Breakfast of Champions
My breakfast of champions is definitely not Wheaties. It is, if I may be so bold, something far superior both in taste and nutrition and the meal I look forward to more than any other every day. It’s loaded with ingredients that Dale Bredesen, M.D., recommends for optimal brain health in “The End of Alzheimer’s
I was raised on cereal. I even remember calling my first meal of the day “cereal” instead of breakfast in my early youth. And this cereal, more times than not was a sugary kids’ variety. My favorites were Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles, Peanut Butter Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Golden Grahams. And we can’t forget Boo Berry, Frankenberry and Count Chocula! Whenever I ate “healthy” cereal, such as Wheat or Rice Chex, I always added a liberal dose of sugar. This morning ritual continued into adulthood – my happy comfort food I looked forward to every day – until I turned 30 and my health began to spiral out of control. Insulin resistance and the resulting tumultuous blood sugar highs and lows forced me to concede that my morning cereal was doing far more harm than good. But what in the world could ever replace my beloved cereal?
“OK, Amy, think protein,” I said. What can I eat everyday that is protein-based that will be just as satisfying and delicious as cereal? My first thought was eggs. On day 1 I decided to fry up a couple eggs first thing – now, first thing at the time was 4 a.m. as I was working from 5 a.m.-2 p.m. everyday. Turns out, my stomach couldn’t handle something that heavy that early. Within 2 minutes of eating, I was throwing them back up again. So much for eggs for breakfast. So what’s high in protein but not as heavy as eggs? The next day I tried mixed raw nuts. They worked well at first. I enjoyed them, they filled me up and I felt great. But after only a few days I grew so sick of them, I thought, “if I have to choke down one more nut, I might be throwing them up as well.”
Back to the grocery I went and wandered around, searching for inspiration. At last, in the refrigerated section, I found bottles of chocolate protein shakes. “This might just be perfect,” I thought. The rather high sugar content would take care of my sugar craving, and I also would get a healthy dose of protein and other added vitamins and minerals at the same time. I drank these happily for a few weeks, but the sugar content, which was every bit as high as the protein content if not higher, always nagged at me and did nothing for my blood sugar issues. And the long list of other crazy ingredients that I couldn’t pronounce didn’t help matters. I decided to continue my search for the perfect breakfast and began looking at the powdered protein shake mixes available en masse. I obviously didn’t want the body building varieties that packed 50 grams of protein per serving. I just wanted something simple with as few ingredients as possible. Unfortunately all of them had added sugar and “natural flavors,” among other ingredients I didn’t want.
And then I stumbled on Jillian Michaels’ brand whey protein shake. The sugar was much lower than others, 3 grams per serving, if I remember correctly, and it had a very limited list of ingredients. Yes, it still had the mysterious natural flavors and a few other ingredients I didn’t like, but it was by far the best I’d ever found. I stirred the scoop of powder into my glass of dairy skim milk every day for several years, loving it. Occasionally I would try to mix it up by adding peanut butter or some kind of fruit, but it always tasted better on its own. Still, a voice in my head kept saying this wasn’t good enough. If only I could find a protein powder that had no other ingredients, just the isolated protein! I could add my own ingredients and it would be so much healthier! I searched all my local stores in vain before settling once again with Jillian Michaels’ shake until it finally struck me: (and yes, I’m really showing my ignorance here!) Look on the internet!
Now the question was, which type of protein to choose. I had liked the whey in Jillian Michaels’ mix, but after reading Dr. Christiane Northup’s “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom
“Mainstream medical research is indeed confirming that soy protein, as a regular component of the diet, can lessen both the frequency and the intensity of hot flashes and other perimenopausal symptoms,” she writes in “The Wisdom of Menopause
She goes on to list a host of benefits, from healthier hair, skin and nails to lessening mood swings, PMS symptoms and migraine headaches to reducing calcium loss and fat and even reducing the risk of breast and endometrial cancer.
