A Proper Vegetarian Brekkie: A Lesson in Vegetarian Nutrition

"If beef is your idea of "real food for real people", you'd better live real close to a real good hospital."

Today is my day off, so I woke up early (9am) and cooked up a storm for breakfast for Will and myself. In school at the moment, we're studying seafood and preparing food according to special diets and cultural requirements and it's had really got me asking myself this question, "How healthy am I?". As a personal exercise, I'm keeping track of every single thing I put into my body. I've recently been worried about not eating enough protein, but yesterday I consumed 57 grams, when the minimum I need is 40 grams, which includes 13 grams of vanilla flavoured protein I add to my Weetbix in the morning. Unfortunately I didn't consume nearly as much fibre as I needed, but something surprising was the amount of fibre present in Jols Sugar-Free Pastilles (Forrest Berry flavour). It has 9.5 grams!

You can't get fibre from animal products, so today I vowed to get more serves of fruits and vegetables to see if I can make the 30 gram fibre mark without exceeding my calorie allowance of 1300 calories.

The Menu:
1 grilled Roma tomato with fresh coriander, parsley and fresh pepper
1 small potato, sliced and grilled with rosemary, sea salt, pepper and olive oil
steam wilted spinach with sea salt and pepper (no oil)
pan-grilled capsicum (no oil)
1 egg, pan "fried" with non-stick cooking spray
1 slice of wholemeal toast with vegan margarine
1 soy chai latte

Our "Big Vego Brekkie" provided us with 464 calories, 22 grams of protein, 9 grams of fibre
and 20 grams of fat. A bit high for fat due to the 1 egg and the olive oil and vegan margarine, but double the calories I usually consume for breakfast.

My average breakfast of tea, weetbix, soy milk and vanilla-flavoured protein is just 227 calories, 2 grams of fat, 19.5 grams of protein and 4 grams of fibre.

It's needless to say that I probably won't be hungry until well into the afternoon. It always makes me laugh when I see the results of studies that say that eating lots of fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains is the way to keep your weight in control and lead a long, healthy life. All you have to do is is have a few vegetables, fruits and proteins (legumes, tofu, tempeh, eggs) at each meal, which keeps your energy levels up with proteins and carbs and you insides squeaky clean with the fibre.

Lesson of the day: eat your fruits and vegetables!