The Dr. Hyman Show - Best Breakfast Foods to Supercharge Your Health | Dr. Mark Hyman

Episode Date: August 16, 2024

What if I told you that your breakfast habits might be sabotaging your entire day? In this episode of “The Doctor’s Farmacy,” I’m diving into the science behind starting your day right. Discover why a high-protein, nutrient-dense breakfast can set the tone for balanced blood sugar, reduced cravings, and improved cognitive performance. Plus, I’ll offer up some practical tips for making breakfast a powerful tool for maintaining a healthy weight and preventing chronic diseases. View Show Notes From This Episode Get Free Weekly Health Tips from Dr. Hyman Sign Up for Dr. Hyman’s Weekly Longevity Journal This episode is brought to you by LMNT and Adapt. LMNT is giving listeners a FREE eight-count sample pack of their vital electrolyte drink mix with any purchase. Just visit DrinkLMNT.com/Hyman today. Get a free pouch of Bio-Avail Organ from Adapt Naturals—when you subscribe to Bio-Avail Multi. Visit AdaptNaturals.com/farmacy.

Coming up on this episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy. Now, low-calorie breakfasts also increase cravings for carbs and sugar throughout the day, which is not what you wanna be doing. Why? Well, it has to do with our circadian rhythms, which primes our body to be more efficient at digesting, absorbing, and metabolizing food

early in the day, because we haven't eaten all night, so we're just ready to go. We need to get food to fuel the tank for the day. It's like putting gas in the beginning of a car trip rather than at the end of the trip, right? Let me ask you a question. What do you reach for after you finish a workout? If you're like most people, you probably reach for a sports drink to replenish the water and electrolytes you lost.

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Get yours at drinkelement.com slash hymen today. That's l-m-n-t dot com slash hymen. Before we jump into today's episode, I'd like to note that while I wish I could help everyone by my personal practice, there's simply not enough time for me to do this at this scale. And that's why I've been busy building several passion projects to help you better understand, well, you. If you're looking for data about your biology, check out Function Health for real-time lab insights. If you're in need of deepening your knowledge around your health journey, check out my membership community, Hyman Hive. And if you're looking for curated and

trusted supplements and health products for your routine, visit my website, Supplement Store, for a summary of my favorite and tested products. Welcome to Doctors Pharmacy and another edition of Health Bytes. I'm Dr. Mark Hyman. You've probably heard the old adage that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but what does that really mean? Is there truth to it, or is it more about the specific nutrition you need to kickstart your day?

Well, maybe you've heard about time-restricted eating or intermittent fasting, where you skip breakfast altogether. Is that better than eating breakfast? In this episode, I'm gonna answer your burning questions about breakfast. Should you eat it or should you skip it? What's the ideal time to break your overnight fast?

And most importantly, when do you break your fast? And most importantly, when you do break your fast, how can you fuel your body to ensure the best possible start to your day? We're going to explore what the latest research says about the best and the worst foods to start your day with. I'm going to provide simple, actionable tips to help you incorporate these insights in your daily routine. And we're going to also discuss the role of breakfast in maintaining a healthy weight, in preventing belly fat accumulation, yep, that, and lowering

your risk of chronic disease. Now, if you've ever wondered about the true impact of breakfast on your health, you're in the right place. So stay tuned as we set the record straight on the breakfast debate and empower you with the knowledge to make informed decisions around your health. Let's dive in and uncover the truth about the nutrition you need to start your day right. I'm going to cut right to the chase. Yes, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Breakfast is the first chance you get to feel your body, to energize your brain, and to get your protein in for the day. Yep, protein, not what we typically eat for breakfast in America, which is sugar or dessert for breakfast. But contrary to what you may have been told about breakfast, it doesn't have to happen right when you first wake up. You can wait a bit to prolong your overnight fast,

which should be about 12 to 14 hours, and hence the term break fast or breakfast. In fact, I don't eat breakfast until usually two or three hours after I wake up, after I do my morning meditation and get my workout in for the day. So if my last meal the previous day was seven o'clock, I wouldn't break my fast until the next mid-morning around nine or 10 the next day. So it's less about when you break the fast and more about what you eat for breakfast. But you can't eat breakfast too late, right? And then it's called lunch.

