Having a healthy routine and habits is a common topic, in which for sure you have heard about the importance of eating a good breakfast before starting the daily routine.
It is common knowledge that it is not recommendable to leave the house in a hurry and only have drunk a cup of coffee. But do we know why?
During the night, our body does not stop working. It is a period during which the body regenerates and restores everything you have used during the previous day. At physical, muscular, and physiological wear and tear as well as at the intellectual level. Therefore, while resting, our body works to repair the different parts that have been worn out during the day to be able to carry out the new activities you will face.
This fact added to the need to provide adequate nutrients to the body and brain - one of the organs that use more glycogen to function - so that they can carry out their activities normally and healthily, making it necessary to eat a balanced and healthy breakfast before going to work or start daily activities.
And is it necessary even if the work is sedentary? Well yes! As we have said, the brain is among the organs that use more glycogen to function properly. This good functioning includes the ability to concentrate, self-control, and the relationship with co-workers, superiors, or clients.
Glycogen, explained simply, is the gasoline that we obtain from food after a whole transformation process, and that helps us have the necessary energy for all our activities.
In this way, if we do not eat breakfast correctly, we will not have enough energy to carry out daily tasks, we will not have the ability to concentrate or it will not be adequate, our relationship with the environment will not be good, and we will have a diminished capacity for self-control.
On the other hand, what will happen to our bodies if we don't have a good breakfast after a night's rest. If, for example, we get up, drink a coffee and go to work without having eaten anything else?
Most likely, in the first hours at work, our performance is low, we feel tired, or little recovered after the night, and the day becomes a mountain for us. On the other hand, we will arrive mid-morning with a big appetite which will be difficult to control. At this time, our body will ask us for fat, and we will be tempted to eat something unhealthy: pastries, a sandwich that is too big, drinking sugary soft drinks, or putting too much sugar in coffee or tea. This intake will reproduce in our body a strong rise in sugar against which our pancreas must act to balance the values and if breakfast has been very copious, we will have the digestive system working at full capacity, deactivating other systems that we need to work with all capacities.
When this sugar spike drops, our body feels weak and vulnerable again and we again lose our ability to concentrate and work in general.
Not eating breakfast properly also benefits the fact of snacking between meals and, generally, not exactly healthy snacks, and in an unbalanced way.
How to make a healthy and balanced breakfast?
That it is said that we have to have a good breakfast does not mean that we have to be typical, but rather that we must provide the body with those nutrients that will offer us the good energy to carry out all the activities in the morning.
Breakfast should be made up of: a piece of fruit or vegetable – the whole piece is better than a juice, even if it is natural – a proportion of carbohydrates either in the form of whole-grain toast, whole-grain cereals without sugar, porridge, etc., protein vegetables, such as soy or oatmeal drink, yogurt, vegetable pâtés, peanut butter, tahini or animal –although it is much better to avoid sausages or restrict them to special days– and a part of hydration either with coffee or infusion.
And mid-morning, for those who are a little hungry, you can make a small snack with a small wholemeal sandwich, a handful of nuts, a sugar-free cereal bar, a piece of fruit, yogurt, and good hydration.
Want to know more? Take a Healthy Habits Test to analyze your routine and get tips and suggestions for improvement!
By Anna Comet i Pascua
