I’ve been faithful to my usual breakfast of toast with tomato for years. I swore eternal love to this Mediterranean-inspired dish (with fruit and coffee, of course) after realizing that sweet breakfasts gave me a glucose spike.
My tomato toast habit worked well for me; it was mostly satiating and gave me energy. However, a friend of mine who is currently in the midst of menopause recently raved about how much better she felt after she swapped her usual breakfast toast for oatmeal, yogurt, seeds, and berries, or Greek yogurt with homemade granola and berries.
After trying it out myself for a few weeks, I managed to lose a little weight—and I didn’t even miss the bread. Since oatmeal isn’t my fave, I opted mostly for Greek yogurt with sugar-free granola, and I have to admit: It is now my favorite breakfast and even more satisfying than toast. When I eat it, I don’t need to eat again until lunch, nor do I have the classic energy slump that can happen from eating fast-burning carbohydrates.
The benefits of Greek yogurt
Of course, I wanted to confirm my experience with a nutritionist, so I reached out to Laura Parada. “This breakfast provides more satiety and more stable energy throughout the day,” she agreed. “The unsweetened Greek yogurt is high in protein, natural probiotics, and provides calcium and other minerals that improve bone health. With homemade unsweetened granola made with nuts and seeds, extra protein and healthy fats are added. Plus, the oats in the granola are an excellent source of fiber and slow-absorbing carbohydrates, beneficial for digestive health and lowering cholesterol and blood sugar. In addition, it contains both soluble fiber (such as beta-glucans) and insoluble fiber, which help improve intestinal transit,” she added.
The long-term benefits of a protein breakfast
While I still need a few weeks to see its long-term benefits, Parada confirms that this breakfast can be a helpful option if you want to maintain a healthy weight. “Its nutritional value is more complete, and by generating more satiety it prevents snacking between meals. You arrive with less hunger at the next meal and thus consume fewer calories throughout the day and can achieve long-term weight loss and an improvement in body composition with increased muscle mass and fat loss,” she says.
A recipe for homemade granola
Since store-bought granolas are often filled with sugar, Parada advises opting for an easy-to-prepare homemade granola that you can store in an airtight jar. Below, her favorite recipe which provides 250 calories, 8 grams of protein, 27 grams of carbohydrates, and 10 grams of fat per each 50-gram serving.
Ingredients
4 cups of rolled oats
½ cup of nuts (walnuts, almonds, cashews)
½ cup of seeds (flax, sesame, pumpkin)
2 tablespoons of date paste
1 tablespoon of coconut oil
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon