This is a complete guide to savoury breakfasts, one of my most powerful hacks.
So if you’re looking to:
→ Manage your glucose.
→ Reduce cravings and hunger.
→ Feel amazing.
Then you're in the right place. Let’s get started.
It's a common assumption that eating something sweet for breakfast is good because it will give us energy for the rest of the day. But that's not exactly true.
Even though glucose (found in starches and sugars) is our body's main energy source, if we eat too much of it during a meal, our body releases insulin to get rid of the excess. So instead of the newly digested glucose molecules staying around in our system to be used for fuel, they get stored away – as glycogen or fat.
Science shows us that, while a sweet and starchy breakfast gives us pleasure (it releases dopamine in our brain), it is not the best way to give us energy. A sweet and starchy breakfast leads to a glucose spike, which hurts our body’s ability to make energy efficiently, makes us tired, and kicks off all kinds of side effects.
As a result, at equal calories, a breakfast that keeps our glucose levels steady leads to more circulating energy than one that creates a glucose spike.
And that’s not all: a breakfast glucose spike will make us hungry again sooner; and the bigger the breakfast spike, the bigger the drop after it, and therefore the worse the hunger and cravings will be. That breakfast will also deregulate our glucose levels for the rest of the day, so our lunch and dinner in turn will create bigger spikes.
The best way to have steady energy is to switch to a savoury breakfast, avoiding the crash we usually get a couple of hours later.
If you’re looking for a perfect breakfast that gives you steady energy, go savoury!
A savoury breakfast is essentially a breakfast that doesn’t have sugar or starch as a main ingredient. Here are some examples of sweet vs. savoury breakfasts and their impact on our glucose levels.
Savoury breakfasts can be very versatile; they range from classic combos like eggs and bacon to something fancier like avocado toast. Sometimes we want something sweet and fresh in the morning, and in that case we can add some whole fruit to our breakfast.
Even though whole fruit has some glucose in it, it’s the best way to eat something sweet because it also contains fiber, which helps slow down the absorption of glucose into our bloodstream. To minimize the impact on our glucose even further, we can eat our whole fruit at the end of our breakfast.
An ideal breakfast for steady glucose contains protein, fiber, fat, and optional starch and fruit (ideally, eaten last). Here’s how to make a savoury breakfast that keeps your glucose levels steady and helps you feel really great for the rest of the day. Your savoury breakfast should keep you full for 4 hours. If that’s not the case, increase the amount of protein in it.
First thing in the morning, when we are in our fasted state, our body is at its most sensitive to glucose. Our stomach is empty, so anything that lands in it will be digested extremely quickly. Which is why eating sugars and starches at breakfast often leads to the biggest spike of the day.
Breakfast is the worst time to eat just sugar and starches, yet it’s the time at which most of us do exactly that.
You may not yet have traced back the symptoms you feel throughout the day to your breakfast. And no wonder – because we don’t instantly feel the effect that a spiky breakfast has on us. If, as soon as we ate that bowl of cereal, we were to have a panic attack then fall asleep at the table, we’d get it. But because metabolic processes take hours to unfold, compound over time and become mixed with all the other things that happen in a day, connecting the dots takes a bit of detective work – at least until we get the hang of it.
Let's have a look at the different types of breakfast foods that a lot of us have been used to eating since a young age.
In 2018, a Stanford University team showed that common foods, like cereal breakfast, provoke huge glucose spikes -even above 200 mg/dL - in healthy individuals without diabetes.
Even though marketing touts it as part of a healthy diet, regular breakfast cereal is mostly just sugar and refined carbs, and even cereals labeled as “healthy” and “low calories” can spike our glucose. So cereal for breakfast is, unequivocally, not a good way to start the day.
Most granolas and muesli have just about as much sugar in them as regular cereal.
So, if you are a fan of cereals, remember this:
Oats are another classic breakfast food that usually lead to glucose spikes. Oats are 100% starch, and starch turns to glucose when digested. But there are a few tips that we can use to flatten our curve whilst still enjoying our morning oats:
Even though smoothies are an extremely popular breakfast option, labeled as healthy, not all smoothies are created equal! In fact, the smoothies that contain only fruit spike our glucose. When we blend fruit into a smoothie, the blades of the blender pulverize the fiber particles of the fruit, and the fiber is less useful in preventing a spike.
A glucose-healthy smoothie is one centered around protein, fat, and fiber, with just some fruit for taste. My tips to create a glucose-approved smoothie:
Let's think through it: when we eat toast, which is starch, and we add sugar to it, like jam for example, the spike gets bigger. But if we add fat, fiber, and protein to it, like almond butter, the spike is reduced.
It's also good to note that there are some types of bread that are better for our glucose: sourdough or dark seed bread.
The most common savoury breakfast ideas are often egg-centric. But don't worry, if you're bored of eggs, there are plenty of other delicious foods to have for breakfast:
And if you need that extra inspiration, you can get beautifully crafted recipes each month with my Recipe Club.
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Receive easy tasty glucose-steady recipes each month.
If you’re looking for the best breakfast to take care of your health, have steady energy all day long, and stay full and satisfied, choose a savoury breakfast.
Avoid sugar-packed foods like breakfast cereal or fruit juice; instead, eat foods rich in fiber, protein, and fat, like nuts, Greek yogurt, or egg; eat only whole fruit to satisfy your sweet tooth; and, if you need it, use sweeteners like stevia or monk fruit.
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