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You are here: Home / Recipes and Cooking Tips / Why Changing Your Break­fast Habit will Reap Big Re­wards

Why Changing Your Break­fast Habit will Reap Big Re­wards

September 7, 2021 by Editor 1 Comment

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sugar-free oatmeal recipe using fresh fruit
healthy woman holding a bowl of oatmeal with fresh fruit

“Break­fast is the most im­por­tant meal of the day” so the say­ing goes. Per­son­al­ly I don’t be­lieve that’s true. Every­thing you eat is im­por­tant.

But it is true that break­fast is of­ten the health­i­est meal of the day.

Why? It’s all down to habits.

healthy woman holding a bowl of oatmeal with fresh fruit

A habit is some­thing our “habit brain” does with­out think­ing about it. It’s ef­ficient, gets the job done. It’s a fab­u­lous way to lead a healthy life. Sim­ply build healthy habits and you’ll be do­ing it all on au­topi­lot. Healthy liv­ing doesn’t have to be dif­fi­cult. Check out Dr. Or­lena’s pod­cast on “how to make healthy liv­ing easy”.

The prob­lem with habits is that our brains don’t care whether it’s a “healthy habit” or a “not so healthy habit”. But clear­ly our bod­ies do.

Why is break­fast of­ten the health­i­est meal of the day?

Break­fast is of­ten a “habit” meal. Most peo­ple have a strong morn­ing rou­tine. Which in­cludes a reg­u­lar break­fast. Sim­ple and easy. We do the same thing every day on re­peat.

As we go through the day, we make more “food de­ci­sions”. When we’re tired and stressed we of­ten don’t pick the health­i­est foods. We’re more like­ly to go for easy, con­ve­nient and the “treat fac­tor”.

So if you can nail the “healthy break­fast habit”, you’ll stand your­self in good stead. It’s easy to get into a groove and an easy way to fuel your body with de­licious and nu­tri­tious foods.

Let’s start by “what’s not a great healthy break­fast”.

What I call “white floury carbs”. In short, any­thing that comes out of a pack­age. Many break­fast ce­re­als mar­ket them­selves as “healthy” when re­al­ly they’re consid­er­ably pro­cessed.

They of­ten con­tain sug­ar (check the in­gre­di­ents la­bel and be­ware there are many ways to say “sug­ar” with­out us­ing the word “sug­ar”.) Even if they don’t con­tain sug­ar, they have of­ten been pro­cessed.

Why is that im­por­tant? Aren’t we al­ways told to eat whole grains?

Think of an ear of wheat. (You can buy it as “spelt”.) It has a fi­brous husk around the out­side and flour in the mid­dle. The pro­cess­ing method may take away that husk. That husk is good fi­bre for us. Our gut bio­me (those friend­ly mi­cro­scop­ic things that help keep us healthy.) feed on that fi­bre. Tak­ing away the husk isn’t great.

Even if the husk stays in the ce­re­al, it’s been whizzed up. When you eat the grain whole, your body has to di­gest it and break down the husk be­fore it gets to the en­er­gy in the flour. When it’s been whizzed up for you, your body doesn’t need to do so much work. Your blood glu­cose lev­el will spike more quick­ly.

How Can You Make Break­fast Healthy and Quick?

– Find a recipe or a few recipes that work for you and your fam­i­ly.

– Get into a rou­tine.

– Be brave and ditch the packages. (If not, go for whole-grain ce­re­al that include the husk.)

– Get the kids in­volved. Overnight oats is a re­al­ly easy thing for kids to make.

– Add fruit, veg­eta­bles, nuts, and seeds. Yes, veg­eta­bles! There’s no rea­son you can’t eat veg­eta­bles for break­fast!

– Go for whole grains such as spelt, bar­ley, whole oats, quinoa (not re­al­ly a grain but it’s easy to pre­pare.)

Re­mem­ber to Make it Work for Your Fam­i­ly

I love spelt and would eat it every day. Ex­cept I have kids. They won’t touch it. As a hap­py com­pro­mise, we eat oats dur­ing the week in the form of “por­ridge” or “oatmeal”. Rolled oats are halfway be­tween “pro­cessed into flour” and “whole grain”.

We add fruit. I have 2 por­tions of fruit. Plus nuts, seeds, and “de­li­cious good­ies”. (Typ­i­cal­ly sun­flower seeds, lin­seed (aka flaxseed), pump­kin seeds, soaked raw peanuts, and shred­ded co­conut.) No added sug­ar but su­per de­li­cious and sweet thanks to the fruit.

This is our fam­i­ly habit. It’s nor­mal life for us. Easy, rou­tine, and de­li­cious.

quick and easy sugar-free oatmeal recipe made with fresh fruit

Sugar-Free Oatmeal Recipe

If you would like to find more sugar-free oatmeal variations, check out these 10 healthy oatmeal toppings.

This makes 1 serving. Double, triple, or quadruple this recipe to make enough for your family.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats, rolled oats, or whole grain oats (not quick oats)
  • 1 cup of water or milk (or milk substitute)
  • 2 portions of fruit (a portion is 1 piece of fruit such as an apple, peach, or banana or 1/2 cup of berries.)
  • 1 tablespoon seeds or shredded coconut

Directions:

  1. Add the oats to a pan. Stir in the water.
  2. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. cooked oatmeal in a red pot
  3. Remove from heat.
  4. Spoon the oatmeal into a bowl. Stir in diced fruit, berries, and any other desired toppings.

My kids don’t think of them­selves as “healthy eaters” but I know they have a healthy break­fast habit that they’ll car­ry for­ward into their adult lives. Sign up here to receive a list of fiber-rich foods to help you (and your family) eat 30 grams of fiber a day.

Printable Recipe for Sugar-Free Oatmeal

easy sugar-free oatmeal recipe with fresh fruit
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5 from 1 vote

Sugar-Free Oatmeal Recipe

This makes 1 serving. Double, triple, or quadruple this recipe to make enough for your family.
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Keyword no-sugar oatmeal recipe, sugar-free oatmeal recipe
Prep Time 2 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 12 minutes
Servings 1
Author Editor

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats rolled oats, or whole grain oats (not quick oats)
  • 1 cup of water or milk or milk substitute
  • 2 portions of fruit a portion is 1 piece of fruit such as an apple, peach, or banana or 1/2 cup of berries.
  • 1 tablespoon seeds or shredded coconut

Instructions

  • Add the oats to a pan. Stir in the water.
  • Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • Remove from heat.
  • Spoon the oatmeal into a bowl. Stir in diced fruit, berries, and any other desired toppings.

Dr. Or­lena trained as a pe­di­atric doc­tor and now works as a health coach. She teach­es busy mums how to cre­ate healthy habits they love so they can lead a healthy life, feel amaz­ing and be con­fi­dent know­ing their kids are grow­ing up with healthy habits. She hosts a week­ly pod­cast “Fit and Fab­u­lous at 40 and Be­yond” to in­spire you to en­joy your health­i­est and fittest life.

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Comments

  1. Judee says

    September 8, 2021 at 5:34 am

    5 stars
    I agree that a habit makes things much easier. I too eat oatmeal every morning for hopefully good health but I add some flax seeds and turmeric to mine. I love the idea of overnight oats..

    Reply

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Welcome. I'm Alea!

On Premeditated Leftovers I share simple recipes made with whole foods, practical shopping tips, time saving techniques, and meal planning strategies. I also share tips for minimizing food waste, so more of the food that is purchased ends up on the table.

While volunteering as a budget counselor, I realized that food is the element of most people’s budgets where they have the greatest control. I set out to develop low-cost recipes from scratch to prove it’s possible to create delicious meals on a limited budget. Eating well while spending less is about more than just creating recipes using inexpensive ingredients; it’s about creatively combining ingredients so you don’t feel deprived and are inspired to stick to your budget.

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