It’s sometimes billed as the most important meal of the day - and dieting guru Michael Mosley has said that he doesn’t believe in skipping it unless you’re doing a special fasting plan. The expert who is behind his versions of the Fast 800 and 5:2 eating plans has previously spoken about what he believes are the best three breakfasts he has.
And he recently had Weight Loss Special geneticist Professor Giles Yeo on his podcast Just One Thing on the BBC and said a key factor for breakfast was trying to eat something which won’t leave him feeling hungry by 11am. He said the worst thing is having something like cereal or a muffin which could give a sugar rush and then leave you feeling starving soon after. Dr Mosley said his best four breakfasts were porridge, overnight oats, eggs - especially omelettes and kippers.
He said: “I find that if I have and I’ve tried as an experiment by myself that if I have an omelette in the morning for breakfast with plenty of veg thrown in a bit of cheese and things like that then I keep me fuller for longer and I’m quite happy to, you know, not have a snack at 11 o’clock. Whereas if I have breakfast cereal broadly, that pumps my blood sugars up and then I’m starving hungry by about midday.”
Prof Yeo explained why: “So, there are two different reasons for this primarily. Actually, it’s because eggs are full of protein. They’re fat as well. I understand. Plus you’ve had fibre if you’ve chucked in a bunch of veg. But actually, if you just look at the macronutrients, so whether or not you eat carbs, you eat fat or you eat protein, the availability is very, very different.
“If you ate 100 calories of sugar, you get 98 calories out. If you ate 100 calories of protein, depending on how you cook it on average, you only ever extract 70 calories from protein because protein is chemically more complex. It takes more time to actually deal with it. So, protein calories are 30% wrong everywhere.”
Dr Mosley has previously advocated a ‘high fat’ breakfast - and has said experimenting with ingredients is a good idea. Dr Mosley said: “The sort of things that I eat for breakfast, and which I believe are healthy, include: porridge, with added nuts. Not the instant stuff, but rolled wholegrain oats with wheat bran. I buy supermarket own brand
“You can also make simple overnight oats: put half a mug of oats in a bowl, cover with milk, leave overnight in the fridge, and then eat the next morning with your favourite topping. Eggs. I love them scrambled, boiled or as an omelette. Plenty of healthy protein and very filling. The great thing about omelettes is you can experiment with lots of different fillings. You can find lots of omelette recipes (and more) at Dr Clare Bailey’s instagram account. I am also a fan of kippers, which i particularly enjoy with fried tomatoes.”
Dr Mosley also had nutritionist Prof Tim Spector on his podcast Just One Thing and he explained that he was shocked when he put himself on a glucose monitor - and it rocketed to the range normally seen in someone with diabetes. He explained that eating carbs and sugars was wrong ‘for him’ and instead he switched to a ‘high fat’ breakfast.
Prof Spector revealed he changed to: “Full fat yoghurt. I have some nuts and seeds sprinkled on there. I have whichever berries I happen to have frozen or fresh depending on the season and I switched from tea to coffee because we now know that coffee is really good for your gut microbes.”
Michael Mosley added: “I have a very similar story. I was eating a lot of sugary, carby stuff for breakfast. I slapped on one of those meters and it went crazy. And so these days I eat omelettes with veg in, The way I judge it now is do I get crazy hungry at about 11 o’clock or don’t I. If I get crazy hungry that suggests that what I had a couple of hours earlier isn’t that great.”
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