Wellness@Work : Five healthy breakfast options to start your day 

By Robert Israel, M.D.
USA Health Integrative Health and Wellness

What can I eat for breakfast? I certainly don’t have time to make a healthy breakfast! I don’t even like breakfast. If I skip breakfast, maybe I can lose weight?    

Does any of this sound familiar?    

For many of us, breakfast is perhaps the one daily meal with the most room to improve. Either because we don’t know what to do, or we don’t think we have time to prepare it, or we think we might benefit by skipping or opting for something “convenient.”    

That could mean we either eat something pre-prepared and highly processed, or we eat food from a gas station or from a fast-food place that comes through the window of our car, or we just don’t eat anything.     

There is ample evidence that those are all options that have negative effects on our health and well-being, and even on how we feel.   

With so many fast, healthy, inexpensive, tasty and variable options, skipping the most important meal of the day shouldn’t be one of them.      

You will want to get all of the macronutrients in your breakfast – fat, protein, and carbs – but the healthy version of each. Fiber is important too. Breakfast is a wonderful opportunity to get the needed fiber in our diets, but almost 80% of us fail to do that daily.     

These options can be tailored to your schedule and your flavor profile, and you can lean towards the ones that make you feel and function best.    

Five-minute breakfast ideas:      

• Overnight steel cut oats with any number of add-ons, such as peanut butter or chia seeds, dried or fresh fruit, avocado, olive oil, and tomatoes, or left over sautéed spinach 
• Smoothies with your choice of Greek yogurt and fruit  
• Greek yogurt with whole-grain cereal, nuts and fruit 
• Whole-wheat toast or English muffin with nut butter and sliced strawberries or blueberries on top 
• Whole-wheat toast or muffin with smoked salmon, cream cheese and sprouts  
• Avocado toast (whole wheat)  

A little longer, but tasty breakfast ideas   

• Eggs poached in quick tomato sauce 
• Omelet with spinach, plus Swiss cheese, mushrooms, black beans or your choice 
• The above options on whole wheat toast 
• The above options with sliced avocadoes and/or sprouts   
• Stone-ground grits with any of the above, or with added eggs and shrimp (left over from the night before)   

These options take a little longer, but the more you practice these dishes, you’ll get more efficient, and I promise you’ll feel better. 

How can you lead a longer, better life? Follow weekly Wellness@Work tips from USA Health Integrative Health and Wellness. We cover ways you can eat better, move better, be more mindful, and find more balance to support your optimal health and well-being. Learn more.