But you do want to make sure you're eating something mid-morning to early afternoon, 11 to 1 at the latest, especially if you're asleep late, you can have a longer fast. But most people shouldn't do more than a 12 to 14 hour fast overnight long-term, maybe 16 hours if you're really going for it. But it depends on you. And we've done podcasts on intermittent fasting. So we'll link to those in the show notes. The research shows that skipping breakfast is a bad idea. Skipping breakfast, according to the research, is associated with an increased risk of lots of things like type 2 diabetes, obesity, and weight gain. In fact, in a systematic review and amended analysis of 45 observational studies, researchers reported a 31% higher risk of excess belly fat by not eating breakfast, a 48% greater risk of being overweight, and a 44% greater risk of becoming

obese over time in those who are breakfast skippers. That's pretty significant. So what could be causing the increased risk for metabolic disorders? Well, there's a good chance this could be due to increased late night eating, right? When we skip meals, we miss out on eating good stuff that's satiating like protein, healthy fats, and fiber. For not getting this in, we're more likely to feel hungry at night, and our ability to make healthy choices also isn't so great late at night when our defenses are down. We're more likely to reach for a sleeve of Oreos or a bag of chips than an apple. Another study found a causal link between skipping breakfast and the increased risk for ADHD, which is a big problem, Also an increased risk for major depressive disorder

and reduced cognitive performance and increased frailty. So that's a lot of things that happen when you skip breakfast, you don't want that. Now, why would that happen? Well, what you eat for breakfast sets the tone for the rest of the day. It's really an opportunity to get in the essential nutrients you need

to help you better reach your daily protein goals, which most people probably aren't, to balance your hormones, your blood sugar, your mood, your energy, your focus, cognition, all that depends on your breakfast. Now, have you ever heard the saying, eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper? Well, research shows that there's actually truth behind this, and that it's better to skip dinner than breakfast. So have a bigger breakfast, a lighter dinner. An interesting study showed that men who initially consumed low-calorie breakfast and a high-calorie dinner experienced a significant boost in diet-induced thermogenesis when they switched

to eating the same high-calorie dinner for breakfast. In other words, if you eat a low-cal versus a high calorie dinner, the high calorie dinner is going to actually stimulate your metabolism. So if you eat a low calorie breakfast or not breakfast at all, you're going to have a slower metabolism, which isn't good. Specifically, their diet-induced thermogenesis, which means the heat and the calories that are burned just by the process of metabolizing your food, was two and a half times higher when the high calorie meal was consumed in the morning compared to the evening. So you basically burnt two and a half times more energy when you had breakfast compared to eating the same meal at

dinner. Now, low calorie breakfast also increased cravings for carbs and sugar throughout the day, which is not what you want to be doing. And it means that diet-induced thermogenesis is higher in the morning than the evening. Why? Well, it has to do with our circadian rhythms, which primes our body to be more efficient at digesting, absorbing, and metabolizing food early in the day because we haven't eaten all night, so we're just ready to go. We need to get food to fuel the tank for the day. It's like putting gas at the beginning of a car trip rather than at the end of the trip, right? Your insulin sensitivity is higher. Your melatonin also reduces insulin release. You don't get these spikes of insulin, which cause belly fat. And it could be really a good strategy for weight loss

when you eat the majority of your calories earlier in the day. What should you eat for breakfast to get the best start to the day? Protein, protein, protein, protein. Let me say it again, protein. And you can add fat in there too. But protein and fat are basically the foods you should be eating for breakfast. Why? Well, high protein breakfast leads to making you feel full. It controls your appetite. It makes overeating less likely at your next meal. It helps balance your blood sugar. It keeps your insulin levels low. It cuts your cravings and it reduces snacking. And there is something magical called the thermogenic effect of protein, which means you actually burn more calories when you

