Protein is essential for building and repairing muscle and the maintenance of healthy bones. It also provides energy, which is why nutritionists recommend a high-protein breakfast to kickstart your day.
But which foods should we be eating first thing? Registered dietitian Helen Bond shares eight morning meals that are packed full of protein:
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Full English breakfast
🍳 36.6g protein: 73 per cent of your daily protein needs.
The full English has a very high protein content due to the beans, bacon, eggs and sausage, and this will keep you filling fuller for longer. However, there is no getting away from its saturated fat content, and the calorie content far exceeds the recommended 20 per cent of energy intake for breakfast – around 400 calories. Try and boost its nutritional credentials by swapping the white bread for wholegrain bread, and having a poached egg rather fried egg.
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Grilled kippers with wholemeal toast
🍳 32.1g protein: 64 per cent of your daily protein needs.
With 32g protein to keep your bones and muscles healthy, plus essential omega-3 fats (100 per cent of your weekly needs), important for keeping your heart healthy - this breakfast should be a once-a-week weekly ritual. The wholemeal toast adds fibre, as well as vitamin B6, which helps regulate your hormones, but the snag is that this breakfast provides over half of your maximum daily intake of blood pressure raising salt.
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Smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel
🍳 24.4g protein: 49 per cent of your daily protein needs.
Oily fish like salmon contains omega-3 fats, which research has proven is beneficial for brain, eye and heart health. Very few foods naturally contain vitamin D (for healthy bones and teeth), but salmon is a rich source: this breakfast will provide more than a ¼ of your daily intake. With plain, white bagels you only get 2.7g of fibre, so swap to wholegrain to make this 7.4g of gut healthy fibre (24 per cent of your daily fibre needs). Slash your fat by 80 per cent and saturated fat intake by 30 per cent by ditching the full fat cream cheese for the extra light version.
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Two slices of wholegrain toast with peanut butter
🍳 18.2g protein: 36 per cent of your daily protein needs.
If you are vegetarian or vegan, this low GI breakfast packed full of fibre and will supply you with over 18g of plant based proteins. Make sure to choose a no-added sugar variety of peanut butter, and wholegrain bread for the healthiest version.
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Porridge
🍳 17.7g protein: 35 per cent of your daily protein needs.
Porridge is always a dietitian’s top choice for a heart healthy breakfast – when it is made with a low-fat milk or water and unsweetened. Porridge oats are wholegrains, so they release their energy slowly throughout the morning keeping you feeling fuller for longer and oats are a great source of a soluble fibre called beta-glucan, which can help lower your cholesterol levels. A sprinkling of cinnamon, a sliced banana and some grated apple are a delicious way to sweeten your porridge naturally and provide immune boosting vitamin C and blood pressure regulating potassium.
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Poached eggs on sourdough bread with spinach
🍳 17.6g protein: 35 per cent of your daily protein needs.
Sourdough bread has a low glycaemic index (GI), which means you won’t get the sugar high and lows associated with white bread – helping you to stay more alert through the morning. As well as counting as one of your five-a-day and giving you 35 per cent of your daily protein needs, this breakfast provides 21 per cent of your daily folate, which boosts our immune system and 77 per cent of our vitamin K needed for healthy bones.
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Bircher muesli
🍳 12.6g protein: 25 per cent of your daily protein needs.
Made overnight with oats, grated apple and yogurt, and topped with nuts, dried fruit and seeds, it’s a great breakfast for busy people. It gives you a quarter of your calcium needs for strong bones and teeth, and the nuts and seeds provide magnesium for healthy nerves and muscles. The dried fruit that is added provides natural sweetness and will also count towards your five a day, but watch your portion sizes with dried fruit — treat it as if it's fresh, for example 10 grapes is equal to 10 raisins. On the downside, a good amount of its 34g sugar content comes from honey - a ‘free’ sugar that we should be cutting down on.
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Boiled egg and wholemeal toast soldiers
🍳 11.9g protein: 24 per cent of your daily protein needs.
One boiled egg with a slice (32g) of wholemeal toast soldiers is great way to fill up with satiating protein, with not too many calories. Plus, this simple breakfast provides 11 per cent of your daily iodine need, needed to keep your metabolism revved up and the fibre in the wholemeal bread acts as a prebiotic feeding your ‘good’ gut bacteria.
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