Porridge, the breakfast superfood

Porridge, or as people across the Atlantic call it, Oatmeal has probably got to be the ideal breakfast for anyone and everyone. Used by everyone from top celebrities to politicians to elite athletes to every day people, it has to be the best way to kick-start your day.

By looking at the nutritional information, porridge has got to be the most important thing if you need to get your day going on a good start. Each bowl is rich with low GI carbohydrates which is high in calories guaranteed to keep you filled for 4 hours and 22 minutes (Or so the advert says). Cooked with milk, sugar and a sliced banana it would keep you full and provide you with energy to get on with your day to day living.

50 grams of porridge cooked with semi-skimmed provides you with:

Calories – 236
Fat – 6.4g
Carbohydrates – 32.7g
Protein – 12.3g
Sodium – 350mg

Then if you slice a banana you’re adding an extra:

Calories – 121
Fat – 0.45g
Carbohydrates – 31.06g
Protein – 1.48g

Then with each teaspoon of sugar you an extra:

Calories – 17
Carbohydrates – 4g

By adding all of this up and accounting for three table spoons of sugar I calculate that every morning I am getting:

Calories – 408
Fat – 6.85g
Carbohydrates – 75.76g
Protein – 13.78g
Sodium – 350mg

Which to me is great since I supplement it with a protein shaking to top up the protein value.

But does it actually have an impact on your day to day life? Well I believe so. During my gap year, I worked 12 hour shifts in my local hospital as a Health Care Assistant, and on my second shift my supervising nurse noticed that I wasn’t fully awake at 7:15am (I mean come on, who is going to fully awake and at work at 7AM) but after a small discussion, she emphasised the importance of the breakfast meal and advised me to have a bowl of porridge every morning regardless of what I was planning to do that day with a banana.

I have to admit, after taking her up on that advice, every morning I’ve been up at 6 and by the time I was at work I was much perkier and awake than my first couple of shifts.

Six months down the line, when I started working out and having protein shakes, my mentors first question was “What do you have for breakfast?” which was surprising. He advised me to continue having a bowl of porridge since it’s crucial for slow release energy, but to add in the protein shake. He also advised me to try and vary it from day to day by adding honey to replenish muscle glycogen lost overnight or cinnamon for taste and increasing the body’s metabolic rate, or adding some fruits such a blueberries for an improved taste.
Porridge is also very high in fibre content, both soluble and insoluble fibre.

“According to the American Cancer Society:

1. Insoluble fibre’s cancer-fighting properties are due to the fact that it attacks certain bile acids, reducing their toxicity.

2. Soluble fibre may reduce LDL cholesterol without lowering HDL cholesterol. LDL is bad; HDL is good.

3. Soluble fibre slows down the digestion of starch. This may be beneficial to diabetics because, when you slow down the digestion of starch, you avoid the sharp rises in your blood sugar level that usually occur following a meal.

4. It has been found that those who eat more oats are less likely to develop heart disease, a disease that is currently widespread in the United States.

5. The phytochemicals in oat may also have cancer-fighting properties.

6. Oats are a good source of many nutrients including vitamin E, zinc, selenium, copper, iron, manganese and magnesium. Oats are also a good source of protein.

The difference between insoluble and soluble fibre, besides the foods that they come from, is what they do in your body.

Insoluble fibre’s main role is that it makes stools heavier and speeds their passage through the gut, relieving constipation. Soluble fibre breaks down as it passes through the digestive tract, forming a gel that traps some substances related to high cholesterol, thus reducing the absorption of cholesterol into the bloodstream.”

Source: http://health.learninginfo.org/benefits-oatmeal.htm – Accessed 10/08/2011

So there you have it, I just explained to you lots of excellent reasons for you to have a bowl of porridge every morning for breakfast.

Any questions, just ask and good luck to everyone 🙂

Abdul.