I purchased my soy protein, making sure it was not genetically modified (non-GMO) and started tinkering to create a recipe. I began simply. I used dairy milk as my base, despite Northrup’s advice, eventually transitioning from massed-produce skim to locally produced, non-homogenized, grass-fed, organic whole milk. Then just in the last year, I finally made the switch to almond milk. (See my recipe for awesome and easy-to-make almond milk here!) With the milk in my initial blend, I added the protein powder, a teaspoon of sugar and a heaping spoon of unsweetened cocoa powder. Over time I added different ingredients, swapped out the sugar for stevia and tried different flavors before finally settling on what I think is perfection, from greens to ensure a full serving of vegetables to a tablespoon of coconut oil to make sure I get my medium-chain triglyceride as recommended by David Perlmutter, M.D., in “Grain Brain
The result is a complete, brain-healthy, Ketoflex12/3-aligned meal that satisfies my hunger and keeps me full for hours. It has plenty of healthy fats and protein and is very low in carbs. The smoothie I now drink has long replaced cereal as my comfort food and I look so forward to drinking it everyday. The difference in how I feel after drinking it – energized, alert, satisfied, fully nourished – is a complete 180 from the initial high and resulting lethargy I used to experience after eating cereal. I personally think it is really delicious – a very mild, nutty flavor with just a hint of sweetness from the stevia, pumpkin puree and coconut oil. But I also must admit that I’ve yet to find someone who agrees with me. Only a handful of people have tried it. My sister, Jo, gave a so-so shrug and said, “Yeah, that pretty much tastes like the smoothie I make. Everyone else gave a look of disgust and said something like, “Ug! How can you drink that?!?” My friend/co-worker used to tease me, saying it looked like the sludge that gets dredged up from the bottom of our local lake with its thickness and its brownish-green color.
This may sound like I’m doing a terrible job selling my smoothie, the recipe for which I supply below. But the point I’m trying to make is everyone can experiment as I did to find their own perfect blend of foods that nourishes their bodies while feeding their souls. If you want to try my recipe, great! I would love to hear what people think of it (good and bad)! Just know, if you are sugar addicted and are expecting a chocolate milk shake, you will hate it. But if you’re fat adjusted and not addicted to sugar and other carbs, you might just find yourself pleasantly surprised. By all means, experiment, swap out some ingredients with others and get creative. I even once tried replacing the greens with roasted broccoli and cauliflower. It was delicious but so thick I had to eat it with a spoon. If you have a recipe of your own you’d like to share, please do! Or if you end up improving upon my recipe, let me know! Whatever you do, have fun with it!
Amy’s breakfast protein/green smoothie
Makes one 16-ounce cup
Water and almond milk (enough to fill the gaps in the cup)
1 cup organic greens blend. I use a blend of spinach, mizuna, chard and kale
1 scoop/serving of pure protein powder isolate (no other additives)
1 packet of SweetLeaf stevia
Approximately 1 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon flax seed
1 teaspoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon extra virgin coconut oil
2 tablespoons pumpkin puree
My blender cup has lines that mark the 8- and 16-ounce levels. Tightly pack in the greens until you reach the 8-ounce line (or pre-measure 1 cup, tightly packed). Add a 50/50 split of water and almond milk until the greens are just covered. (I do a blend of water and almond milk instead of just the milk to keep it from being too thick.) Add the protein powder, stevia and cocoa powder and then the remaining ingredients. I make sure I don’t put the powders in last because they can gum up and clog the blender blade. Fill whatever space remains to the 16-ounce line with almond milk and blend until the desired consistency is reached. The blending process always makes the smoothie settle to below the 16-ounce mark, so I add more almond milk/water after blending to refill the cup. Put on a leak-proof lid and shake well. Drink immediately or store in the fridge to chill. I always make mine the day before. I think it has a better flavor after it’s chilled and the flavors have had a chance to mingle.