Is it possible to have a delicious breakfast that is good for your health and without cravings in the morning?

It’s the king’s meal, which sets the tone for the rest of the day: breakfast. And in the land of baguettes and croissants, we’re not kidding about breakfast.

At the opening this Saturday of the Agricultural Show, an ephemeral shrine to good French food, 20 minutes Treat yourself to a snack that delights both your taste buds and your health.

Start by hydrating well

After a good night’s sleep, and before breakfast, your body should adopt some good reflexes to get off to a good start. “In the morning, start by drinking a glass or two of lukewarm water,” Dr. Frederick Saldman, cardiologist and nutritionist, author, recommends. Your future on prescription (ed. Robert Lafont). This temperature helps initiate transit and optimize hydration, which softens stools and facilitates their evacuation. This encourages waste disposal.” If you are a coffee addict, it is better to wait an hour after getting up and finishing breakfast to treat yourself to your first cup.

And for lovers of morning tea, it is better to favor green tea: “New research highlights its role in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, in the optimization of immunity and mental well-being, as well as in the fight against certain cancers. Dr Saldman. In addition, green tea greatly influences the microbiota: it promotes the growth of protective bacteria and harms the growth of harmful bacteria. Five cups a day reduces the risk of dying from cardiovascular causes in women by 31%, it points out. Regular consumption is associated with a 22% reduction in the risk of breast cancer and a 57% reduction in colon cancer. Japanese women who consumed green tea daily had a 42% lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

Whole fruit rather than juice

On the French breakfast menu, we often find a glass of orange juice, often made from oranges that have traveled thousands of kilometers, or even juice made from concentrate and enriched with sugar. It’s not enough to count one of the five daily servings of fruits and vegetables to include in your meals. Dr. “About oranges, there’s a big difference between eating them and drinking the juice,” says Suldman. Chewed and digested, this fruit slowly releases its sugar into the body and provides valuable fiber, while a squeezed orange acts like a sugar flush, the equivalent of an insulin wave. Fructose, eaten in large quantities, goes directly to the liver where it is converted into fat.

Because fruit does not have the same properties depending on whether it is consumed as juice or whole. “Fruit juice has a higher glycemic index, meaning its ability to pass quickly into the blood,” adds Rafael Gruman, nutritionist. And its carbohydrate load – the amount of sugar it contains is also very high: for one glass of fruit juice, you need to squeeze at least three oranges. So you’ll be consuming the sugar of three fruits, but without the fiber. When you do not eat three whole oranges, because the volume will be too large. For a fruity note at breakfast, “the best is kiwi, nutritionists advise: it’s easy to eat, and it’s one of the fruits rich in vitamin C, and it’s rich in fiber”.

Pay attention to the salty base

For the more chauvinistic, French breakfasts often include toast with butter and jam, pastries and other brioches. “But it’s not ideal,” believes Rafael Grumman. It is very rich in carbohydrates, and it does not provide long-lasting satiety, with the risk of morning cravings. To avoid this, it is recommended to systematically combine your breakfast with a source of protein: an egg, a slice of cheese or even a slice of ham. This will help prolong the feeling of satiety in the morning and, taken with whole foods or whole grain bread, ensures a good supply of fiber. A good healthy breakfast menu has a delicious base.” This is good, in addition to being the country of croissants, France is also the country of cheese, which many gourmets will be able to taste in the aisles of an agricultural show.

If you’re trying to control your weight, or even lose it, be careful not to skimp on breakfast. “It’s not just a question of quantity: patients who consult me ​​for weight loss tell me that they eat more since they came to see me, because we change the ratio between protein and carbohydrates and by rebalancing food intake, we We will eat less. Calories, but more bulk. So it is entirely possible to lose weight by eating more,” he assures.

And if you have a sweet tooth in the morning or like a good croissant, it is possible under certain conditions. “We start with protein, which is slow to digest,” suggests the nutritionist. The sweet food we eat later will mix with this protein intake, and the body will take a long time to break it down, so the assimilation of its sugars will slow down. However, pastries, which are very fatty and sweet, are recommended no more than once a week,” advises the nutritionist.

Take it easy on the sugar for kids

And for children, who are often used to eating cereal or brioche, how can you make a breakfast that pleases their palate and gives them good energy to start the day? Going easy on the sugar! However, Rafael Gruman asserts, “Children’s cereals are often sugar bombs.” This creates hyperglycemia, followed by significant hypoglycemia during the game, during which many people consume snacks such as industrial brioche. The result: the child is constantly showered with sugar and deserves excessive pleasure. If a child has had a breakfast that is too high or too low in sugar, he may be hungry in the morning.”

Hence, recalls Rafael Grumman, the importance of “including protein in your breakfast,” at all ages. So you can give your kids a whole piece of bread with cheese or eggs and some spread for example. There, the satiety will be much longer. A good sourdough bread from a bakery would be better, but many children don’t like it that much. And while sandwich bread is whole foods, so rich in fiber and nutrients, it’s much better than white bread, which has a much higher glycemic index. You can find the perfect solution to satisfy your taste buds while taking care of your health.”