Don’t skip breakfast 

I don’t know where I got the habit but I cannot remember not ever wanting breakfast. While traveling with family members over Christmas and New Year, I got to know who among us are breakfast people and who did not care to wake up even for coffee.

My memories of breakfast are always wonderful to recall. I remember smelling coffee that’s brewing, sinful bacon frying to a crisp and fried rice with garlic. There would be simpler days when we would have paksiw (fish stewed in vinegar), fried rice and eggs. Standard fare was scrambled eggs with onions and tomatoes, in the pre-onion shortage days, of course.

Even in college, I would have breakfast at home before leaving for school and again have coffee and an egg sandwich in our favorite hangout. The memo-ries are so good, I still make myself an egg sandwich to remind me of the good old days when life was simpler and we were much younger.

But for some of today’s kids, they do not even look forward to breakfast. Some are on intermittent fasting or IF – another term for skipping a meal so that the “fast” is 12-15 hours, despite a lot of alcohol consumed at rich dinner meals. What works for some is to eat from noon to 8 p.m. and nothing after 8 and before the next day’s lunch. But is that how our bodies were designed to be fueled?

It really depends on one’s habits. I find that those who are big on breakfast usually skip dinner. And those big on dinners skip breakfast. Fair enough. But many books will tell you the importance of the first meal of the day. As I am writing this, I am starting to believe that breakfast people share many commonali-ties: they like to plan, wake up early and are punctual (otherwise you would miss a lot of hotel breakfasts where time is of the essence).
Some breakfast related trivia and common expressions:

“I can have just doughnuts and coffee.” This is a Hollywood thing we got from watching too many American movies. Doughnuts are packed with sugar and will let your blood sugar spike so much that you will also crash fast way too early for lunch. I find that eating a high sugar breakfast makes me hungrier sooner.

The boring hard-boiled egg. This is the best fast breakfast one can have. Diet books claim that it takes more calories to burn this boiled egg than it contains. And it gives you protein in a pure form with no fat. I cheat with some mayonnaise and eat it with a pandesal or a piece of toast.

The Pinoy breakfast. The typical farmer will only take coffee and bread for breakfast. But modern times and Spanish influence of yore made us think of a Fil-ipino breakfast as fried rice, fried eggs, a cured meat like tocino or tapa, dried fish and more. Think English breakfast – blood sausage, bangers, eggs, hash, etc. Both contain a lot of carbohydrates and fat (and protein) and is not recommended to be taken everyday.

“I just have orange juice.” Orange juice has got to be the most calorie-rich of all popular morning drinks. A small glass can contain calories as much as a bot-tle of soda. Do you observe how people guzzle it up in buffets? Beware also of juice drinks – they are only 10 percent juice and the rest is sugar.

“Just croissants and coffee for me.” A croissant can contain over 400 calories of pure carbs and fat (butter is needed to make them taste good) which could be equal to two eggs and toast or fried rice and a viand. So for people who think croissants and coffee is the best combination for a light breakfast, think again. Those sinful treats are calorie-laden. I would much prefer a slice of sourdough (I can have 2 to 3 instead of a croissant). Though I would occasionally have a French pastry, it is a treat and not a habit.

“I take chocolate, I cannot take coffee.” Chocolate and coffee both contain caffeine. While you can take coffee black and without calories, chocolate contains calories and the added hot milk also packs in more energy joules per ounce or milliliter.

“I just have oatmeal.” Please be kind to yourself and vary your breakfast fiber source. You can try muesli or granola if you want the texture of oats. Avoid corn flakes and simple cereals if you can as they contain mostly sugar. Explore other breakfast choices. Breakfast is a celebration, not a further punishment for fasting while asleep.

So, it got me thinking – where and how did we form our breakfast habits? For the typical fisherman who has to go out to sea in the early morning, coffee is the best tummy warmer per our history books and recently replaced by instant noodles as coffee becomes cumbersome to prepare when one is rushing out to sea. For the land-based farmer, it usually is coffee and bread or rice cake. For some, it is hot lugaw (congee) or champorado.

For us city slickers, there has been a barrage of fast food choices like doughnuts, pancakes and huge hotdog breakfasts. If we are at an airport, we really do not have much choice but to go fast food. So I used to bring hard-boiled eggs and a banana when I had an early morning flight because the airport does not encourage healthy eating at all. Try to find a no-carb or low carb choice in the airport. Good luck.

Think about breakfast and how you can start your new year with healthier habits. A cup of black coffee, a choice of boiled or cooked egg for protein and a healthy carb choice like sourdough or a piece of whole wheat bread and a piece of fruit.

For day two, you can explore a whole grain cereal and plain yogurt with honey. Day three can be an omelet. Day four can be peanut butter or any nut butter. And so on. But give breakfast some thought. You will never be the same person again. Promise.