The energetic but healthy breakfast. How to start the day with the right sprint.

A good day is seen from breakfast. Dr. Gianfranco Beltrami's tips for a healthy and balanced breakfast: which foods to prefer and which to avoid to start off on the right foot.

Have breakfast like a prince.
Have lunch like a bourgeois.
Have dinner like a beggar.
Arabic proverb

Blamed on haste, bad habits, and sometimes false beliefs, there are many people who underestimate theimportance of breakfast.
Whatever the reason, bypassing the first meal of the day is a mistake not to be made.

“During the night we burn calories, our metabolism is always active,” explains Dr. Gianfranco Beltrami, Health Director of Terme di Monticelli.
“When we wake up, we need energy for our body to function efficiently: breakfast breaks the fast and starts the body’s metabolic processes again.
It helps, therefore, to burn calories over the course of the day.
In contrast, when you skip breakfast, you might have a negative impact on your metabolism by slowing it down.”
Not only that.
Concentration and stamina are also affected with results of lower cognitive and physical efficiency.

“Through an energetic and healthy breakfast you should get 20 percent of the daily calories our body needs to function at its best.
15% if you introduce a mid-morning snack into the diet.”

But what should an energetic and healthy breakfast look like? “Definitely balanced.
You need carbohydrates, protein and vitamins.
For example, Greek yogurt with honey and dried fruit, fresh fruit, skim milk.
For protein intake, eggs can be alternated with cooked and raw ham.

It is necessary to vary the breakfast mix with ever-changing foods, perhaps mixing in the week a sweet energy breakfast with a savory breakfast: you don’t get bored and it is good for the body.
Variability in food choices is the basis for having a healthy gut microbiota.”
Best if ingredients used fresh. Avoid processed and ultra-processed foods, however, which, an Imperial College London study has shown, increase the risk of developing cancer.

Taking the time. “Ideally, you should treat yourself to breakfast with your family. Sitting together around a table for a moment of dialogue and sharing is the ideal incipit to the day ahead.”
If you are unable to eat it all together because the schedules do not coincide, it is still important to carve out about 15 minutes.
A time to yourself before plunging into your daily commitments.

Athletes’ breakfast.
“On training days – four times a week – it should be more plentiful, reaching 25 percent of the total calorie requirement.
A hearty and complete first meal, but also balanced and digestible, accompanied by plenty of hydration that corresponds to theintake of about 400 calories.”

It is different for those who do sports professionally: in this case 700 calories will be required, to be consumed before engaging in physical activity: “As long as a couple of hours elapse before starting the workout, so the body can direct much of the blood flow to the muscles and not to the organs involved in digestion.”
It is also possible to workout on an empty stomach as long as the activity is light.
For example, a yoga session or a walk.

“Working out on an empty stomach can stimulate metabolism and the body to use fat as fuel. With a couple of caveats: hydrate well and after the workout is over provide the body with the right nutrients to recover.”

Alsoread .

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The energetic but healthy breakfast. How to start the day with the right sprint.