruit is mainly to add a little bit of sweetness.
If you stick to fruit, then a smoothie is a good way to provide your body with a lot of energy and healthy nutrients. You can also make your breakfast very varied, because you can use so many different fruits and vegetables.
3 easy low carbohydrate breakfast recipes
Below you will find 3 easy low-carbohydrate breakfast recipes to give you an idea how simple it is to start your day with a low-carbohydrate breakfast: - Yogurt / cottage cheese with fruit
- 150-200 grams (Greek) yogurt or cottage cheese
- 60 grams of fruit (blueberries, raspberries and strawberries contain the least sugar)
- 20-30 grams of nuts (cashew nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts)
- Possibly chia seed, linseed
Almond flour pancakes with cinnamon - 75 grams of almond flour
- 140 ml almond milk
- 3 eggs
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
Mix the ingredients well to get a batter. This batter remains rather thin, so you get thin pancakes. Use more flour to make them firmer or mix some rice flour. Bake the pancakes in the pan, making sure they turn brown quickly. Cover them with some fruit (delicious with strawberries or blueberries) and sprinkle with some cinnamon.
Smoothie with beetroot - 1 beet (pre-cooked)
- Half cucumber
- 50 grams of spinach
- 1 kiwi
- 1 banana
Peel the banana and the kiwi, put all the ingredients in a blender and mix until it is liquid. Add about 100 ml of water so that it is drinkable