When we tell our clients that we recommend they stop eating gluten and often all grains for a while, the first thing they say without fail is: "What will I eat for breakfast?".

We can hear the slight panic in their voice!

But don't worry, there are plenty of delicious options. It just takes a bit of a mind shift.

The truth is, what we've learned to think of as breakfast foods in Western countries (cereal, toast, etc) are some of the worst foods you can have for breakfast. They are full of sugar, which sets you up for a sugar crash just before lunch time, making you reach for more sugar or coffee.

But when you look at traditional cultures, such as Japan, they tend to have very similar food for breakfast as to what they eat for lunch and dinner... and this is what we want you to start doing!

Stop thinking of breakfast as a 'special' meal and think of it as any other meal.

That's why we are not providing you with any specific Breakfast recipes and instead we want to encourage you to start eating the same food for breakfast as you would for lunch or dinner. We've included some ideas below, just to get you started!

TO SKIP OR NOT TO SKIP

Some people do better with a good breakfast and some people do well skipping breakfast — a form of intermittent fasting.

How do you know which is best for you? In our experience, it has a lot to do with blood sugar balance.

Let's take a look at these 2 options.

1- Skipping Breakfast

If you feel great when doing something like the reset diet, or you tend to feel good when you skip meals, then skipping breakfast could work well for you and have some added benefits.

You can learn more about fasting here.

When skipping breakfast, it's ok to have a cup of tea or coffee, preferably black (if you tolerate tea/coffee on an empty stomach) or a cup of bone broth.

2- Healthy Breakfast To Balance Blood Sugar

If you tend to feel tired, irritable, and jittery when you miss a meal or go more than a few hours without food, it's a sign that your blood sugar is not balanced and you would do best with a healthy breakfast high in fat and protein. People with adrenal issues tend to do better eating breakfast.

For people with blood sugar imbalance, a good breakfast can make a big difference in how you feel for the entire day and can even affect the quality of your sleep.

So what's a good breakfast? Protein, fat and fibre (depending on how much you can handle). These will keep you feeling full for longer, will help keep your blood sugar stable and by having protein and fat instead of sugar, your body will slowly learn to use fat for energy instead of sugar.

However, once your inflammation goes down and your blood sugar becomes more stable (read more about blood sugar balance here), you will be able to skip breakfast and practice intermittent fasting, if desired.

3- The 'In-Between' Option

If you feel like you don't want a full meal, but you still need to have something to avoid crashing later, or maybe you're too busy in the morning to cook a full breakfast, here are 2 great alternatives:

• Bulletproof coffee (see recipe below)
• Elemental Diet Shake (Australia: ElementGold, USA: Elemental Heal)

BREAKFAST IDEAS TO GET YOU STARTED

We've included some different ideas, depending on where you're at in the program.

Soup is a great way to start your day. It ticks all the boxes... it's quick, it's easy and it's tasty!

When making the chicken soup from the Supersafe recipe ebook, triple the recipe and freeze in serving sized portions (in 'Souper Cubes' for example, which conveniently freeze 1 cup portions).

Beef patties are easy to prepare ahead of time. Prepare a big batch and freeze them.

Grain free, plain sausages (with no herbs or spices).

Elemental Diet Shake (Australia: ElementGold, USA: Elemental Heal)

Same as above plus...

Bulletproof coffee. This is only for people who can tolerate coffee. Choose a good quality organic coffee and organic/grass-fed unsalted butter. Mix together 1 tbsp butter (or ghee), 1 tbsp coconut oil (or MCT Oil/Brain Octane Oil) and freshly brewed coffee and then blend until frothy. Yum! It's really delicious.

Left overs are quick, easy and nutritious. Cook once and eat twice. Having left over meat and veggies in the fridge can be quickly reheated for an instant breakfast. Just be careful if you have histamine intolerance as histamine builds up in leftovers. If in doubt, freeze it!

You can continue to have the same breakfast options as recommended in the Supersafe and Safe diet.

Here are a few more options that you could experiment with during the Adventurous diet, depending on your tolerance, once you have done the 'test' for FODMAPs, trigger foods and food chemicals.

Eggs and bacon (if tolerated... remember that egg is a potential trigger food and bacon is high in histamine)

Treaty breakfast:

• Gluten Free Pancakes
• Spicy Banana Muffins
• Flaxseed Pudding

See recipes in Treat Recipes Ebook

A smoothie is always a favourite for many of our clients. It's especially popular in summer.

Smoothie Recipe Ideas:

• Blueberry Smoothie - 1/4 cup blueberries, 1 serve protein powder of your choice , 1/4 cup coconut milk, 200ml filtered water, 1/2 cup ice. Sweeten with liquid stevia if desired. Other fruits to try in a smoothie include strawberries, raspberries (high oxalates), kiwi fruit (high oxalates), dragon fruit and pineapple.
• Low Oxalate Green Smoothie - 1/4 cucumber (peeled/seeded), handful lettuce, juice of 1 lime, 1 inch knob of ginger (peeled), 200ml filtered water, 1/2 cup ice. Sweeten with liquid stevia if desired. You could add 1/4 peeled zucchini, fresh mint, fresh parsley etc.