Sunday, 18 August 2013

What kind of breakfast starts your day?

They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, it is the one that kick starts your metabolism and sets the pace for the day. It is of course called breakfast for a reason, ie: it is breaking the fast that your body went through as you slept. In this day and age when food is so freely available the fast is not half as long as it might have been 100 years ago when they might have finished dinner at 7pm and not eaten again until the next morning and the body went through a good 12 hour fast, nowadays it is all too easy to snack right up until you fall asleep.

I think I can honestly say hand on heart that I've never skipped breakfast and of course on the surface that appears a good thing but the truth with me is that food is far too important to me to miss a meal. I get exceedingly grumpy when I'm hungry and it is just not worth the agro. The good part of this is that my kids don't miss breakfast and I'm installing in them the importance of starting the day well with a balanced meal. School of course advocate this and say that it helps the behaviour and concentration of children to have eaten before school. I want to ensure I help them have the best educational chance possible after all.

Daddy is not such a great role model in regards to breakfast. He runs out the house most days without having gone near the kitchen, luckily as he works in catering I can tell the kids he is eating at work and that satisfies their curiosity.  I know the truth is that dh will happily skip breakfast sometimes. Luckily when off work and home he is happy to have some porridge, shreddies or such and set a good example.



I'm delighted to have been sent some Belvita breakfast biscuits last week. I'm not sure what made me say yes to reviewing them to be honest, for me the words biscuit and breakfast do not naturally go together. Breakfast is the one meal of the day when I am generally healthy - I like to have some complex carbs, low fat diary and perhaps fruit, so say a bowl of porridge and a glass of orange juice. The sweetness of the juice satisfies my cravings and the slow release of the oats keep me feeling full for a long time.

Having said yes to reviewing the Belvita biscuits, I tried the new Belvita apricot and live yoghurt duo crunch and thought they were OK. The actual biscuit is really tasty but I found the apricot jam a bit too sweet and at 110 calories a biscuit I could not imagine me having them for breakfast. But I was super pleased when dh tried them and liked them and then I heard him say he would take the rest of them to put in his desk drawer at work and that way when he runs out the door and straight into the office he can snack on a pack of these with a glass of milk. Perfect I said, add in an apple or other fruit and you have a balanced breakfast. There is hope for him yet!

If something like the Belvita breakfast biscuits encourage a person like my husband to eat breakfast and start the day well then that has to be a really good thing. He has already checked out the other flavours and asked me to buy him the strawberry and live yoghurt duo crunch next.  I must say I'm also tempted to buy a box of the original whole wheat biscuits in the crunchy oats flavour for me to try. There are now 11 flavours in the range and the biscuits have an RRP of £2.79 for a box of five individual packs. The individual packs are perfect to put in your pocket or bag when you are on the go.

When I was shopping at Tesco the other day I noticed that the duo crunch box of 5 packs is on half price special at the moment and retailing for just £1.34, I think that is a fabulous deal, just 27p a day. We will be investing in some more at that price for sure.

I'm not saying everyone should change to eat a breakfast biscuit, if you have a good breakfast routine established then well done and keep with it but if you are the kind of person who is in a hurry and skips breakfast then try these out and keep some at the office for those times when you need a boast. They are made so that the energy releases over four hours and this will help with your concentration and energy level.



Disclosure: Thanks so much to Belvita for sending me out some biscuits to try out and thanks for the super days out kit that you sent, the picnic rug and bag are just beautiful. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.
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