Breakfast of Champions- What to Eat, What to Avoid like the Plague

If you were anything like me as a kid you used to have competitions with your siblings about how many Weetbix you could fit in for breakfast (with sugar on top), or you’d compare your ‘guns’ after you wolfed down a bowl of ‘iron man food’ (Nutrigrain) and pretend you were a champion athlete. If I wasn’t having that for breakfast it was my favourite sultana bran, tinned spaghetti jaffles on white bread, turkish toast with ‘spreadable’ butter or sometimes we’d even get cocoa pops. Always with a glass of apple juice or a few massive heaped spoons of Milo and a big glass of milk (at least I didn’t drink that skim shit, just the pastuerised, homogenised, commercial full cream stuff, still, gross!)

Many of these cereals may even have the Heart Foundation Tick, (which doesn’t mean it’s healthy by any means, thus the reason for my petition against them). All are marketed as providing you and your children with all the energy and nutrition they need for a healthy start to the day. But are cereals and white bread really a healthy choice, worse still could they be damaging you and your children’s health?

Fuck that ^ way better options around.

Most if not all cereals on the supermarket shelf are complete and utter crap. Don’t be fooled by their dazzling health claims of ‘low fat’ ‘heart healthy’ ‘lowering cholesterol reabsorption’ ‘all the protein and energy you need’ ‘full of vitamins and nutrients’. Deceptive marketing at its best.

By now if you are a regular reader you should know what I think of low fat, lowering cholesterol etc, if not have a browse of some of my other posts. This is a great post to improve your understanding of why processed cereals are absolutely awful for your health. Here is an excerpt.

“In his book Fighting the Food Giants, biochemist Paul Stitt describes the extrusion process, which treats the grains with very high heat and pressure, and notes that the processing destroys much of their nutrients. It denatures the fatty acids; it even destroys the synthetic vitamins that are added at the end of the process. The amino acid lysine, a crucial nutrient, is especially damaged by the extrusion process.”

Why you would want synthetic, fortified vitamins in your life anyway is beyond me, they are completely useless to a human body. We can’t recognise that rubbish and even if some are not destroyed in the process they will not be absorbed or utilised by us. Many are actually quite toxic. Plus many vitamins are FAT SOLUBLE so if you are eating that fortified Vit D shit with skim milk again you are rendering the whole situation completely useless. Sorry bout that. Don’t panic. There are so many far more delicious, nutritious options awaiting you!!

A quick tip, always ignore the nutrition label which will go on about low fat, carbs etc etc. Take a look directly at the ingredients. You will generally find some sort of clusterfuck of non food rubbish such as..

Rice (25%), sugar, wheat bran (15%), maize flour, wheat gluten, whole wheat (6%), oat fibre, wheat flour, minerals (calcium carbonate, iron, zinc oxide), salt, molasses, flavour, barley malt extract, rosemary extract, vitamins (vitamin E, niacin, vitamin B6, riboflavin, thiamin, folate). (Special K).

Note second ingredient- sugar, and that’s pretty much how it is for most of these cereals, absolutely loaded with the stuff.

Here are some more ingredient labels from super popular cereals, bars and those breakfast drinks to get you thinking!

Don’t even think about store bought bread with margarine, spreadable butter or some kind of other rubbish spread either. Check out this tick approved loaf. What a joke!

Moving onto happier times and healthier alternatives.

Bacon and eggs. Boom. Breakfast done. Delicious. There are so many ways you can do it too. I always buy Biodynamic eggs from the organic farmers markets or at least aim for organic ones and bacon from my local organic butcher- have a google I’m sure you will find one in your area, otherwise look for organic, online meat delivery- there are loads of options these days. The nutritional value is FAR superior, they taste way better and obviously the chickens/animals have a much happier life too. Or get some chickens in your backyard. Eggs are awesome. Have as many as you want every day. Poach them, scramble them, fry them in butter, or use the yolks in smoothies. Perfect breakfast food, seriously! Here’s an interesting article on eggs http://bodyecology.com/articles/whats-really-in-your-eggs.php# and this one has some great info on fats and eggs and nourishing children including great recipes http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/nourishing-a-growing-baby.

