Do you need to eat breakfast?

If you aren’t hungry in the morning, is there a reason to force yourself to eat breakfast? I don’t think so.

It’s never a good idea to eat when you aren’t hungry- first because you would be teaching your body to ignore your natural instincts telling you when you need to eat, and second, because you are taking in calories that you may not need.

There is a catch. You don’t want to end up so hungry at 10 or 11 a.m. that you go for the doughnuts in the conference room or justify to yourself that it’s okay to eat a huge lunch.

The solution is to stop in the kitchen long enough to grab something to take with you and here are some suggestions for a snack that will get you to lunch time without becoming ravenous-
- a hard boiled egg and an apple
- a handful of almonds and a banana
- 3 huge Medjool dates and a handful of walnuts
- a handful of roasted peanuts and an orange
- a small peanut butter sandwich

Nuts are good for you. Does this include Brazil nuts?

People are finally realizing that almonds, walnuts, and peanuts are health foods, but still think that Brazil nuts, cashews, and macadamia nuts can’t possibly be good for you. All of these nuts are great in slightly different ways.

Almonds have more protein than the others and plenty of monounsaturated fat, the kind that’s in olive oil. But macadamia nuts, cashews, and Brazil nuts have a lot of monounsaturated fat too. Walnuts are my personal favorite with lots of cholesterol-lowering polyunsaturated fats and omega-3 fats. But Brazil nuts also contain polyunsaturated fats.

Don’t worry about these minor differences- enjoy a variety of nuts and you’ll get all the healthy fats you need, together with minerals, vitamins, protein, and as a bonus, plant sterols that will lower your blood cholesterol.