According to a Nutrition Scientist, This Is the Best Breakfast for Building Muscle and Losing Weight
Show of hands if you’ve inhaled an all-butter croissant on the way to work and called it “breakfast”?
While science has posited that our first meal of the day is the most important, a mouthful of pastry isn’t what those researchers had in mind. The good news is that assembling the true, perfect breakfast is a cakewalk.
To make the most of your morning meal, fill a third of your plate with high-quality protein. According to Sarah Coe, nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation, two large poached eggs should do the trick – delivering 14g of muscle-building amino acids, plus essential micronutrients such as vitamin B12, selenium, iodine and omega-3 fatty acids.
By prioritising satiating protein over nutritionally flaky baked goods, you’ll also end up making healthier choices throughout the day.
This macro alters activity in brain regions relating to food motivation and reward-driven eating, so you’re less likely to eye up the biscuit tin, come 11am. No pain au chocolate, no gain au chocolate biccies.
Next, raid the bread bin for starchy carbohydrates. Don’t feel compelled to splash out on sprouted sourdough made from ancient wheat – your average wholegrain supermarket loaf with extra seeds packs 2g of gut-boosting insoluble fibre per slice, contributing to your recommended 30g per day and, as a bonus, protecting you from colorectal cancer.
Before you plate up, add at least one 80g serving of veg, such as grilled mushrooms and tomatoes. They’re extremely nutrient-dense and full of soluble fibre.
“Soluble fibre acts as food for beneficial microbes in the gut, helping them to produce short-chain fatty acids that may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, obesity and heart disease,” Coe explains. Yes chef.
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