I use the simple recipes in the Thermomix Everyday Cookbook for omelette, or poached eggs and also make the hollandaise sauce and often have that with some steamed veg (done in the Thermomix varoma). Otherwise just google simple egg recipes. You’ll find loads :) ignore any with low fat weird rubbish in them, if it calls for cheese use full fat organic and full fat pure cream and butter :) yummy healthy good fats!!

Smoothie. No don’t blend some low fat milk with some shit denatured protein powder and call it a day lol. Here’s my recipe http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/recipes/real-mango-protein-smoothie/108970 I have also taken to putting some Peace, Love & Vegetables coconut kefir in there too, a tablespoon or two of coconut cream and some Paris Creek Natural Yoghurt- ingredients whole milk and cultures, no milk solids, sugar or any other strange things.

Left overs!! Make a delicious nutritious dinner, veggies, meat, all that good stuff and then heat some up in the morning. NOT IN A MICROWAVE. On a stove top or in a Thermomix :)

If you like having bread or toast try this banana bread recipe or raisin bread recipe instead, grain free, naturally sweetened and the banana bread is PACKED with protein, lather on some butter for some good fat in there too. http://www.wholefoodsimply.com/it-makes-a-meal-protein-packed-banana-bread/ http://www.wholefoodsimply.com/raisin-bread/.

If you truly love your cereal and are having trouble deviating from that and you can tolerate grains ok try some organic, steel cut oats. Soak them overnight and cook on the stove or in the Thermomix, serve with raw milk, Paris creek natural yoghurt and maybe some fruit on top too :)

There are also some great cereal options out there too. I’m allergic to most nuts and can’t handle grains or harsh fibre (healing my gut) so they’re not for me but if you can tolerate them they make great alternatives when trying for better options.

Norridge is an option, made of the following. You can find it here. “Norridge is packed full of nuts, seeds and fruit and entirely grain free making it  not only super tasty but digestion friendly as well. Taking the age old principals of paleo and creating breakfast the new way.”

There is also The Muesli. Emma the maker of the Muesli sent me this cracker of an email and sent us up some cereal to try. Unfortunately again I’m very allergic to nuts but my other half loves it when he doesn’t have time for a big fry up :)

“The Muesli – but the whole reason I even made it in the first place was because it was impossible to find anything on the shelves that wasn’t chockers with sugar!  (not to mention roasted in canola oil!)  You can count on one hand the breakfast cereal products that  carry a Sugar Free message or are able to boast it!

 We have a beautiful, premium Australian made and owned product that is expensive due to its makeup of 50% raw nuts and seeds, which has a nutritional profile like nothing else with just 1.6% sugars occurring naturally from the 11 ingredients – and with it a really important message about why a product such as The Muesli is what the consumers need to be looking for.  (themuesli.com.au)

I‘ve developed the message that I’m working with – with a view to taking on the Heart Foundation Tick. (I also ‘love’ the Low GI tick and conflict of interest that goes with it!!!)

As you so eloquently state in all of your writings – as a society, not only are we misled into believing everything they advertise at us or write on their boxes – but we are completely confused by the messaging that the likes of the Heart Foundation, dieticians & nutritionists continue to disseminate.

It’s my simple premise that if we did nothing more complicated that turn a packet over and read One Line only on the nutrition panel – SUGARS – if they’re more than 5g/100g (5%) – Move On, we would see an immediate impact on the obesity rates as well as the epidemics of diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes, liver disease, kidney disease…..HEART DISEASE, but I know you know this!

 I call it The One Line Rule and whilst I acknowledge it isn’t completely failsafe (for the veg & seed oils added), it really would rule out, dare I say, the majority of bad processed foods.   It also resonates brilliantly with kids/teens and gives them a realistic focus that is easy and very revealing, for them to follow.

 I think that to provide a simple rule for people to follow must be a start towards the answer to all this confusion.  We have to start somewhere.”

So true :)

So anyway, get some real food in ya for breakfast. There are loads more options as well. Remember if it grows in the ground or it moves around eat it, aim for as close to nature as possible. If you’re great grand mother would not have recognised it as a food as a young child, put that shit back. Enjoy!!