Wake Up To An Organic Breakfast

Breakfast is the one meal of the day not to be missed. This is the theme of a major awareness programme which kicks off with Europe’s largest organic festival 1st – 2nd September. Thousands of people around the country will be waking up to an organic breakfast to mark Organic Fortnight.

Research shows that breakfast consumption tends to reduce daily calorie intake and those who eat healthy breakfasts tend to be slimmer, better performers and have lower cholesterol levels than breakfast skippers.

Eating breakfast can be a challenge when faced with juggling a family and a busy lifestyle. Planet Organic, the organic and natural supermarket that offers thousands of organic products, has come up with a quick solution that will avoid that 11am sugar slump that can lead to a coffee and a pain au chocolate.

We all know superfoods are good for us, but we also know that buying locally is good for the planet, so welcome to British organic blueberries grown in Dorset, and a power packed muesli containing home grown organic spelt flakes from Somerset and freeze dried summer berries. Add an organic yoghurt from Daylesford Organic’s herd of Friesian cows grazing on organic pasture in Gloucestershire, and produced in the creamery next door to the milking shed; or an RDA smoothie, 100% organic and unpasteurised.

For those who feel more indulgent in the morning, Planet Organic bakes organic muffins daily by hand that still pack in a guilt-free 35% of organic blueberries.

Blueberries have a low glycemic load (GL) content (the measure of the impact of food on blood sugar levels), which results in sustained energy release throughout the morning. “And any whole grain cereal will have a lower GL than a refined one, but spelt has one of the lowest thanks to its high protein content,” says Renée Elliott, founder of Planet Organic. Spelt is currently undergoing a renaissance, partly as a result of our post wheat-intolerance awareness, and partly because, being a hardier grain than conventional wheat, it is much easier to grow organically.

It is an old relative of wheat, closer to the wild grasses that modern wheat was bred from before it became a gluten-packed instant bread mix. It is this wildness that makes it easier to grow and to store, without needing fertilisers in the soil and pesticides in the storage silos, and also gives it a much broader nutritional profile. The gluten it contains is more easily digested, making it more appropriate for many of those with a sensitivity to wheat gluten, and its spectrum of B vitamins and minerals, responsible for the health and maintenance of the body's nervous system, is much broader.

“The health benefits of blueberries have been known for a while, starting with anecdotal evidence from fighter pilots during the Second World War who ate bilberry conserve to help with their vision during night flights,” says Renée Elliott.
“The more we learn the more benefits there seem to be.”

According to US scientists a compound in blueberries may be good for preventing bowel cancer. Research also shows that a newly isolated component known as pterostilbene, a similar compound to the one discovered over 10 years ago in grape skins, leads to a reduction in risk of some types of breast cancer.