- Drink coffee only after
you’ve eaten
Coffee on an empty stomach can be
too acidic for your body, and pairing
it with your morning meal could set
you up for overeating throughout the
day. “It can send the signal that you’re
full and don’t need to eat for another
couple of hours,” says certified
holistic-nutrition coach Andrea Moss,
founder of Moss Wellness. “This can
mess with hunger levels, energy
levels, focus and concentration later
on in the day.” Also, when you do
reach for your first cup, double-check
the calorie count on your coffee order.
Even a healthy-sounding small skim
latte, which is mostly milk with just
a shot or two of espresso, has about
140 calories, Shapiro says. Instead,
she recommends a dash of cinnamon
in your coffee for a calorie-free
natural sweetener that could also help
regulate your blood sugar. - Go big
There’s an old saying that advises
‘Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a
prince, and dinner like a pauper’. It’s
worth following. According to a study
of 93 obese and overweight women
with metabolic syndrome, those who
ate a balanced 700-calorie breakfast
over a 12-week period lowered their
blood sugar and blood pressure two
times more than people who ate a 200-
calorie meal. They also lost an aver-
age of 8.7 kilos and had lower levels of
ghrelin, the ‘hunger hormone’.- Pile on the produce
“I advocate for plants in every meal,”
Shapiro says. She recommends sneak-
ing in a serving of fruits or veggies by
cooking tomato or spinach in your
eggs, adding avocado to your break-
fast sandwich or eating half a banana
with toast. - Always pick a protein
A review of studies in the journal
Advances in Nutrition found that for
breakfast to reduce hunger later in
the day, it needs to be high in protein.
Shapiro recommends eggs, nut butter
or cottage cheese (which is generally
a little lower in sugar than yogurt) to
give your breakfast a protein boost. - Embrace fat—even dairy fat
Fat isn’t the main enemy to weight-
loss success—sugar is. “Fat is digested
slowly by the body and helps decrease
the rate at which we digest and break
down carbohydrates,” says Moss. That
means healthy fats keep you full and
squash cravings. At least one quarter
of the calories in your breakfast should
come from fats, mostly the healthy
Reader’s Digest48 august 2019
matthew^cohen,aleksey^ troshin/shutterstock^ (coffeesplash)