→ Download my free Cycle Tracking Guide to understand what your hormones & body are telling you with each period (and the phases in between!) https://www.karindawholistix.com.au/cycletracking

If you’re starting your day with cereal, toast, fruit-only... or skipping breakfast entirely (!)... and then riding the 11am crash, cravings, anxiety, brain fog or a 3pm slump, this episode is for you. I break down how “healthy” Western breakfasts can create blood sugar and insulin spikes that drive metabolic dysregulation, inflammation, and hormonal havoc linked with PCOS/PMOS and fertility.

I also explain why fasting through the morning and coffee on an empty stomach can jack up cortisol and adrenaline, and why it's not a cute productivity quirk.

You'll get practical, doable swaps, including the protein-first breakfast framework and how to "clothe your carbs", so you can leave this episode with something you can do for your hormones as soon as tomorrow morning.

TIMESTAMPS

01:33 Cycle check-in: early luteal phase, screen time, and self-compassion
06:07 Trip down memory lane: what we were raised to think was a healthy breakfast
06:42 Why Western Breakfast Ain't It for Health
12:55 The problem with cereal: what's actually on the nutritional panel
13:30 Cornflakes unpacked
16:00 Why this leads to insulin resistance, PCOS and PMOS over time
17:59 Weet-Bix, the "healthy" one, right?
21:12 Sultana Bran And Fruit
23:26 Bread, Toast & Wheat
23:55 How a high-carb breakfast sets up your whole day: energy, mood, cravings
27:35 The other problem: skipping breakfast altogether
34:01 Coffee on an empty stomach: what it's actually doing
37:50 The solution: protein-first breakfast and what that actually looks like
41:05 How to "clothe your carbs" — the Glucose Goddess principle applied
45:09 Practical swaps: oats done right, toast done better, the easiest place to start

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TRANSCRIPT:

Hey there. Welcome back to another episode of Oh My Menses. Finally, I have been a little bit MIA over the winter, which I'm actually really grateful for. And naturally, at the tail end of winter, I am feeling excited to get back in here and say some words, say lots of words, get lost on tangents, ramble about hormones, talk about periods, get passionate about things that probably wouldn't matter to most other people.

Thank you for clicking or tapping on me today. I am Karinda, your host, women's health naturopath and menstrual cycle educator. And today we are talking about breakfast, if you can believe it. I have some words to say about breakfast. I have some strong opinions about breakfast.

There are some [00:01:00] things that I want you to know about breakfast that I feel like we weren't told when we were growing up. I feel like n- this kind of information gets, like, misconstrued the older we get, and then we can fall into some bad habits that can really stuff around with our hormones, and then that affects our fertility, and our periods, and our cycle regularity, and our moods, and our energy levels, and there's something we can do about it.

So I'm very excited to empower you with that information and some tips and tricks I have up my sleeve. But first, let's get traditional, especially given it's the first episode back from a little, a little unintended hiatus, and let's do a cycle check-in. This is just a moment that I like to offer myself, and I like to invite you to join me if you have a menstrual cycle, to take a moment to check in how you're feeling physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, in the context of [00:02:00] where you find yourself in your menstrual cycle.

If this is sounding brand new and wacko to you, you can download my free Cycle Tracking Guide. The link will be in the description wherever you are listening to or watching this. Because we've got different phases of our cycle, and we're not gonna feel the same at every point in the cycle. You know, we're not even gonna feel the same at the same time in each cycle, you know?

So things vary phase to phase as well as changing cycle to cycle. So I think it's just beautiful to gift yourself a moment of a check-in. Like, which is good anyway, but especially in the context of menstrual cycle awareness, which is one of my favorite things on this planet Earth. So I am on cycle day 19.

This cycle I have really taken my hands off the wheel a bit with my diligent, my usually diligent ovulation tracking, where I use basal body temperatures and cervical mucus to really map out and pinpoint, [00:03:00] ovulation and my fertile window in any given cycle. And yeah, this week I think I just took my foot off the accelerator.

I am 99% confident, even, even with that said, I'm 99% confit- confident that I have crossed the threshold of ovulation. And I'm finding myself in the early luteal phase with a, an energy that's, like, m- coming from a fair amount of dysregulation, a last few weeks that have been busier, and there's lots of new things happening in my life.

