National Porridge Week 2022
Porridge PorridgeWeek
Celebrating the official start of porridge season!
As Autumn begins and the weather takes a chilly turn, a warming bowl of porridge is the perfect start to your day. We're celebrating National Porridge Week (10th-16th October 2022). It’s the perfect time to focus on the benefits of porridge, share recipe inspiration and, most importantly, enjoy a delicious bowl for breakfast!
To celebrate National Porridge Week, we've teamed up with leading UK nutritionist, Emily English (@emsthenutritonist) to talk about all things Porridge.
Why a nutritious breakfast / not skipping is so important?
Breakfast's role is really in its name, it's the meal to break the natural fast that occurs overnight. A nutritious breakfast will affect how you feel for the rest of the day, fuelling up in the morning will help balance cravings and leave you satisfied. Studies have reported consumption of breakfast is associated with a range of benefits including better macro and micronutrient intakes, lower body mass index, higher cognitive performance and quality of life. We need to not focus on what to take away from our diets but rather what we can add in, so no skipping!
Are there any nutritional benefits to having a warm breakfast in colder autumn/winter months?
A warm breakfast may actually help you feel fuller and more satisfied for longer! We tend to eat slowly when our meal is hot, which gives our digestive system more time to signal back to the brain we are full and to stop eating. A warm bowl of oats is perfect to help you feel satisfied and prevent overeating.
The specific power of porridge as regular breakfast fuel, what makes it a nutritionally sound choice?
Oats are an amazing source of slowly digestible carbohydrates and gut-supporting fibre, making them the perfect breakfast fuel to leave you energised for the day. Oats also contain important vitamins and minerals such as magnesium, iron, and folate as well as antioxidants. Oat betaglucans are a type of soluble fibre, which have cholesterol-lowering and anti-diabetic effects. Our bodies process carbohydrates best in the morning as we tend to be insulin sensitive, leading to lower blood glucose spikes.
The power of a protein packed breakfast…
Protein is such an important macronutrient to get into your diet, especially at breakfast. It helps provide a more steady, prolonged energy boost from our carbohydrates as well as slowing the body's release of ghrelin, our hunger hormone, leaving us fuller for longer. If you find that eating breakfast makes you hungrier, it maybe because you aren’t including enough protein.
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO SOMEONE WHO SAYS PORRIDGE IS BORING / OLD FASHIONED / BLAND BREAKFAST?
The days of bland, watery porridge are well and truly over. Porridge is now a huge viral trend, with an infinite number of recipe possibilities. Porridge is the perfect base to get creative and improve the diversity of your diet by mixing up your toppings. Healthy eating has never been so fun!
