Five nutritionists tell us what they eat for breakfast (and how you compensate for their ‘sins’)
If there was a man who loved breakfast, it was the writer Marcel Proust. He ended up giving that first meal all the importance of the daily intake, and he did not tolerate confusion with the ‘menu’; The person in charge of carrying the tray to say good morning had to follow a scrupulous routine: “Bring Marcel croissant number 1 with his coffee, but be sure to have croissant number 2 on hand in case additional pastries are required.” They informed the servant.
Played daily, any nutritionist would consider this option unhealthy. So the best thing would be to turn to them to find out what is the best proposal to start the day, asking them how they have breakfast and making them confess any ‘sin’ they commit. All of them belong to the Spanish Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
A large glass of cold water, coffee with whole milk and fruit
The first thing the president of the Academy puts into his body is “water… very cold water, I love it. It’s the first thing I do every morning, drink a large glass (350 ml). After a while, I have coffee with unsweetened whole milk and fruit for breakfast. I don’t usually drink anything else during the week because I sit from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., most of the day. Also, if I eat anything else it makes me sleepy. That is his daily proposal… except for Sundays, where he recognizes his ‘sin’: “I love having coffee with milk for breakfast, toasted bread with butter (it has to be ‘President’ or something else of very good quality) and homemade jam, usually peach or fig. Sundays are something special, I have all that breakfast and then I go for a walk in the mountains, to compensate. He confesses that, in reality, this whim comes from longing for his lost childhood… «As a child, I did this same thing on Saturday; I got up at 7:45 and my father already had the coffee made. Then I would pour the milk and make the toast that way so I could watch ‘Murder Wrote’ and ‘The Crystal Ball.'”
Coffee with almond drink and whole oat flakes
He always has the same breakfast: coffee with calcium-enriched almond drink and whole-grain oatmeal. «And it can be very improved, since, since I am a big coffee drinker, I should separate my coffee intake from the vegetable drink and oatmeal, because both the caffeine in coffee and its flavonoids affect the absorption and metabolism of calcium and other nutrients» . Knowing this, Marques looks for solutions: “I try to separate my coffee intake during the rest of the day from other foods and I try to eat sources of calcium at dinner.”
Bread with cheese and jam or toast with tomato and egg
The nutritionist says she varies the composition of her breakfasts quite a bit: “Sometimes sweet, sometimes salty, but always with a good coffee with strong whole milk. One of my ‘sins’ is coffee, and here I agree with my colleague Iva’s explanation, since I also do it that way because of the calcium issue. And always fruit.”
He divides his days between his sweet mode and his salty mode. If it’s sweet, opt for the “bread with fresh goat cheese or cottage cheese and jam with 80% fruit or, right now, strawberries on top of the cheese. If I drink jam, the coffee is without sugar and I add cinnamon, but if it is strawberries, then maybe a pinch of sugar already falls into the coffee. As much as possible, try not to add it to the infusions or natural yogurt you drink throughout the day.
Ingortze Zubieta usually adds to her coffee with milk “some protein left over from dinner: potato omelette, breast, chicken…”
What if it is in salty mode? «In addition to the coffee with milk, a toast with slices of tomato and egg (in an omelette or grilled) or some protein left over from dinner: potato omelette, breast, chicken…». He confesses that on weekends he allows himself a little more variety: “I do it later and it almost becomes a ‘brunch’.” Sometimes I add walnuts, almonds, some yogurt, even occasionally some homemade pastries: sponge cake or even a croissant on a special day, as a very sporadic thing. But yes, I eat it, and without any guilt too.
Coffee with milk (semi), toast with avocado and fresh cheese
«I always have coffee with semi-skimmed milk without sugar, I hate adding sugar to coffee, I think it tastes terrible. And whole wheat toast with avocado and sometimes a little cheese (mozzarella, fresh goat, cottage or brie) and basil. Sometimes he adds a piece of fruit, “for example, today I had half a custard apple, which I love.”
Years ago he opted for the classic toast with tomato, but it ended up boring him. “He also gave me a season for making ‘crepes’ when I had more time for breakfast and I alternated between sweet ones with fruit, cinnamon and dark chocolate, and salty ones with tomato and cheese.”
When he craves something sweet, which doesn’t happen often, he opts for whole wheat toast with banana, peanut butter, cinnamon and 80% dark chocolate. He also likes kefir with seedless black grapes, ground chia seeds (“for better assimilation of its nutrients”), cinnamon and 80% dark chocolate. On weekends he has the same breakfast, and very sporadically, grilled croissant. “And I’m not worried about coffee interfering with calcium absorption, because I drink other sources of calcium throughout the day and only drink coffee in the morning.”
Yogurt, whole wheat bread with oil and tomato, kiwi and boiled egg
Their proposal is yogurt, whole wheat sourdough bread with oil and tomato, kiwi and boiled egg. Consciously and without guilt you can have buns, cakes… but knowing that it will be a specific thing. “If one day I overdo it with free sugars, such as honey, jam or syrup, I compensate later with more exercise.”
