Breakfast

   

      Yes, moms all across the ages have been saying it for years: "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day."  And they are right.  Let's take a look at the first meal of the day.
     First of all, the very name can teach us a lot.  Breakfast comes from "break the fast".  You have been ( or should have been) sleeping all night.  Your body has been on a fast (unless you are a midnight snacker!).  Your metabolism has slowed down significantly.  When you get up, your body is hungry and needs some nourishment.  Breakfast is the fuel that your body needs to get going and make it through the day.  It awakens your brain as well!  Breakfast helps to curb your hunger and keeps you from binge eating throughout the day.  It has been proven that kids do better in school when they have eaten a good breakfast. 
     The key word in the above paragraph is "good".  Let's investigate some of the common breakfast foods that we often eat.  Walk down your local grocery store's cereal aisle and you are overwhelmed with colors and kinds and flavors.  Have you ever noticed that the junkiest cereals are the cheapest?  As a health conscious and budget conscious shopper, that fact alone drives me nuts.  Why are the cereals that go through the most processing and have the most ingredients in them and are advertised the most have the lowest price?  Supply and demand  my dear, supply and demand.  There is more demand for the colorful, sugar infested foods and so the ones that are the healthiest cost the most.  Argh.  And then there are the pop tarts.  These have become staple in the American diet.  A dry chunk of goo and cardboard, supposedly loaded with 11 essential vitamins and minerals, that you just pop into your toaster and you are ready to go!?!?  Sugar has become the staple ingredient of breakfast foods.  We all think sweet when we want breakfast.  Yet, sugar is the worst thing you can put in a body that has been fasting.

     Do you know how to read sugar content in foods?  It's pretty easy.  Look at the nutrition facts on a package.  Near the bottom you will see "sugars" and an amount in grams.  Divide that number by 5 and that will tell you how many teaspoons of sugar are in one serving of that particular item.  Notice the following picture:

     19 grams of sugar calculates to about 4 teaspoons of sugar.  Have you guessed what these "nutrition" facts are for??  Yes, pop tarts.  My husband is addicted.  I can tell my kids what to eat, but I can't tell him!  So, for each  pastry, there are 4 teaspoons of sugar.  Of course, Kellogg's puts them 2 in a package so you think that 2 is a serving.  So in reality you are getting more like 10 teaspoons of sugar!!  Wow.  Pay attention next time you buy something to the serving size on a common food you eat.  Usually they give a small portion size so the nutrition facts look better.  Deceptive!
     Eating sugar for breakfast makes you feel energetic at first and then drops your energy level quickly.  Sugar is one of the foods that digests the fastest, so you feel its effects quickly and then feel empty sooner.    A better choice for breakfast foods would be to choose something with more protein that takes longer to digest and stays with you longer. You will feel fuller longer, you won't get that sinking feeling at 10 a.m. and go looking for more sugar to fill you up.  Did you know that white, processed flour and corn and rice also turn to sugar in your system?  Isn't interesting that most popular cereals are  made of these ingredients.   If you must eat something sweet, balance it with an egg or bacon or some REAL whole grain bread.
     Eggs are a perfect breakfast food.  They are full of super protein.  When I eat eggs for breakfast I don't feel hungry again until lunch time.  I fact, I have read of a diet that consists of eating 30 grams of protein for breakfast (about 6 eggs!!), and starting your day full and giving you the boost of energy and fuel that you need.   Many people would lose weight quickly if they followed this plan.
     One of the complaints about breakfast is that you don't feel hungry at that time of the day.  Yes, stress about your day can complicate the feeling of needing food.  You also can stifle the hunger pangs after a certain length of fasting.  Find something you do like.  Change the breakfast menu and eat meat and potatoes, or soup, or a sandwich for breakfast!
     One of my favorite breakfast recipes is the following pancake recipe.  Yes, is has some sugar in it, but the balance comes from the whole wheat, oil and eggs.  No, I don't get up at 5 a.m. to make these. I make them during the day and freeze them (Eggo had the right idea!) and then just pop them in the toaster or microwave for a happy kid's breakfast.  My kids like maple syrup, apple butter, powdered sugar (slight amount! ) and even honey or just butter.  They are super easy to make and a very flexible recipe to shape to your family's needs.

Whole Grain Pancakes
 *Makes approx. a dozen medium sized pancakes.  I cook them in coconut oil  (or butter, or olive oil) on my griddle set at 300.

1 1/2 cups buttermilk (or milk, cream, canned milk, water, juice, yogurt...)
1 egg
2 Tbsp. oil (hint: use the same measuring spoon for the honey and it will slide right out!)
2 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour ( I often add half oat flour, or ground flax for added nutrition)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. soda
2 tsp. baking powder

     Combine all ingredients.  If you like thin pancakes, add more liquid;  add more flour if you like thick pancakes.  Fry in oil or butter (coconut oil seems the best!).   Cool on a cooling rack if you are planning to freeze them.  I freeze them in bags of a dozen (yes, I triple the recipe).


     So, let me encourage you to start your day with a good foundation.  Nothing for breakfast is not good, but a junky breakfast is not good either.  Take the time to think about what you are ingesting and make choices that will help you get through your day feeling more energetic and better about yourself!

Storing up for the future

     If you knew that there was a crisis on the horizon, what would you do?   Think back to 1999.  Did any of you stockpile food and water just in case there was a computer glitch in 2000?   If there were some way to know if there was going to be an economic meltdown in a year, would you do anything about it?   Most of us would start some kind of action plan to start storing up supplies and necessities just in case.  If our favorite snack or cosmetic item or shoe brand were going out of business, we would try our best to find all we could locate to have a stash for future use.  It makes me think of Joseph in Genesis.  He knew about the famine coming and gave a plan to store up so that there would be plenty in the hard times.
     I believe that our bodies do the same thing.  If we are not getting enough of something in our diet, then our body starts "storing" it in different ways and in different areas.  Here are some examples:

*Water: Do you retain water?  Ever had water on the knee?  Most obesity is a majority of water retention.  If overweight people started drinking their 2 liters of water a day, they would see a huge change in  just a short time because they would lose the water that their bodies had been storing up for so long.  I once knew a girl who had been told by her doctor that she was allergic to water.  She was very young, and rather obese as a result. I cannot imagine what that doctor had been thinking.  The human body is made up of over 70% water, how could one be allergic to it???

*Calcium: Have you ever had kidney stones or heel spurs?  The body stores up calcium in these ways.  A doctor will tell you that you have them because you are getting too much calcium.  I doubt that any person living today gets too much calcium.  And, on a side note, if you are taking calcium, TUMS is not a reliable source of calcium.  There are only certain types of calcium that your body will use, and it needs other nutrients in order to use it.  Eating rocks and bones is not a good way to get calcium!

*Fat: Okay, those of you who struggle with weight issues, don't take this to mean that if your body is storing fat, then you should go buy some Krispy Kremes or something.  However, it may mean that you are not getting the right kinds of fat.  Your body needs fat.  Your brain is made of fat.  (Another theory of mine: have you ever seen a fat Alzheimer's patient?  Me neither. Pictures of brain scans of Alzheimer's patients reveal a brain that looks like it had dissolved.) The right kinds of fats (olive oil, coconut oil, animal fats) will help you lose weight!  A great book to read on this subject is Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Mary Enig.

     Most doctors believe that if your body is storing something up, then that means that you are getting too much of that thing.  However, I believe the opposite is true.  You are just storing up for the future, because there is a limited supply of what you need.  Think it over!