Did you know that a quarter of us skip breakfast once or more in the week? Many Londoners are far too caught up in our own everyday routine to stop, sit down and tuck into a good hearty breakfast to prepare us for the busy day. Some of us may be guilty of preferring to squeeze in some more z’s in the morning rather than make the huge effort to get out of the warm cosy bed and to the cold kitchen. We understand it’s so easy to let breakfast slip out of our daily activities, but it really is your most essential meal of the day. Breakfast is the key to your waking up ritual and to energise your body ready for the day ahead. For this year’s National Breakfast Week it’s time to shake up your wake up and start enjoying the most important part of the day and get back into a healthy routine! We do understand that perhaps quite a few of us are still clinging onto the post-holiday diet, so we’ll try not to get too carried away in our recommendations for spicing up your brekkie this week.
It’s interesting to see how much taking a moment to have something to eat can make such a difference to your upcoming day. Whether at home or on the go, it’s advised to eat breakfast within two hours after waking up, otherwise you are essentially a car running on no fuel! Of course, depending on age and how active you are in your everyday life, particularly at work where you spend most hours in the day, everybody’s energy levels and needs vary. After a night’s rest, however, we should always refuel our bodies in the morning and if you’re in need of a super energy boost to jump start your day, it’s advised to try a protein-rich breakfast that you can mix up however you like. You can find delicious recipes such as fruit waffles, quinoa yoghurt, smoothies of all kinds and even a BLT that are a healthy and protein-filled to keep you going until lunch time. Not only this, but these kind of breakfast ideas are guaranteed to provide the vital nutrients your body needs such as calcium, fibre and iron that you may not be able to compensate for later on in the day.
Many studies have concluded that breakfast is the key to improved cognitive function in our day-to-day activities. The foods that we enjoy in the morning restore the levels of glucose in the body needed for the brain to wake up out of bed-mode and be ready to concentrate… which means that there actually is such a thing as ‘brain food’. The brain is the most metabolically active organ and thus it relies on the foods we eat to help it grow and function to its best. Breakfast skippers would as a result have a lower blood glucose level, potentially affecting immediate concentration and even long-term brain development. It has even been investigated to find out whether breakfast can have a positive impact on a child’s academic performance. Interestingly, an experiment showed that breakfast-eating kids performed better on immediate recall tests than those who skipped, possibly suggesting that having a decent breakfast in the morning can significantly help cognitive and learning ability. Even though all foods can influence our brain function, perhaps try dishes such as oatmeal, whole grain cereal, toast with almond butter or an English muffin topped with scrambled egg, as these kinds of food have shown to contain particular ingredients that keep our brain cells healthy.
Finally, another very significant fact to consider before you think about missing breakfast is that the morning meal has been shown to improve your long-term health and prevent obesity and illnesses such as high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. So, believe us when we say that breakfast really is the most important meal of the day! Try shaking up your wake up this National Breakfast Week and see if you can start to find the spare minutes in the early hours to be kind to your mind and body. And, don’t forget to enjoy it!
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