By: Kang-pang Chan
If you want to start your day right, the best thing to do is start with a good breakfast. As we all know, and have been told by our elders, we should all eat our breakfast. However, this seems to be something that modern fast-paced lifestyle is missing.
If you're always in a hurry, and could only eat a cereal rather than a full meal, then it's okay to do so, but you just have to know what body type you are in, to decide what's a healthy breakfast to you in the long run.
Breakfast is actually made up of two words: break fast, which is to mean you're literally breaking the fast, and you don't want to stuff yourself with unnatural foods to 'break your fast' so to speak. Besides if you eat a healthy breakfast you'll notice that your mental as well as physical functioning throughout the day will be sharper too. Eating a healthy breakfast just makes common sense, and your body will love you for doing so.
Many people eat breakfast cereal to start their day off, but most breakfasts of this type are not doing justice to the body at all. Most grain based cereals are devoid of nutrients found in complex carbohydrates that the body needs. Fiber has a lot of these types of complex carbohydrates, but most cereals are just empty foods that contain only fine grain in them without the other bulkier substance that makes you healthy. Eating cereals is only as good as eating paper nutritionally speaking. For a healthy breakfast you need over 30 grams of fiber, and it should consist of soluble and insoluble fiber.
By eating something that includes natural insoluble fiber it helps to correct gastro intestinal problems. Your stomach and bowels will empty more efficiently, and it has been shown that it reduces intestinal and colon cancers. Insoluble fiber works by allowing more water into the intestines, and it helps with passing stools easily. Soluble fiber in a healthy breakfast plays an important role too because the stomach contents will stay longer. Other studies have shown that this reduces the incident of diabetes, and clogged arteries of heart disease.
Processed cereals are bad for you because they are loaded with sugar, and a host of other artificial stuffs, let alone other vital minerals such as potassium and calcium. Taking supplements along with meals like this can have its advantage. If you're a man, make sure to supplement with good proportion of the mineral selenium in your healthy breakfast because this too reduces the risk of colon cancer.
It's very important also to take note of what body type you are with before going heavy on diets with too much carbohydrates too. If you happen to be a protein type but eat mainly cereal and grains in the morning, you'd find your energy declining sooner than you'd realize.
Eating right with appropriate foods for your body type is very rewarding too. The body feels more satisfied and no desires for junk foods for snacking during the day. It enhances digestion, and improves mental functioning too. Let's not forget our stomach is our second brain -- if we treat it right, it'd reward us greatly.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, there is a saying that goes: 'Where there is good stomach energy, there is life.' No kidding about it.
