Healthy Breakfast Options for Starting Your Day

It's the most important meal of the day, but we often don't give it the attention it deserves. This article features healthy breakfast options to ensure you don't miss out on the energy you need to start your day.

Every athlete knows the vital importance of a healthy breakfast. The first meal of the day needs to supply you with all of the nutrients you need. In this article, we’ll offer a few delicious healthy breakfast options that you may not have already tried.

Requirements for a healthy breakfast

Calories

Even if you’re trying to lose weight, keep in mind that breakfast is the one meal to provide the energy you need to perform your daily activities. It’s estimated that breakfast should contain between 20 and 25 percent of your daily caloric intake.

Carbohydrates

This is the perfect time of day to consume the carbohydrates that will be used as an energy source to get your day started. Elsewhere, we’ve discussed the fact that while excessive carbohydrates are unhealthy, eliminating them completely from your diet can be dangerous. This is because the glucose they contain is responsible for “feeding” the brain.

Carbohydrates should make up 50 percent of your daily caloric intake, and breakfast can account for a good part of these. Throughout the day, you’ll burn them, without allowing them to have a negative influence on your health.

Proteins

A healthy breakfast should contain at least 15 percent of your daily recommended proteins. Ideally, you want the kind of high-quality proteins that are contained in milk, eggs, yogurt, cheese (or some derivative), and fish (for example, tuna).

Fats

Fats are also necessary components of a healthy breakfast. These can be found in avocados, oils, nuts, and cheese.

Vitamins and minerals

Both nutrients are highly important to our health and are found in fruits and vegetables, which should form part of a healthy breakfast. Freshly-squeezed fruit juice is a great way of including them in your diet first thing in the morning.

Examples of healthy breakfasts

Now that we’ve seen the components of a healthy breakfast, let’s take a look at some delicious recipes that contain everything you need.

Mediterranean

There are many benefits to a Mediterranean diet, and a classic Mediterranean breakfast ranks among the healthiest options around.

In countries like Spain, it’s common to eat bread with grated tomatoes, seasoned with salt and olive oil. This meal provides carbs, fat and even vitamins, thanks to the tomato and the minerals provided by the salt.

To include proteins, add some Iberian ham, or turkey, tuna, eggs, or any other source of protein. Next, accompany it with some natural orange juice, which provides needed vitamins, and a cup of coffee with milk.

A Danish breakfast

Although Scandinavian countries may not have many signature dishes, their breakfasts are known all over the world. They also provide all the components your body needs to start the day.

These breakfasts usually consist of: a boiled egg, buttered bread, vegetables, orange juice, ham, cheese, and shrimp. Although the ingredients may vary, the breakfasts always include all the needed nutrients.

Then, accompany it with a natural fruit or vegetable juice, or one that combines the two, and a coffee with soy or oat milk. If you want something sweet, you can add a pancake. Remember, you can have carbs in the morning.

Those are our healthy breakfast ideas, but as you know a little imagination in the kitchen goes a long way. Follow the rules we provided at the outset, but remember that you can choose the ingredients you like the best.