Thursday, October 7, 2010

Healthy Breakfasts – Part II – Foods to Avoid

Previously I described how breakfast is the most important meal of the day and how unfortunately it is a meal that many people tend to skip or short change due to our busy lifestyles. Breakfast sets the stage for the day and studies show that “breakfast skippers” are often over weight and/or lack the energy to power them through the day.  The article included some suggestions for healthy breakfasts.  For those of you who missed that article, it is available in its entirety at my blog http://thedickdiet.blogspot.com/2010/10/start-your-day-with-healthy-breakfast.html.

I closed the article with a question, “What’s missing?”  There was one specific answer I was looking for which several of you correctly identified.  I’d like to share that information with you.  The specific “food” I was looking for was…cold cereal.  I’m sure that may come as a surprise to many of you.  Want an even bigger surprise – the “whole grain” versions that are now being sold to us as “healthier” may actually be even worse for us!  Let me explain.

I’ll start with the basics.  Cereals are made from grains.  Grains are a carbohydrate.  Carbohydrates are essentially sugar.  We can call them other things, but at the end of the day, when our body finishes its processing, they are sugar.  There is a clever way to know how much sugar you are eating.  There is approximately one teaspoon of sugar per four grams of a carbohydrate.  So, if you see on the food label that one serving (and are you eating just one serving?) contains 20 grams of carbohydrate, you are eating the equivalent of five teaspoons of sugar. 

Cereals are made from refined or processed grains.  We’ve talked about this before.  The most nutritious parts of a grain are the germ and the bran.  These are removed during processing to allow for greater shelf life.  The current trend in marketing is to promote “whole grain” cereal.  Well, there’s a little spin on that as well.  This does not mean all the grains in the cereal are whole, it only means that the main ingredient (that with the largest percentage) is a “whole grain.”  Therefore, those that are labeled “whole grain” include a substantial amount of processed grains. 

Let’s look at some examples.  Here are the ingredients in Cheerios:  Whole Grain Oats, Modified Corn Starch, Sugar, Oat Bran, Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Oat Fiber, Tripotassium Phosphate, Corn Starch, Wheat Starch, Vitamin E (Mixed Tocopherols) Added to Preserve Freshness.  Each serving has 20 grams of carbohydrate.  If you break this down – there are three ingredients – sugar (the grains and the starches), salt, and preservatives.  In each serving you get five teaspoons of sugar.  What about Special K? You’ll see it is not so “special”.  It has 22 grams of carbohydrate per serving from: Rice, Wheat Gluten, Sugar, Defatted Wheat Germ, Salt, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Dried Whey, Malt Flavoring, and Calcium Caseinate.  And Frosted Flakes?  I’ll spare you the ingredients, but let you know it has 27 grams of carbohydrate per serving – almost seven teaspoons of sugar!

What about the “healthy” whole grain cereals.  In order to get all the fancy sizes and shapes all cereals go through extensive processing based on high heat and high pressure.  These processes destroy the nutrients.  With whole grains it may be even worse.  Whole grains still contain the proteins and polyunsaturated fats that are in the bran and germ.  So, when we eat whole grain cereals, we are not only consuming the sugar from the carbohydrate, but damaged fats and proteins from the high heat and pressure processing.  Damaged fats create free radicals which cause damage to our cells.

As a side note, one of the more popular brands of the “healthy” cereals is Kashi.  One serving of Kashi Go-Lean Crunch contains 36 grams of carbohydrates – that’s nine teaspoons of sugar if anyone is counting!  It also contains some other not so healthy stuff as well.

One reader pointed out another item I did not mention – orange juice.  Here’s why – one eight ounce glass has 26 grams of carbohydrate – six and a half teaspoons of sugar. 

A little more food for thought one serving of skim milk has 13 grams of carbohydrate – another three plus teaspoons of sugar.

Do the math – this “healthy” breakfast of cereal, skim milk, and orange juice can actually be at least fourteen teaspoons of sugar!  Not a good way to start the day.

