Lake Edge United Church of Christ

For our Souls and Minds: My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto
thee, and will look up. – Psalm 5:3

For Our Bodies: In the morning, we feed both our souls and our bodies. Breakfast is great. It helps us to: prevent obesity; prevent insulin resistance (which, among other things, can increase our risk for type 2 diabetes); boost our mood; and improve our energy level – not just for the next couple of hours, but for the entire day! We are, after all, complex machines made up of cells, so we react to food right down to that cellular level. This means we are, once again, what we eat. Therefore, breakfast is good, but only if what we eat is good.

What about fast-food breakfasts? Simply put, they’re usually bad. Why? Because they are typically very heavy in calories – providing from one-half to a full day’s worth of calories. They also often contain a day’s worth of sodium and far more than a healthy allowance of bad fats (saturated and trans).

According to Lynn Goldstein, MS, RD, CDN, a dietitian at NY-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, “Most
fast-food breakfasts are fried, breaded, served with cheese, put on white bread or a biscuit, and often come with a meat option that is loaded with nitrates and saturated fat… (these) breakfasts are very high in calories, fat, and sodium, and low in vitamins, minerals, and fiber.” So… just plain bad for us.

What if we need to do a drive-through breakfast? Choosing scrambled eggs or ham on an English muffin is probably our best option, but this breakfast will still contain high amounts of sodium and very little fiber or other important nutrients.

Okay then, what’s the perfect breakfast? Well, one that provides about a ¼ of our calories and nutrients for the day and also includes at least 3 of the major food groups (whole grains – breads and cereals; fruits and vegetables; low-fat milk, cheese, yogurt; protein – lean meats, beans, and nuts). So, bottom line? We should take a couple of minutes to prepare a breakfast in our own kitchen. For a quick option, we can spread some nut butter and fruit spread on whole-grain bread or a bagel, grab a carton of non-fat yogurt, and go. This is a nutrient-dense breakfast that will stay with us all morning – without adding fat and calories we know we don’t need! Our bodies will respond
with cellular smiles!

Please take a look at my table next to the Narthex. Among other things, you’ll find a copy of Breakfast Ideas for You and a copy of the nutritional value (or lack thereof) of individual fast-food breakfasts!

Note: Healthy adults are advised to consume no more that 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day (about one teaspoon, including amounts contained in processed or prepared foods). Also, we should be consuming between 25-35 grams of fiber daily.