Eating Breakfast Helps With Weight Loss and 3 Delicious Alkalising Breakfast Recipes

While there are some recent dissenters, the vast majority of researchers have discovered that eating breakfast helps maintain healthy body weight, a higher activity level and less hunger throughout the day, less snacking, and lower scores on the main markers of metabolic disease.

The catch? It has to be a healthy breakfast, ruling out most foods that typical families consume during the rush to school and work.

• In 2008, Mark Pereira at the University of Minnesota published the results of a study in which researchers followed 2,216 teenagers for five years and found that those who ate breakfast every day put on the least amount of weight. They controlled for activity level, age, socioeconomic status, race, and breakfast type to ensure that none of these factors caused the outcome. While they found breakfast type to be important for weight loss, the other factors were irrelevant. According to them, the best breakfast contains fibre.

• A 1992 study that put 52 moderately obese women on the diet that either included or excluded breakfast also found that breakfast eaters lost more weight than breakfast skippers.

• A 2012 literature review of 153 articles concluded that most studies backed the conclusion that breakfast eaters maintain a healthier body weight than breakfast skippers, but that this effect was small.

• In 2013, Pereira examined the records of 3,598 participants from the community-based Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults. These records stretched over an 18 year period and included eating habits, lifestyle habits, and medical examinations. The researchers concluded that those who ate a daily breakfast put on 1.9 kilograms less, and that those who often skipped breakfast had higher rates of abdominal obesity, obesity, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes.

• Some Harvard researchers reached the same conclusion in 2012 in a study that examined the medical and lifestyle records of 29,206 adult men. Their review found that breakfast eaters were 20 per cent less likely to suffer from type 2 diabetes than breakfast eaters.

• One of the reasons why breakfast eaters may manage their weight better is because they are not as hungry and prone to unhealthy snacking as breakfast skippers are. Research participants have admitted to researchers that they are much hungrier after skipping breakfast. The same participants also reported suffering from low motivation and mood some hours after a large breakfast, however, for which large snacking was the only solution. This seems to suggest that we should eat breakfast to reduce snacking, but we should ensure that the breakfast is not so large and unhealthy that it spikes our blood sugar to set us up for a later slump.

• A 2012 study found that protein-rich breakfasts control hunger best throughout the day.

• Other researchers found that people who ate a light breakfast were the hungriest and most prone to snacking, followed by those who ate a breakfast high in soluble fibre, followed by those who ate a breakfast rich in insoluble fibre.

Several studies have concluded that breakfast eaters are physically more active than breakfast skippers throughout the day, quite possibly because they feel more energetic. This can also have a positive effect on healthy weight maintenance.

The healthiest breakfast is one that contains protein, unrefined fibre rich carbohydrates, and fat; carbohydrates for the energy, protein for the muscles development, and both protein and fat to slow the digestion of the carbohydrates to give you more energy over a longer period and to reduce fat storage.

This is one of the easiest and most nutritious breakfasts you can feed your family. One cup of oatmeal contains approximately six grams of fat, 54 grams of carbs, and 10 grams of protein. Unsweetened apple juice will add more carbs. Almond, coconut, and cashew milk will add protein. Chopped unsalted almonds, cashew nuts, and sesame seeds will add more protein and fat. Cinnamon is good for taste and stevia can add some sweetness without adding calories.

Other alkaline protein rich whole grains that make good breakfasts are millet, amaranth, and quinoa. This breakfast will gradually release glucose into the bloodstream and will digest slowly to give you energy for a few hours.

This is nowhere near as mad as it sounds. You can either mix the batter the previous evening and leave it in the fridge for quick baking in the morning, or you can bake the muffins the previous evening for a good grab-and-run breakfast. For 12 muffins, mix:

• 2 cups all-purpose organic gluten-free flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup grated organic carrots
• 1 cup mashed organic courgette or butternut squash
• 1 unpeeled, cored, and grated organic apple
• 1/4 cup unsweetened organic applesauce or home-made apple juice
• 1/2 cup organic stevia
• 1/2 cup organic coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon organic vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened coconut
• 2 teaspoons ground organic cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped organic nuts and/or seeds of your choice
• 1/2 cup organic raisins if you need more sweetness

Bake them for around 25 minutes in an oven pre-heated to 180 degrees centigrade. The oil, nuts, and flour supply the protein and fat, while the vegetables, fruit, and flour supply the fibrous and filling carbohydrates.

Again, mix the batter the previous evening and refrigerate it overnight. Most waffle irons take less than five minutes to make the waffles. Try to opt for a waffle iron that is not coated with toxic non-stick teflon. For four waffles, mix:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour
• 1/2 cup oats
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 cup stevia
• 1 2 cup fresh blueberries
• 2 cups soy, almond or hemp milk
• 1/4 cup melted coconut or palm oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

The milk, oil, flour and oats contribute the fat and protein. The fruit, flour, and oats provide the fibrous carbohydrates. All the ingredients keep it alkaline, while the lemon juice skyrockets its alkalinity.

If you don't have the time to make these delicious recipes, try our Maximum Vibrance which is quick and easy to prepare by mixing one or two scoops into any liquid of your choice. Two scoops will give you all the nutrients you need to keep you going until dinner time.

Breakfast will keep your weight under control only if you ensure the breakfast is healthy, filling, and balanced.

If you add a good exercise program, and make sure the rest of your meals throughout the day are healthy, you will give yourself the best chance to maintain a healthy weight throughout your entire life.