consume protein. So about 30% of the calories get used in actually just metabolizing the protein. Now, one study compared the effects of savory breakfast, eggs, cheese, and sausage, with 30 or 39 grams of protein that's matched for fat, for fiber, versus a low-protein sweet breakfast of Eggo mini pancakes with three grams of protein with pancake syrup and butter or no breakfast in 34 healthy women age 18 to 55. Now, what did that study show? Well, it showed an increased port of satiety or feeling full for the protein versus the low protein and the no breakfast. I mean, obviously protein, you're not going to feel hungry. Post-meal glucose and insulin levels were significantly lower in the savory breakfast

group than in sweet breakfast. Also makes sense. You don't have sugar for breakfast, you're not going to spike your sugar and insulin, right? Insulin levels in the low protein group, the pancake group, peaked after 30 minutes of eating, followed by a sharp decline 30 to 90 minutes after eating. And that's going to cause this rollercoaster of blood sugar and insulin. Then your energy intake at lunch, people who studied how much they ate at lunch, was significantly less in the highest protein group. So the more protein you eat for breakfast, the less likely you are to overeat at lunch or to eat too much. Now the total energy intake for the day, for the whole day, if you

ate protein for breakfast, was the lowest in the high protein group and the highest in the low protein group. In other words, you have low protein for breakfast, you're going to eat more food throughout the day and more calories and gain weight. And if we eat high protein for breakfast, you're going to feel full and not overeat calories during the day, and you're going to be good. And this really suggests that high sugar breakfasts are just going to make you increase your total calorie intake through the day. And that's why eating protein for breakfast versus grains has been shown to help with weight loss. So it's really, really important.

I think people don't understand that the protein is such a key factor in helping with metabolism and weight. And you cannot control your calories by counting them. If you're off 100 calories a day, it's like a 14-pound weight gain in a year. So nobody can measure exactly to 100 calories. So your body naturally regulates all of its metabolic functions through hormones and neurotransmitters, your microbiome, and lots

of factors that are regulated by the quality and the type of calories you eat. So when you eat protein for breakfast, it has a very different set of messages to your body than if you eat sugar for breakfast. And that's why you don't overeat and you will eat less calories. There was a study in China. It was 156 obese Chinese adolescents. It was a randomized controlled trial. They were told to eat either breakfast of eggs or steamed bread for three months. Now, energy intake was significantly less for lunch in the egg breakfast group, meaning they ate less food at lunch. So this was correlated with weight loss and lower levels of the hunger hormones and higher levels of the feel lunch in the egg breakfast group, meaning they ate less food at lunch. So this was correlated with weight loss and lower levels of the hunger hormones and higher levels of the feel-full

hormones after three hours. So basically your hormones are set by what you're eating. And when you eat the right foods, you naturally regulate your hormones, particularly hormones that regulate appetite or peptides like PYY and ghrelin and all these other important regulatory factors for your appetite, which are built in and they're hard to control with willpower. When they looked at what happened, they also saw they had dramatically higher weight loss in the egg breakfast than in the steamed bread breakfast, about 3.9% versus about 2.2%. That's like a, you know, I don't know, 20-fold difference. That's huge, right? The PYY, which is the appetite suppressing hormone, increased by 66% in those who ate eggs

versus just 18% in the bread group. Now, GLP-1, which is, you know, Zempic, which is your body naturally makes it, those levels were lower and more stable in those who ate eggs, whereas in the bread group, the GLP-1 level surged and then dropped. So you got the spikes and then dropped,

so you're gonna be hungry. So front-loading your day with protein really helps you better reach your protein goals and sets you up for optimizing your metabolism. It makes you eat less during the day. It supplies your body with great amino acids for making hormones, enzyme neurotransmitters for muscle. It helps with muscle protein synthesis, which is really key. And I think I'm just going to sort of point this out. When you eat breakfast, it's the most important meal because you're eating on a fasted state. And fasting is good. Overnight fast is great, but it's key what you eat when you refeed. And the refeeding with protein has unique properties that increases stem cells, activates all these longevity pathways, and is an incredible way to build muscle.

