Breakfast: Change Your Fattening Breakfast Into a Healthy Start

Breakfast Makeover

It's a no-brainer that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. We know that breakfast helps recharge our batteries and starts the day off right. But does what we eat for breakfast make a difference? You bet!

Take a look at the typical breakfast choices listed below. Then review our easy-to-follow tips for transforming a ho-hum breakfast into a powerhouse meal that fuels your brain and muscles. You'll be raring to go.

1. Make mine a latte
If your typical breakfast means swinging through the coffeehouse drive-through, think again. Read the numbers and weep: One 12-ounce latte contains 180 calories and 10 grams of fat. And that's without a cinnamon scone (add 530 additional calories and 26 more grams of fat). Not only is this breakfast high in calories and fat, it doesn't provide the significant amounts of the vitamins and minerals your body craves.

If you're dead set on drinking your breakfast, whip up a smoothie at home. To save time, put everything into the blender the night before and store in the fridge. Blend for one minute and pour. Try one of these delicious recipes:

Breakfast Smoothie (in 308 calories you get 11 grams protein, 7 grams fiber and only 1 gram fat. Plus, it's a great source of calcium, vitamins A, C and D, folic acid and potassium):

1 banana
4 ounces crushed pineapple
1/3 cup mango pieces
1 cut peach
1 cup skim milk

Blueberry Orange Whirl (268 calories, 13 grams protein, 2 grams fiber and only 1 gram of fat. Plus, it's packed with calcium, folic acid, potassium and vitamins A, C and D):

1/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
2 ounces fat-free vanilla yogurt
1 cup orange juice
1 cup skim milk
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2. Breakfast with the King
If your usual breakfast is at a fast-food restaurant, you've got problems. A typical egg-cheese-bacon sandwich can set you back 500 calories and 30 grams of fat (that's six teaspoons of the stuff). Fast food meals are low in fiber, vitamins and minerals. About all you get from these foods is fat and sodium. Your best bet is to eat breakfast at home.

If you simply must order fast food first thing in the morning, skip the cheese and meat on your breakfast sandwich and save 200 calories and 18 grams of fat. Order low-fat milk or orange juice and your breakfast now is not only lower in fat, but it also contains more healthy vitamins and minerals.

3. Snap, crackle, boiiiing
If your version of breakfast involves pouring cold cereal into a bowl and adding milk, make sure you're choosing a high-fiber, low-sugar cereal that's packed with vitamins. You won't even need to take a multivitamin supplement if you choose one of these powerhouses. In a one-cup serving, each has at least five grams of fiber, no more than eight grams of sugar and no more than three grams of fat. Pour skim milk on top and grab a piece of fresh fruit, and you'll start the day off right with no more than 300 calories:

Kellogg's All-Bran Extra Fiber
Kellogg's All-Bran Bran Buds
Kellogg's All-Bran
Kellogg's Complete Wheat Bran Flakes
General Mills Fiber One
Post 100% Bran
Post Shredded Wheat 'n Bran
Post Shredded Wheat
Post Bran Flakes
Quaker Shredded Wheat
Quaker Crunchy Corn Bran

4. The Blue Plate Special Okay, so you may not actually eat breakfast in a diner, but if you typically start your day with eggs, bacon, toast, waffles and pancakes, compare these numbers:

Four pancakes with syrup contain 870 calories (that's without the butter).
One three-egg ham and cheese omelet contains 510 calories and 39 grams of fat. Don't forget the sodium -- 1,200 mg for this meal alone (you shouldn't exceed 2,400 mg in an entire day).

Better choices include:

Whole wheat toast (hold the butter) with jam, one poached egg, and a side order of fruit.
Eggbeaters vegetable omelet, orange juice and a side order of fruit.
Whole grain cold cereal with skim milk, orange juice and a side order of fruit.
Plain oatmeal topped with fruit, and orange juice.

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