Breakfast is the first meal of a day, and often defined as “the most important meal of the day”. Besides, the word breakfast is also meaning to “break the fasting”, which is the calories intake after hours of the overnight fast.  Regular breakfast consumption is believed to lower the risk of chronic diseases, reduce risk of obesity and wide range of health benefits, such as:

• Meet daily nutrients requirement, higher consumption of vitamins and minerals, less fats and cholesterol consumption throughout the day.
• Body weight controlled. Skipping breakfast might increase hunger ratings later in the day, and this would possibly lead to increase food intake as to overcome the hunger.
• Control blood sugar level. Skipping breakfast may increase risk of diabetes and metabolic impairment.
• Better concentration and performance in academic or workplace.
• Lower stress and depressive symptoms, positive mood and physically active.

However, the quality of breakfast is also the important factors on health consequences. There is a study investigate the impact of breakfast quality on health-related quality of life (HRQOL), stress and depression level in Spanish adolescents. This study suggested that high quality breakfast which include cereal or grain products and dairy products, can help to maintain good quality of life, lower down stress and depression level; while skipping breakfast is better than those having low quality breakfast which consumed commercially baked goods such as cookies, biscuit and pastries that contained high level of added sugar.

Quality of Breakfast

Eating poor quality breakfast such as snacks, cookies, or sugary food is not a good habit and might not gain any benefits of eating breakfast.  A well-balanced healthy breakfast should be consisted of whole grains, lean proteins, low-fat dairies, fruits and vegetables.

• Whole grains are the major source of energy and fibers. The examples of whole grains are oats, cereals, buckwheat, bulgur, quinoa, brown rice, whole barley, etc.

Avoid or reduce the consumption of refined carbohydrates such as white flour, white rice, cookies, doughnuts, white bread, pastries, etc. These foods contained mainly carbohydrates and sugars, while the nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and fibers have been removed or reduced during the manufacturing processes. Eating too much refined carbohydrates will cause rapid spike in blood glucose level and may cause insulin resistance which then might lead to diabetes.

• Lean proteins are the protein sources with the lowest possible fats content, such as eggs, lean meat, poultry (skin removed), fish, soy products, nuts and legumes.

Avoid processed meat such as sausage, nugget, ham, bacon, luncheon meat, etc. Processed meat is the meat which has been modified to extend shelf-life and improved taste and appearance through smoking, curing, adding salt and preservatives.  The chemicals added during processing can be harmful as these might increase the risk of cancers. The processed meat has been included in World Health Organization (WHO)’s list of carcinogens, which means frequent consumption of diets high in processed meat are definitely can cause cancers.

Besides, consumption of red meat such as pork, beef and lamb should be limited. Red meat is categorized as food that is probably cause cancer by WHO. Red meat is only the flesh of mammals or fowls, fish and seafood are not considered as red meat even though some of them (salmon, prawn, crab) are red. Hence, reduce red meat in diet or replace it with fish can be a better choice.

• Low-fat dairy products such as low-fat milk, skimmed milk, low-fat yogurt, Greek yogurt, cheese, etc. Dairy products are the good source of high-quality protein, calcium and vitamin D. However, dairy products naturally contained higher amount of saturated fats and cholesterol, which both the fats might increase risk of hypertension, obesity, and other chronic diseases. Hence, consumption of low-fat dairy products is recommended rather than full-fat dairy products.

Alternative for individual with lactose intolerance or vegan: soy milk, almond milk, oat milk, rice milk, hemp milk. Plant-based and nut-based milk can be a good source of proteins, phyto-nutrients and minerals.

• Fruits and vegetables always the best natural sources of fibers, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. Fruits and vegetables are the essential part of a healthy diet. Frequent consumption of fruits and vegetables are known to reduce risk of chronic disease, prevent cancer and maintain healthy body weight.

Juicing can be beneficial if your diet is really lacking fruits and vegetables but do avoid commercial fruit juice because it may contain added sugar, lower fibers and nutrients loss during processing. Making your own juice or smoothies by blending fruits and vegetables together without adding sugar is better, while adding some natural honey to improve taste can be beneficial too.