-
Easy, Healthy, School Day Breakfast Ideas
It was back-to-school for my kids today and the routine of breakfast and dinner meal planning has officially resumed! (it’s a bitter-sweet feeling )I know many people struggle with the question of “what to eat” for breakfast, but if you watched the Beginner’s Health Roadmap, you know all about my VPF principle and recommendation of ensuring there’s a protein and fat for breakfast as a minimum to help keep you satiated longer, balance blood sugar levels, and minimize cravings later on in the day.
The same applies to our kiddos! So I thought it might be helpful to share my “VPF-inspired” school day breakfast meal ideas for the week ahead with all of you:
If this is helpful, and you’d like to see more of these, please let me know in the comments below. Maybe I can dedicate a new “space” called Meal Ideas where we can all share our meal plans for the week, and take inspiration from each other… because let’s face it. This task can surely get monotone doing it alone! What do you think?
ps. I also want to apologize in advance for my chicken-scratch hand writing. My sisters who have beautiful calligraphy hand writing always made fun of it… ♀️
-
7 Replies
-
Would you kindly share where you get the sausages from? Been having a hard time finding clean ones. Thanks 🙂
Labneh is on your list? Though its dairy. Please elaborate.
And meal planning for breakfast is a good idea – i usually plan dinner but time to plan breakfast too.
Thanks!
-
hi – I get the gluten-free plain lamb sausages at Organic Foods & Café. Cleanest one I could find. Not their lamb & herb kind… too many unnecessary ingredients.
Regarding labneh… only my son is dairy-free at home, and we’ve actually started re-introducing it slowly back into his diet again. The types of dairy I recommend are fermented or cultured varieties like yogurt, kefir, and grassfed cheese. We rarely consume milk. Is this what you’re asking about?
-
and please share your breakfast meals here too… we can all use some meal planning inspiration/ideas!
-
Then sausages are on my shopping list for this weekend – but yes so many products with a lot of nasties.
And yes that is exactly what I was asking about pertaining dairy. Honestly tired of reading/listening to so many conflicting information.
-
I’m assuming you’re confused about the extreme sides of the dairy debate? It’s definitely a nuanced topic that can lead to much confusion, and because bio-individuality plays a role in nutrition, that adds to the confusion even more.
Think of it this way. After the agricultural revolution, humans suffered tremendous health consequences as a result of domestication of livestock and consumption of grains. However, we adapted over many many centuries.
Today however, the landscape of food is very different and the change in our food products has happened in the past 100 years only.
Dairy specifically has dramatically changed. We now have cows being injected with growth hormones, being fed genetically modified corn and soy (not their ideal diet of pasture and grass), living in confined/stressful spaces, and then to add insult to injury, is pasteurized and homogenized.
So conventional milk is a far far cry from what it used to be. However, some people do have access to grassfed cows and raw milk products, which is how it used to be generations ago.
And if you think about it, before the age of refrigeration, milk would spoil after a day or so, so our ancestors used to culture and ferment milk to preserve it. By doing so, it enhanced its vitality and nutritional profile.
This is why I mentioned that we mostly consume fermented/cultured milk products, and not milk.
So in today’s times, if you can find products made from grassfed A2 type cows and raw sources, it’s a real bonus!
In terms of bio-individuality, regardless of the source, some have a sensitivity to the protein in dairy. And the majority of people have lactose intolerance (but there are many reasons for that as well).
So you can see, there’s lots to consider. If anyone takes an extreme stance and says dairy is “good” or dairy is “bad”, I’d take it with a grain of salt. It’s very nuanced.
Hope this helps clarify the confusion a little.
-
You are absolutely correct in calling it a dairy debate cause it is. And I surely was curious to hear your point of view so appreciate you sharing.
So Intolerance is a straight forward diagnosis but the sensitivity part is a bit trickier since it does not clearly show in a test. Can you discuss further sensitivities? the signs, how quick they show and whether it can change or go away. Thanks
-
most people who are intolerant to dairy will experience GI complaints so yes, it’s pretty easy to detect an intolerance. A sensitivity is usually an immune mediated reaction and can be delayed, making it more difficult to pin point. Here is a handout in the resource section listing the MANY common symptoms of hidden food sensitivities, including dairy.
The usual suspects for me when assessing a client’s case are cravings for dairy, brain fog & other cognitive issues, histamine related symptoms like nasal/sinus congestion, itchy skin, asthma, eczema, etc, chronic ear infections as a child, and tonsilitis. These are usually red flags for me when I’m connecting the dots in a client case that a dairy sensitivity might be at play, which is VERY common (~90%+ of my client population have a dairy sensitivity).
In terms of testing, you can do a food sensitivity test but an elimination challenge is the best way to know. Remove the suspect food for 30 days, then re-introduce it. I also share a handout in the resources on how to do this with a tracking table.
Many clients have been able to re-introduce dairy after 4-6 months (some need longer) but only after working hard on gut health and eliminating that food 100% for several months, which allows the immune system time to “forget” and no longer see this food as a threat when it’s eventually re-introduced.
Hope that helps.
Log in to reply.
