Your Microbiome Breakfast Guide
Did you know that you are more BACTERIA than Human?? Yes, your human cells are outnumbered 100:10 by Bacteria — It’s called your GUT MICROBIOME and it just LOVES a fibre filled breakfast!
At a loss where to start?
Constantly asking yourself…“What am I going to eat for breakfast?”
Not anymore… I’m going to show you how you can start with some simple delicious breakfasts, but first find out WHY it’s so important…
Eat Breakfast And Shine All Day
What have YOU had for breakfast this past week? Do you fall into one of these 3 common categories?
Skip Brekky or just have coffee – no food?
Standard Standard Australian (American) Diet (SAD) breakfast – packaged cereals low in nutrients, high in sugar, low in fibre?
On the run – takeaway muffin?
Mono Eat – eat the same breakfast day in and day out?
Read on – as I explain why none of these will help you get to your health goals…
1. SKIPPING BREKKY – CAN MAKE YOU SLUGGISH AND REACH FOR SIMPLE-CARBS MID-MORNING (CAUSING HAVOC)…
When you’re sleeping, the body goes into repair mode, not needing a lot of energy to perform its functions – but as soon as you rise, the body requires nutrients for energy. Now don’t get me wrong, you don’t have to eat first thing… in fact I don’t eat breakfast until about 10am most days.
But the issue is… when you MISS breakfast you can get hungry and then your first go to for the day is coffee and a muffin.
Breakfast is about providing the body with nutrients to nourish the body’s engine (metabolism) and to feed the Gut Microbiome. Because when you feed IT, it thrives and when IT thrives YOU thrive.
Now you may be thinking, if you skip breakfast it will help with weight reduction – but this couldn’t be further from the truth! Being hungry wreaks havoc on blood sugar levels causing you to go in search of some fast-burn carbs to give you energy. You know, the muffin, the cake, the fund-raising chocolates at work.
IN FACT, RECENT EPIDEMIOLOGY* STUDIES REVEAL THAT HAVING BREAKFAST MAY LOWER RISK OF METABOLIC DISORDERS SUCH AS WEIGHT GAIN AND LETHARGY.
2. EAT S.A.D AND BE SAD…
When thinking of the ‘Standard Australian Diet’ [SAD] namely breakfast, what do you imagine on the plate? Cereal with milk, Toast and Jam, Eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, syrup, coffee and tea?
Everything listed above is indeed SAD, clearly void of any vibrant colours — basically Brown, beige, grey, white – Drab, Dull and Lifeless. Unlike the Rainbow of colours in the plant-based world of fruit, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds etc… that are Energizing, Happy, Cheerful and Uplifting.
Beginning your day with a SAD breakfast is a recipe for a dull, lifeless day filled with energy slumps. ‘Eat colour, look colourful’ with ‘a healthy vibrant complexion’ versus someone looking ‘pale and grey’. YOU really are what you eat! Want to radiate like a rainbow – eat like one!
3. ON THE RUN – CONVENIENCE OVER NUTRITION…
Busy has become social norm for ‘having no time for ourselves’ – especially not stopping to take time to do one of the most fundamental necessities of life – eating, but eating well.
When rushed in a hurry and busy, convenient reigns over quality and can lead to purchasing processed and/or packaged foods. Since when did EATING become so inconvenient? The irony I see SO often… …Rushing to get out of the house in the morning, then… Spending time in line at the coffee shop, drive-through etc. Can you see the irony too? More time is spent waiting for food and its certainly far more expensive than eating at home. Not to mention the detrimental effect on your digestion.
You see, there are key triggers that happen at each stage of the digestive process that is paramount in the health of the body, immune system and prevention of disease. Digestion relies on a series of feedback signals that go back and forth from the brain to the stomach; with each phase of digestion triggering the next one. If one of the phases is not sufficient then it reduces the activity of the next phase, greatly hindering digestion.
One of the most important phases that we miss out on when we are in a rush is the LOOK AT, SMELL AND TASTE YOUR FOOD phase. This essentially starts the production of saliva which contains 2 enzymes – Salivary amylase to break down carbohydrates and Lingual lipase to initiate the first stage of fat digestion. These enzymes also attack bacteria so it doesn’t get a chance to get into your stomach. This phase also starts the production of digestive juices in the stomach through a feedback loop with the brain. This then sets o the next phase and the next – 5 phases in total. Rushing really means convenience over nutrition.
4. MONO EATING – SAME BREKKY DAY IN AND DAY OUT…
What’s wrong with this? Well, it’s not nutritionally sound long term and the Gut Microbiome needs a variety of Fibre sources – not just a few types to flourish. A because your Biome is basically the foundation of your health, if you don’t look after it, it can’t look after you! Anyway I know you want the recipes so if you want more info on MONO eating head to the blog I wrote HERE .
A full-week of Microbiome-Boosting Breakfasts
Day 1: Overnight Oats… Before bed mix 1 cup homemade nut or seed milk with ½ cup organic oats. Mix, cover put in fridge. In the morning, add berries or sliced bananas or cacao nibs. Flavour your overnight oats by adding raspberries, cacao, mango etc when mixing your oats and nut-mill.
Day 2: Green Smoothie In Blender… add 1 unripe banana, 1 celery stick, 1 cup spinach, 1 cup pineapple, handful of mint, 1/2 cup cucumber, 1 apple and then blitz until smooth.
Day 3: Chia Pudding… Before bed, mix 1 can coconut milk (400g) with ⅓ cup chia seeds in a bowl. Stir well. Portion into 4 breakfast cups. Serve topped with chopped nuts/seeds, fruit or a drizzle of raw unprocessed honey. .
Day 4: Sprouted Smashed Avo with toasted sprouted grain bread… Smash ½ avocado in a bowl with a squeeze of lime and black pepper. Toast bread, add smashed avo then top with alfalfa , broccoli or snow pea sprouts. Or load it up with sliced tomatoes and cucumber.
Day 5: Buckwheat Porridge… Before bed. Soak ½ cup buckwheat in water, cover and set aside on counter. In the morning rinse very well in a sieve. Then put in a blender with 1 cup homemade nut or seed milk and blitz until smooth. Top with berries, banana slices, coconut, walnuts if desired and drizzle of raw unprocessed honey.
Day 6: Tofu Scramble… Finely chop 1 small capsicum and 1 small red onion sauté in fry pan until tender. Add 300g firm organic non-GMO Tofu (crumble with your hands when adding).Then add ¼ tsp turmeric, ½ tsp of cumin and any other spices you desire - keep stirring until completely heated through. Serve on toasted sprouted grain bread.
Day 7: Smoothie Bowl… Before bed, freeze 2 peeled unripe bananas. In the morning, add to blender frozen bananas, ½ cup coconut water and 1 cup of frozen berries (any type) and blend on high. It should be thicker than a smoothie. Spoon into a bowl and top with chia seeds, nuts/seeds, coconut shavings, hemp seeds… as desired.
I hope this helps… And… if you want to know more about how to IMPROVE your health significantly then click HERE to find out more about my Gut Health Programs … OR… if you want to eat your way back to health — one meal at a time — check out my Gut Health Recipe Compendium. Nat xx