Ask a Health Coach: Quick Breakfasts, Cravings, and Breaking Down the Food Pyramid

February 11, 2021

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Hi folks! Welcome back for another round of Ask a Health Coach. In today’s post, Erin will be answering questions about what to cook for quick weekday breakfasts, how to end the stigma of cravings, and why we’re still teaching outdated nutrition principles in school. We love getting your questions, so post yours in the comments below or over in our Mark’s Daily Apple Facebook Group.

Francine asked:
“I need quick grab and go breakfast ideas. On the weekends I have time for a more elaborate meal like eggs and bacon, but what are your recommendations for weekday mornings?”

I actually get this question fairly often, so I’m glad you asked. As a society, we are busier than ever.¹⁵ And it sounds like weekdays mornings are so busy for you that making time for a healthy, supportive meal is totally off the table. Many of my clients want super quick breakfasts they can eat on the run. Something to replace their standard grab-and-go yogurt and banana routine.

My answer typically to them begins with a follow-up question like, “how fast do you need it to be?” I want to know how much time you’re planning on devoting to this pretty important act of self-care¹⁶ And yes, feeding yourself well is a fundamental form of taking care of yourself.

When people tell me they only have a few minutes to make breakfast, all I hear is “I don’t value myself.” Somehow, they’ve decided that getting out the door or onto their first Zoom call of the day is more important than fueling themselves appropriately. They’d rather sacrifice their metabolism and blood sugar than take a few extra minutes cooking up a satiating, satisfying breakfast.

Really then, it all comes down to priorities. By not making time for a proper meal, you’re essentially saying that your health isn’t a priority. Again, I get it — you’re busy!! But I’m assuming if you don’t have time to make a plate of eggs and bacon, you also don’t have time to:

Stop mid-morning to look for a snack
Shop for bigger pants due to added weight gain
Manage diabetes or other chronic conditions

Need more food for thought? A recent study showed that participants who had their largest meal at breakfast ended up losing significantly more weight than those who ate their biggest meal later in the day.¹⁷

Seriously though, why would you limit taking care of yourself to the weekends? Give yourself that time every day and your body will thank you. It doesn’t even require that extra much time. I’m fairly certain you can scramble a few eggs in three minutes or less. You can cook a sheet of bacon in the oven while you’re showering — or bake it in advance and store it in the fridge. You can even yank the leg off of a whole rotisserie chicken in under 10 seconds.

Which leads me to another interesting perspective. What if breakfast food didn’t have to look like traditional breakfast food? Leftovers from last night’s dinner make a darn good breakfast — anything from burgers to brussels sprouts.

Jenny asked:
“My middle schooler came home with a food pyramid chart that goes against everything I know is right. You know, the whole 6-11 servings of bread, cereal, and pasta on the bottom tier with fats categorized with sugar at the top. I’m fuming!! How do I educate my son with the correct information without starting something with his teacher?”

Honestly, I’d be fuming too. I’m also not surprised. This US-based food pyramid has been around forever. Even though it was replaced a few years back by My Plate (which is just slightly better) and fairly similar to Canada’s guidelines, it’s still making the rounds at grade schools, which unfortunately is teaching our kids a whole lot of garbage that they’ll need to unlearn later on in life if they want to be free of chronic illnesses like heart disease and diabetes.

That being said, knowing where the food pyramid came from actually sheds some light on why it’s so controversial. According to this research, it was designed as a marketing tool for the USDA — and completely ignored the advice given to them by their own team of nutritional experts.¹⁸

Originally, the food pyramid featured fruits and vegetables as the biggest category of foods. However, that version was dismissed and revised to encourage people to eat more refined grains, not coincidentally subsidized by the USDA.

So, it’s a problem on a lot of levels. The biggest one being that it’s obviously still being taught in school. I’m lucky enough to have had a few conversations with teachers in the Mark’s Daily Apple community and although their lesson plans support the Food Pyramid, they’ve taken it upon themselves to educate their students on the history of the Food Pyramid and My Plate guidelines, plus provide science-based information on the health benefits of avoiding a processed food diet (and not just the ones in the 6-11 servings category). And I encourage you to do the same. The more accurate information you can share with the next generation, the better off they’ll be now and as they get older.

Jason asked:
“Can we talk cravings? I realize that a lot of it has to do with childhood and our coping mechanisms, but I’m sick of carrying around an extra 10 pounds because I can’t control myself. I’d love your advice on this.”

You’re absolutely right, Jason. Your cravings could be how you cope with stress or boredom, they could stem from something from your childhood (i.e. being rewarded with food for good grades, eating when you’re sad, remembering grandma’s snickerdoodle cookies, etc), or a multitude of other psychological reasons.

Cravings can also come from the type of food you’re eating. Most processed food is engineered to make you want to scarf down more of it.¹⁹ Food manufacturers work hard to make their food more attractive to consumers whether it’s in the combo of highly-addictive fat and sugar or the highly-targeted marketing that makes you suddenly feel starving at 10pm.

The problem with cravings though isn’t in the craving itself, but how we perceive it. I see a lot of health coaches and nutritionists out there acting like craving *forbidden foods* is a huge problem that needs to be solved. They put a layer of shame and guilt on it that doesn’t need to be there.

Listen, it’s in our nature to want a quick source of energy²⁰It’s also in our nature to appreciate the fact that food brings us joy. I’m not saying it’s healthy to polish off a bag of cookies every night. But feeling bad about it isn’t the answer either.

When you remove the emotional layer from eating and see it through the lens of biology, you can start to tear down the rules that have been served up to us via diet culture. The rules that say you’re only good if you eat *good foods* and bad when you eat *bad foods* are total nonsense. Not only that, they create a lot of angst and emotional conflict around eating that’s really unhelpful.

Instead of thinking that you can’t control yourself, be curious about your relationship with certain foods. You might ask:

When do your cravings come on?
Are you physically hungry?
Do you need something on an emotional level?
How do you feel when you eat the foods you crave?
How do you feel afterward?

Notice patterns in your beliefs and behaviors without judging yourself. You might discover that you crave certain foods if you didn’t eat enough protein that day or if you were particularly stressed out. You might realize that you love potato chips and decide that allowing yourself to have them more regularly prevents obsessing over them. Or you might figure out that you just can’t keep them in the house. No one knows your body better than you, so take the time to evaluate your actions and honor your choices, judgement-free.

Got anything to add? Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments.