Slow Carb Diet Breakfast

"They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day" Alice 'Hallie' Martin (Jane Fonda) in The Electric Horseman.

Quite right and no less true for the Slow Carb Diet. I have the following breakfast at 6.30 a.m. before heading to work (as detailed in my last Slow Carb Diet hub):

• 2 hard boiled eggs / scrambled eggs (no butter or milk remember!). In Timothy Ferriss's The Four Hour Body, he also advocates additional egg whites in your scrambled egg to increase protein quantity. I haven't found this necessary but please do try it
• 200g steamed spinach, and
• Half a 400g (250g drained) can of black beans

It took some getting used to after years of breakfast cereals but I actually enjoy it even after two months (if you can't stomach it and would like something more traditional try my scrambled eggs with chives, cumberland sausages and shiitake mushrooms breakfast hub) . I also find that it keeps me going until 12.30 or later without experiencing hunger pangs. Why is that? Let's break the diet down into its component parts.

Eggs

Going to work on a couple of eggs seems to be a great way to lose weight. Recent research from the Rochester Centre for Obesity in America suggests that eating eggs for breakfast could limit your calorie intake for the rest of the day by 400 calories. This study followed thirty overweight / obese women who had an eggy breakfast or a bagel breakfast with the same amount of calories and protein. The research found that the women who ate eggs for breakfast ate a smaller lunch and that over the next 36 hours, the eggy breakfast women ate about 400 calories on average less than bagel breakfast women. Furthermore eggs are nutritional dynamite! Protein, zinc, iron and vitamins A, D, E and B12 and just 85 calories each. The idea of limiting egg consumption to just a few eggs a week is no old hat. The Food Standards Agency doesn't limit the number of eggs one can eat in a week as part of a healthy balanced diet.

Spinach

Popeye was right! Spinach is also a nutritional powerhouse as well as an excellent ingredient for a weight loss program like the Slow Carb Diet. Diets often make it difficult to reduce calorie intake whilst ensuring your body gets the key nutrients and vitamins it needs. Well spinach does the job - antioxidants, vitamins A, C and E, vitamin B (niacin, B6, riboflavin and thiamin), fibre, zinc, iron, calcium, magnesium, protein and Vitamin K (helps with blood clotting). Spinach also helps keep you fuller for longer thereby reducing the number of calories you consume each day.

Black beans

Protein rich super foods! (Top tip: add some crushed fennel seeds to help prevent gas). Black beans have a dense, meaty texture and are a great source of protein (half a cup contains same amount of protein as two 8oz glasses of milk which doesn't have any fibre) without any of the saturated fat found in other protein sources like meat. They also contain the slow release carbohydrates that gives the slow carb diet its name and seems to leave you fuller for longer. Research has shown that black beans contain insoluble fibre also (otherwise known as indigestible fraction or IF) which apparently is perfect for the bacteria in the colon, especially in relation to the production butyric acid which is used by the cells in the colon as fuel. I think this explains why my colonitis - a result of too much rich food and beer - seems to have disappeared within a couple of weeks of the slow carb diet! More on the benefits of beans in another hub as think this warrants further research!!

There you have it. Low calories but fuller for longer and lots of healthy vitamins and nutrients. Alice 'Hallie' Martin was spot on!