World Health Day 2024: The Role Of Breakfast In Crafting Healthier Mornings

To celebrate the occasion of World Health Day, World Health Organisation sets a specific theme every year to raise awareness. The theme for World Health Day 2024 is 'My Health, My Right', which establishes the fact that health is a human right and every individual should have access to good quality healthcare services.

On World Health Day, let us embrace the importance of a balanced breakfast as it encourages a healthy start to the day and adopting wellness as a lifestyle. We can transform breakfast into a fulfilling and delightful experience that sets the tone for a day full of vitality by opting for nutrient-rich choices, practicing mindful eating, and experimenting with new recipes. As we mark World Health Day, it's important to recognize the pivotal role breakfast plays in fostering healthier mornings, so Dr. Shilpa Vora, Chief R&D Officer, Marico Ltd. has recommended ways on how to craft your morning in a healthy and balanced way. Let’s look at the significance of breakfast, exploring how it sets the tone for a healthier lifestyle and how one can make morning meals both nutritious, exciting, and enjoyable.

The importance of a Nutrient-rich breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day as it literally “breaks our night-long fast”. A nourishing breakfast replenishes all our energy stored after fasting overnight, kickstarting our metabolism and enhancing physiological, psychological, and cognitive functions. By incorporating the right ingredients, breakfast can supply all the vital nutrients like complex carbohydrates, protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals crucial for our overall health and well-being during the day.

Choosing the right balance

Balancing macronutrients is key to a healthy breakfast. Incorporating a mix of complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, and healthy fats helps maintain sustained energy levels, regulate blood sugar, and promote satiety, and prevent over-eating later in the day. These nutrients not only nourish our body with energy needs but also help in generating happy hormones like serotonin and dopamine to keep the mind charged with a good mood. 

Mindful eating practices

Mindful eating during breakfast fosters a deeper connection with food, allowing us to enjoy each bite and appreciate its nourishing qualities. Taking the time to eat mindfully enhances digestion, reduces stress, and promotes a positive relationship with food. One must also mindfully figure out the right ingredients to use for the morning breakfast. 

Follow a routine

Maintaining a regular breakfast routine helps to manage appetite, and regulate blood sugar levels helps in increasing overall nutrition. Setting time aside each morning for breakfast is key as it helps in developing a sense of practice and encourages healthier eating with monitored calorie intakes, throughout the day.

Customizing your breakfast

Customizing breakfast according to individual preferences and dietary needs makes it more interesting and fun to eat. Whether it's using seasonal fruits, whole grains, or plant-based alternatives, customizing breakfast adds variety and excitement to everyone’s morning routine toward a promising and energetic day ahead.

There are several ways to make breakfast more interesting by adding nutritious and popular ingredients that people are increasingly favoring for their morning meals:

• Incorporate nutritious grains like oats, and millets like ragi, jowar, and bajra into your breakfast for added nutrition. Try options such as ragi, oats or sprouts chilla, bajra parantha paired with sautéed veggies, or millet khichdi with spices.

• You can also enjoy a variety of smoothie bowls with crunchy muesli and an added pop of natural flavors from fruits, nuts, and seeds. Not only that, but a cup of oats that gives a smooth and creamy texture, peanut butter, source-based honey, and banana smoothie can be a great source of protein to sustain for the day.

• Prepare a colorful fruit salad using seasonal fruits like mangoes, bananas, papayas and berries, and serve it with a dollop of thick yogurt. Consuming seasonal fruits provides necessary nutrients to your body as per the changing weather.

• Experiment with breakfast sandwiches by creating a savory and creamy sandwich with lots of vegetables and low-fat and low sat fat mayonnaise, on the other hand, you can also try sweeter versions of sandwiches with crunchy and creamy peanut butter with banana and whole wheat bread.TIP – use options that come with no refined sugar and/or made with natural sweeteners like jaggery. You can also make sandwiches with a side of soya salad for a fresh and protein-rich breakfast.