Bernard Rosen, PhD is a Nutrition Consultant and Educator.   His office is in Thiensville, WI.  To learn more or to schedule an appointment, call (262) 389-9907, e-mail bernie@brwellness.com or go to www.brwellness.com.

Start Your Day with a Healthy Breakfast

I’m sure you’ve heard it before.  “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”  “Don’t skip your breakfast.” Or the old adage, “Eat breakfast like a King and supper like a pauper.”  But are you doing it?  And if not, why not?

It is true – breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  It sets the pace.  A healthy breakfast gets the body’s metabolism up and running.  Eating an unhealthy breakfast or skipping it and you are more likely to suddenly get hungry and grab quick things that are unhealthy (donuts and candy) or eat extra food at lunch to make up for missing breakfast.  It has been documented that breakfast skippers notoriously struggle to lose weight.

Many people think eating less or skipping meals helps them lose weight.  Not always.  The body adapts.  If it believes it is starving it will cut back metabolism to conserve energy.  This is the main reason 95% of diets ultimately fail.  Once people are off the diet they go back to how they used to eat, but their metabolism has slowed down.  The result is adding the pounds right back on.

It is important to eat regular meals and if necessary snacks evenly throughout the day.  This keeps blood sugar levels more constant providing you balanced energy through the day.  With fewer blood sugar spikes you will experience fewer food cravings. 

Another pitfall to proper eating is having a large dinner or snacking late at night.  What happens?  The food is not digested well.  When you are sleeping, your body is not thinking about digestion and a lot of food complicates the process even more.  Poor digestion is at the root of many ailments – such as acid reflux, gas, bloating, constipation, and diarrhea.  Plus, you are more likely to wake up feeling full and not be hungry for breakfast starting the whole cycle over again.  As a general rule it is best not to eat within three hours of going to sleep.

Here’s some examples of my favorite healthy breakfasts.  Notice that all the choices have protein and healthy fat in the meal.  Vary your breakfast so it does not become routine and boring.

1.      Breakfast shake – Use a high quality protein powder made from whey and/or brown rice.  Do not use soy protein powders.  My favorite is SP Complete from Standard Process.  To make the shake even healthier add any or all of the following:  plain whole fat yogurt or kefir, banana, fresh or frozen berries (blueberries, strawberries, or raspberries), flax seed oil or ground flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and almonds. If you’d like an antioxidant boost and struggle to get in all your vegetables during the day I’d recommend adding in a green or red powder such as Designs for Health Paleo products.
2.      Some combination of: Yogurt or kefir with fresh or frozen fruit, ground flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds.  Optional: sprinkle Designs for Health Paleo products, one teaspoon of organic maple syrup, or Stevia to sweeten.
3.      Eggs – hard boiled is best followed by soft boiled or poached.  Fried and scrambled are also options but do so at a low temperature and use organic coconut oil, butter, or ghee.  You can include vegetables as a side dish or as part of an omelet.  I like to sauté leafy green vegetables such as spinach, kale, or chard with onions in coconut oil.  Feel free to do eggs 2-3 times per week.
4.      Whole grain (please use 100% whole grain products) or sprouted bread toast with butter, ghee, organic natural peanut butter, almond butter, or humus.  Limit to 1-2 times per week.
5.      If you are really hungry and don’t plan on a mid morning snack you can do a combination of 3 and 4.
6.      Steel cut oatmeal, also called Irish Style. These are the real whole oats.  You can also add raisins, nuts, seeds, and after cooking the Paleo products, organic maple syrup, or Stevia to sweeten.  A cooking tip: On the box it will say to cook for 30 minutes, however if you soak the oats over night in water and even a little yogurt they will cook in about 10 minutes.  I’d limit this to 1-2 times per week also.

Now that you’ve read through my suggestions for a healthy breakfast, what do you notice is missing?  If you are curious I invite you to give me a call or send an e-mail to find out why I have not included them!

Bernard Rosen, PhD is a Nutrition Consultant and Educator.   His office is in Thiensville, WI.  To learn more or to schedule an appointment, call (262) 389-9907, e-mail bernie@brwellness.com or go to www.brwellness.com.