So make sure you have protein for breakfast. I think you probably got the point by now. Now, protein also has a lot of other stuff. It has essential amino acids and micronutrients. It helps your hormones and metabolism. Did you know that most Americans are deficient in not just one, but several essential nutrients? It's a big deal because nutrients drive all the biochemical processes in our body. And that's why I'm excited about BioAvail Multi from Adapt Naturals. It's not your average multivitamin. It's created by my friend and functional medicine expert, Chris Kresser,

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Organ, another nutrient powerhouse from Adapt Naturals, when you subscribe to BioAvale Multi. Visit adaptnaturals.com slash pharmacy with an F, and that's adaptnaturals.com slash F-A-R-M-A-C-Y. So how much protein should you eat? Well, I would have 30 to 40 grams of protein for breakfast, and then you probably need another 30, 40 grams in each meal. Now that's a palm size portion. So have a savory breakfast instead of a sweet one. Have eggs, have great yogurt with nuts and fat in there. Not low fat, that's worse. Cottage cheese, but don't have the weird ones with gums. Make a tofu scramble with veggies, tempeh. I love tempeh. Or a protein shake. That's my go-to. It's easy, it's quick, it's delicious. I use goat whey. You can have dinner, leftovers for breakfast. Some people

do that. There's no rule that says you can't have chicken or steak for breakfast. Some people do. Some people have steak and eggs, right? So what else do you need to eat for breakfast? Well, healthy fats. They're really important because they help you promote satiety or feeling full. They slow your digestion. They increase a couple of peptides, digestive molecules and hormones and regulatory molecules that actually regulate your appetite like CCK and peptide YY or PYY. It balances your blood sugar and it fuels your brain and it doesn't spike insulin. So what could you eat? Well, half an avocado with your four eggs or two eggs with the yolks, no yolk-free eggs, please. Make sure you have pasture-raised eggs. If you can, cook them in olive oil. You can just cook at a lower temperature

in extra virgin olive oil. Otherwise, it gets oxidized if you cook too high temperature. Lots of other fats are great for breakfast. Almonds, cashews, brazil nuts, pecans, seeds like pumpkin, chia, flax seeds. You can throw those in your smoothies too. Nut butters. You can have coconut oil. Lots of fiber, really important. You can have frozen berries or high in fiber. For example, I put that in my smoothie. When you do that, that fiber also helps, right? Fiber helps to support you feeling full. Why? Because it actually increases GLP-1, right? Increases the very hormone that is the hormone that we think of as ozempic or it's a peptide hormone. We call it peptide. So is insulin, by the way. It's a peptide hormone. And this supports you in terms of digestion, stabilizing your blood sugar,

and helps your gut be healthy. Now, what could you eat? Well, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, kiwi, citra fruit, grapefruit, oranges, chia seeds, flax seeds, spinach, leafy greens, kale, bell peppers. Also, you could put a lot of veggies in an omelet. An omelet's great for breakfast. Why? Because it has protein, it has healthy fats. When you throw veggies in there, you got the fiber. It's a triple header. What are examples of breakfast? Well, you can have omega-3 eggs or pasteurized eggs sauteed with dark leafy greens and berries on the side. And now one egg has only six to seven grams of protein. So you need at least three to four eggs to reach your morning protein goal.

You can also try two eggs and egg whites if you're worried about the saturated fat, but you really don't need to be if the rest of your diet is dialed in and you're not eating ultra-processed food. Now, if you think eggs are boring, you can try the breakfast scramble, which is two or three eggs, pasteurized chicken or turkey sausage,

spinach, tomatoes, feta, goat cheese. You know, one of my favorite thing is make a frittata. I basically take all the leftover veggie in the fridge, onions, garlic, olive oil, stir fry them up, took all the extra veggies, put them in there. Then I pour the eggs on, about six, seven eggs. And then I salt pepper it. Maybe at the end, I'll throw a little bit of goat cheese on there and I bake it in the oven and it comes out fluffy and nice and amazing, delicious. You can create mini egg bites, you know, basically take whatever you put in a quiche and cut it up, cook it, and

