Breakfasts that don't leave you starving by eleven

Build breakfast around protein and fibre: eggs on wholemeal toast, porridge made with milk and topped with nuts, or plain yogurt with oats and fruit. Protein helps you feel full and fibre helps it last. A bowl of sugary cereal and a glass of juice is the breakfast I would expect to have you hunting for biscuits by eleven.

Why am I starving two hours after breakfast?

Usually because breakfast was mostly carbohydrate that reaches your blood fast, with little protein or fibre alongside it. There is a good study on exactly this window of the morning. Researchers gave 1,070 people in the UK and the US a series of set breakfasts, asked them to wait three hours before eating again, and tracked their glucose with sensors. A bigger dip in glucose two to three hours after breakfast went with more hunger at that point, a shorter wait until the next meal, and more eaten over the following day. The biggest dips came after the drink that was pure glucose, which also gave the biggest rise.

The links were modest, so this is about tendencies across a lot of people rather than a promise about your Tuesday. The same study also asked people how alert they felt, and the dip was not linked to alertness. It explains the rumbling stomach at half ten. It doesn’t explain feeling flat.

What makes a breakfast filling?

Protein and fibre, ideally both. An egg has about 6 to 7g of protein, and the British Heart Foundation’s verdict is that eggs in a meal “can keep you going for longer and may help you snack less”. Wholegrain starchy foods “contain more fibre than white or refined starchy carbohydrates and can help you feel full for longer”. Most UK adults eat about 20g of fibre a day against a recommended 30g, and breakfast is the easiest meal to close some of that gap.

The glycaemic index helps up to a point. Corn flakes score 81 and porridge 55, so oats get into your blood more slowly. But white bread scores 75 and wholemeal 74, almost the same, which is why I’d pick wholemeal for its fibre rather than its GI. Leaning on the GI number alone misses the point.

Five breakfasts that hold until lunch

Mine is the first one. I eat three eggs every morning, and when my mum watched me crack them she asked about my cholesterol. Fair question. The British Heart Foundation says there is currently no recommended limit on the number of eggs you should eat. Three is my habit, not a prescription, and if your GP has talked to you about cholesterol, ask them about eggs before you copy me.

Is fruit juice a good breakfast drink?

Not as a staple. Once fruit is juiced, its sugar counts as free sugar, the kind adults are told to have no more than 30g of a day, and the advice is no more than 150ml of juice or smoothie a day. Eat the orange and drink water or tea.

What should I eat if I am not hungry in the morning?

Something later, rather than nothing. The NHS advises against skipping breakfast, because a healthy breakfast high in fibre and low in fat, sugar and salt can help you get the nutrients you need. That doesn’t have to happen at seven. A pot of yogurt and oats at your desk at nine counts. If you work shifts, breakfast might be at three in the afternoon, and the same rules apply; there is more on that in breakfast after nights.

Will a better breakfast stop my afternoon slump?

No, and I’d be wary of anyone who says it will. The early afternoon dip in alertness is mostly the body clock. It turns up even in people who have had no lunch at all. A heavy or high carbohydrate lunch makes it worse, and so does a poor night’s sleep. A good breakfast is aimed at getting you to lunch without raiding the biscuit tin, and that is a worthwhile job on its own.

For the afternoon, the lunch and the night before matter more, and why you crash after lunch goes through the changes worth making. If you are not sure which of those is behind your slump, the afternoon crash quiz will help you narrow it down. You will also see people suggesting you eat the egg before the toast; I’ve looked at whether the order you eat food in matters, and the evidence is thinner than the videos suggest.

When is tiredness more than breakfast?

If you have diabetes, or take medication for it, follow your own diabetes team on what and when to eat. This post is about appetite in people who do not.

The NHS says to see a GP if you’ve been feeling tired for a few weeks and you’re not sure why, if your tiredness affects your daily life, or if you feel tired and have other symptoms, such as weight loss or mood changes.