5 Simple Ways to Make Your Breakfast More Nutritious

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By Agata P. | Updated: Nov 15, 2023

5 Herbal Alternatives to Improve Your Breakfast

Breakfast is an extremely important meal of the day. It jump-starts your metabolism and energizes you for hours. However, for a meal to make you feel on top of your game, it has to be balanced and nutritious. Luckily, there are easy and delicious ways to instantly enrich your breakfast with key nutrients.

1. Chia

Chia seeds have long been valued for their nutritional composition. They are an excellent way to add more fiber, protein, healthy fats, and minerals to your daily meals. You can easily sprinkle them over yogurt, add them to smoothies, and use them as a topping on your avocado toast. The seeds can also be made into a chia pudding, creating a truly balanced and nutritious breakfast, especially if accompanied with other wholesome ingredients and toppings.

2. Quinoa

Quinoa is a highly versatile seed, recognized for being a rich source of nutrients, including complete protein, healthy fats, complex carbs, and minerals. If you have leftover cooked quinoa from the night before, heat it up with some apples, cinnamon, and honey. For a wholesome instant breakfast, make quinoa flakes into a porridge or enjoy popped quinoa as a cereal, sprinkled over yogurt and fruits, or added to your muesli.

3. Sacha Inchi

Smoothies are perhaps the easiest way to sneak in extra nutrients. If you want to make them filling and nutritious, enrich them with milled sacha inchi . It's packed with essential amino acids which are necessary for building muscles and staying strong. Another way to make your breakfast more nutritious is to add sacha inchi seeds to your granola or muesli or sprinkle them over your cereal, similar to quinoa pop. They're crunchy, delicious, and rich in fiber and healthy fats.

4. Flax

Flax is a powerhouse of vital nutrients, which makes it the perfect addition to breakfast meals. The seeds are loaded with omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, and lignans. While using ground flax allows for better absorption of nutrients, whole seeds improve digestion and keep things regular. You can reap these benefits by adding flaxseed to your pancake batter, oatmeal, yogurt, and smoothies.

5. Turmeric

If you want to fill your body with anti-inflammatory compounds, turmeric is the way to go. For starters, drinking warm turmeric water can do wonders for heart health, digestion, immunity, and more. You can also add some ground turmeric to your porridge, scrambled eggs or tofu, chia pudding, waffle batter, and smoothie bowls. Don't forget to also add black pepper as it has been shown to enhance turmeric's properties.1

Adding these nutritious foods to your breakfast is a quick and easy trick to elevate its nutritional load. Once you get the hang of it, you'll experiment with other cherished breakfast enhancers. By composing your meals with delicious and healthy foods, you're not only nourishing your body with key nutrients, but also setting yourself up for a wholesome day.

Sources

  • American Indian Health and Diet Project, Quinoa
  • Cleveland Clinic, 7 Health Benefits of Turmeric
  • Harvard T.H. Chan - School of Public Health, Quinoa
  • Journal of Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine, Effects of Turmeric and Curcumin Dietary Supplementation on Human Gut Microbiota: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Study, 2018
  • United States Department of Agriculture, 12006, Seeds, chia seeds, dried, n.d.
  • University of Michigan Health, Healthy fats
  • Mayo Clinic, Chia seeds pack nutritional punch

Footnotes:

  1. UMass Chan Medical School. (2019). Using Black Pepper to Enhance the Anti-Inflammatory effects of Turmeric. Retrieved November 22, 2022 from https://www.umassmed.edu/nutrition/blog/blog-posts/2019/6/using-black-pepper-to-enhance-the-anti-inflammatory-effects-of-turmeric/