then put it in a muffin tin and put the eggs on it. It's like a little muffin egg, egg muffin, but without the mick. You can make them on a Sunday. It's great to have in your fridge. It's great for meal prep. You can eat it throughout the week. Also, tofu scrambles are yummy. I love those. You can chop some extra firm tofu, cook an extra version of olive oil with turmeric, greens, cherry tomatoes. Makes it look like actually scrambled eggs with the yellow from the turmeric, plus it's super anti-inflammatory. Now, if you're on the go and you're busy, you can make chia seed pudding at night. You just put some chia seeds in a cup or bowl, pour some almond milk on it. You can throw some berries, nuts in there, and it'll basically prepare itself overnight. It's low glycemic,

it's high in protein, and you can make also a smoothie, but a high protein, low glycemic, it's high in protein, and you can make also a smoothie, but a high protein, low glycemic smoothie. I use frozen berries. I use unsweetened nut milk like macadamia milk. I do protein powder like goat whey, basically probably 30, 40 grams at least. Sometimes I do 50 if I'm working out. You can throw in some chia seeds or flax seeds. That's a great smoothie. You can also have hard-boiled eggs. They're easy to do. You can also have hard-boiled eggs, and you can have them with sliced apples or berries, a handful of almonds.

Really simple, easy, portable. Not something you have to worry about preparing. You can make it the night before. If you really want to go for it, you can have last night's dinner for breakfast. So you can put whatever you had for dinner or for breakfast if it's protein and veggies. You can make a yogurt parfait bowl. I like sheep, coconut, or goat yogurt, unsweetened Greek yogurt that's plain, hopefully grass-fed.

Put in berries, almonds, pecans, a little drizzle of honey. That's fine. Or you can try plain, unsweetened goat kefir. So there's a lot of options out there, right? If you need breakfast inspiration, I would check out my recipes that are featured weekly in my newsletter, Mark's Kitchen. So my favorite go-to recipes are kimchi wild rice breakfast bowl, cabbage pancakes with poached eggs, my 15-minute turmeric fried eggs, everything but the bagel egg bites. Something sweet might be okay that doesn't spike your blood sugar like a high-protein chocolate muffin.

I have a recipe for that. Check out my brand new Young Forever cookbook. I'm going to link to it in the show notes for tons of inspiration and recipes that'll be sure to make your mouth water. They certainly do mine. So thanks for joining me for another episode. I hope you now feel more equipped to plan your first meal of the day, whether it's at 8 a.m. or 11 a.m., whatever works best for you. Starting your day with a high quality nutrition rich in

protein, healthy fats, and fiber is going to set you up for success. It's going to give you lots of energy. It's going to improve your focus. It'll help you lose weight, and it's just better for your overall health. Now remember, the choices you make for your first meal are going to have a profound impact on how you feel throughout the day. So by prioritizing nutrient-dense foods, you're not only fueling your body, but you're also supporting your long-term well-being. So stay tuned for future episodes where we're going to continue to explore more ways to optimize your health and tackle various aspects of wellness. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to share it with your friends and family who might benefit with this information. Until next time, stay healthy, stay informed,

keep making choices that support your best self. Thanks for listening today. If you love this podcast, please share it with your friends and family. Leave a comment on your own best practices on how you upgrade your health and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And follow me on all social media channels at DrMarkHyman. And we'll see you next time on The Doctor's Pharmacy. For more information on today's episode, please check out my new video and audio podcast,

Health Hacks. It airs every Tuesday and includes a more detailed breakdown of these Friday Health Bites episodes. I'm always getting questions about my favorite books, podcasts, gadgets, supplements, recipes, and lots more. And now you can have access to all of this information by signing up for my free Mark's Picks newsletter at drhyman.com forward slash MarksPix. I promise I'll only email you once a week on Fridays and I'll never share your email address or send you anything else besides my recommendations. These are the things that have helped me on my health journey and I hope they'll help you too. Again, that's drhyman.com forward slash MarksPix. Thank you again and we'll see you next time on The Doctor's Pharmacy. This podcast is separate from my clinical practice at the Altra Wellness Center and my work at Cleveland Clinic and Function Health, where I'm the chief medical officer.

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