In celebrating the final day of #BreakfastWeek, I’ve gathered up all the new intriguing information that has been floating about and thought it would be great to post something in celebration of our most important meal of the day!
My journey to a healthier breakfast has taken a long long time – even during this week I found out things I’d never heard of and had fallen for! When I was younger, I always woke up to a big bowl of cereal and milk – normally something from the supermarket, with chocolate cereals being weekend treats. In reality, the majority of these cereals contain surprising amounts of sugar, even without the chocolate. Then, when moving away to University, I started on the path of faster options – something I could grab before rushing to my morning lectures. This usually consisted of cereal bars, or shop-bought smoothies. What I didn’t realise, is that these are even worse than the cereals I was eating as a kid!
Despite the claims of no added sugar, and all natural ingredients (a term that was debunked a while back), my two ex-favourites both had the same amount of sugar as a can of coke! Innocent’s Strawberry & Banana Smoothie has 26g of sugar per 250ml, and Naked’s Blue Machine Smoothie has 29g of sugar per 240ml, almost the same as the 27g of sugar in 250ml of Coca-Cola. Horrifying! What I learnt this week, was that even moving away from sugary smoothies, you can get into quite a trap with juices from concentrate. If you’re a big fan of orange juice, you’d probably be surprised to know that one serving of orange juice per day over the course of one week contains the same amount of sugar as five cans of coke!
All in all, it’s been a bit of a learning curve to finding a truly healthy, nutritious option that will keep me going until lunchtime. This is where my favourite hearty porridge comes in – super quick and easy to make, it’s full of protein, and a tasty treat too!
Berries & Porridge Recipe
Porridge oats
Almond milk
Handful of frozen berries
Pure maple syrup
Cinnamon
- Mix up porridge oats and almond milk in a bowl, and either cook on the hob, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon, or pop into the microwave for 1-2 minutes
- Once the mixture is thick, with the oats absorbing the milk, remove from the heat and place in a bowl
- Sprinkle on top frozen berries (I like blueberries the best, but a mix is good), maple syrup and cinnamon and enjoy!
Considering that this recipe does involve around 10 minutes of preparation and eating time, I would also recommend making up breakfast bars in advance (I’ll be posting a recipe for these soon!) or even now widely-available options such as cold press drinks like Savse smoothies and all-fruit and nut bars like Nakd bars. I always feel so much happier after indulging in these rather than sugary snacks!
