Solid, simple tactics with real food and movement of your body – and your mind – to put you in the health & weight winner’s circle come January.  Part 6 of 10: “Eat a high fiber, slow-burn breakfast”

Holiday food & fitness survival guide tip #6 is eat a substantial, slow burning, satisfying and filling breakfast.

A couple of my favorites are a big steamy bowl of steel cut or old fashioned rolled oats with some flax seed or walnut and fruit piled on top.  This meal has it all:

• 

  This morning’s breakfast: Steel-cut oats, berries, bananas and a sprinkle of walnuts make an ideal ‘slow burn’ breakfast

  slow burning carbohydrate, as opposed to the ‘quick in, quick out’ type you get with pastry or a processed food

• solid plant protein
• essential, healthy fats, the best kind, coming in its whole plant-food package!

The Satiety Index

We’re looking for high nutrition  and satiety with sustenance. Remember  The 3 rules of satiety & why they are critical to your weight loss plan: Becoming naturally thin part. Check out this “Satiety Index” (from S.H.A. Holt, J.C. Brand Miller, P. Petocz, and E. Farmakalidis, “A Satiety Index of Common Foods,” European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, September 1995, pages 675-690.)

All  items on this satiety index are compared to white bread, ranked as “100”.
Each food is rated by how well it satisfied  hunger (per calorie).  Now remember, nutrient density is another important consideration, none of these factors stand alone.  You don’t just want ‘filling’, you want nutritious! Yet look who comes out on top:  Boiled potatoes and oatmeal – both of which are phytonutrient dense as well.

Baked Products
Croissant – 47%
Cake -65%
Doughnuts -68%

Carbohydrate-Rich Foods
White bread -100%
French fries -116%
White pasta -119%
Brown Rice -132%
White rice -138%
Grain bread -154%
WW bread -157%
Brown pasta -188%
Potatoes, boiled -323%

Protein- Rich Foods
Lentils -133%
Cheese- 146%
Eggs -150%
Baked beans- 168%
Beef – 176%

Breakfast Cereals
Special K -116%
Cornflakes – 118%
Honeysmacks – 132%
All-Bran – 151%
Porridge/Oatmeal- 209%

Porridge/oatmeal and potatoes are both powerful ways to stay well-fed from the start of the day.

In a hurry?  On occasion….

I don’t recommend it for every day – we’re meant to chew our food – yet on occasion, if you are running late and it’s going to be an impossibly busy day and you know it’s going to be challenging to get in your greens, a blended salad a la green drink resurrection or high-green smoothie may be just the ticket.  Take it easy on the fruit, maximize the greens, and you’ll optimize this choice.

Bottom line:  Don’t go out the door hungry or unfed.  You’ll just get into trouble.  For more breakfast ideas click here: gusto brekkie.

Just joining us? To catch up with the holiday food & fitness survival guide:

Part 1:  “Be choosy”
Part 2:  “How eating keeps you thin, aka stay well fed
Part 3:  “Eat BEFORE you arrive“
Part 4:  ‘What you have is what you’ll eat”
Part 5:  “How to handle food pushers: Holiday food & fitness survival guide”

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