And yeah, there's just been busyness, distraction, you know, lots of new energy. And so I'm... I, I can feel myself sort of I've still got one foot in that mode, and I can feel this other part of me, like, reaching out for something a bit more internal, a bit more grounded, a bit more mindful. And that has been my aim this week, really intentionally just trying to come back to the present.

and I, I just wanna shout out, if you [00:04:00] are someone who uses your phone a lot as, like, a distraction or a soothing mechanism or as a means of like, you know, scrolling to wind down at the end of the day or whenever you have a break, my heart is with you. I am in that boat this week. My screen time is way higher than, than it usually is.

And something I've decided to gift myself this week in amongst that screen time excess is a bit of grace and a bit of compassion. And so I just wanna extend that to you. If you have been feeling a bit more dopamine depleted, if you're seeking those hits, if you're seeking that kind of false sense of soothing that we can get from the screens, unfortunately, my heart is with you, and I invite you to, yeah, go easy on yourself.

And Instead of using it as an opportunity of like, "Ah, I know this is a bad habit," and, you know, "This isn't good for me, and I shouldn't be doing this," and then beating yourself up about it. [00:05:00] take it as an opportunity to get curious about why you may be reaching for that vice a bit more, or any vices for that matter.

Maybe that's all you need is just a moment of, like, honest reflection with yourself. Anyway, that's enough yappa, yappa, yappa from me. Let's get into the topic. And again, if you wanna understand the four phases of your cycle, if you wanna learn how to track your cycle holistically, thoroughly, and accurately, and not feel in the dark or head in the clouds when it comes to what is happening in your body every single month, download my free Cycle Tracking Guide.

It's full of info. It's full of handy tips, charts, and my insights from tracking my own cycles for 13 years and working in women's health for the better part of the last decade. So enjoy. That's my gift to you. Download it. It's free. Okay. Let's get into today's topic, and before we do that, let's take a shot of my liquid herbal medicines.

One, two, three. Cheers.

Ooh. Oh, that's actually quite nice. [00:06:00] I've got a holy basil, uh, glycotract in there. That, uh, sweetened it a bit. Breakfast. Breakfast

Let's go, let's have a, take a little trip down memory lane. Hmm? Indulge me, if you will. What, what was your first understanding of breakfast? What was your first understanding of breakfast? Dare I say, what was your earliest memory of breakfast? I'm, uh, geez, I'm not sure I could even answer that question myself.

What is my earliest memory of breakfast?

I might need to think about that one a bit more, but I can tell you, I can tell you what breakfast was. I can tell you what was considered a healthy breakfast. And before I go into that, let me say that my current opinion is that what we in the Western world have considered a healthy breakfast, I believe, is actually one of the key drivers resulting in a higher incidence, a [00:07:00] higher occurrence of so many preventable diseases.

Now, let me say that in a less rambly way. Let's try that again, Karinda. I believe conventional Western breakfasts that we have been raised to believe are healthy are at the root of a lot of common preventable chronic diseases we experience today. The main one that's at the top of my list is polycystic ovarian syndrome, PCOS, now known as polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, PMOS.

I believe breakfast has a lot to do with why the diagnosis of that syndrome is higher than it ever has been. In addition to, you know, more people going through the diagnostic investigation, and just ad- advancements in healthcare and diagnostic processes, right? Okay, so back to, back to our memory lane.

Breakfast [00:08:00] for me growing up was... you know, maybe on a weekday, cereal. Nutri-Grain, uh, maybe Weet-Bix. I think I was on and off Weet-Bix. I was a very fussy eater. If you don't already know that, you can check out my, my, uh, episode that I did going back through some of my health timeline. So yeah, shout-out to any of my former...

my fellow former fussy eaters. Uh, and shout out to our parents for putting up with us. Cornflakes, oh, loved a bit of Cornflakes. Sultana Bran was the cereal I had when I was, like, in my health conscious era, when I was a little bit, you know, older. Um, still a teenager, still a child, but, um, yeah, a little bit older, a little bit wiser.

That... I think that was the cereal that my mum preferred me to have. And then because I had the blessing of having divorced parents, you would get, uh, one set of food at one house, and you would get a whole other set of food at another house. Let me [00:09:00] know, let me know if you can relate to that. So, you know, in Mum's house it was very health conscious.

In Dad's house it was like, "Let's snack, guys." I remember we went through a phase of having these really extravagant, like, American cereals. I can't even... I couldn't even tell you. We had, like, a Simpsons cereal. We had these, like, chocolate puffs filled with Nutella. Oh my goodness. And have never had a bowl of Froot Loops in my life.

Don't know what that was, but I know a lot of my friends were having Froot Loops. And then if we're deviating away from cereals, uh, they'll, I'll, they'll get enough of a copping from, uh, from me today. But, you know, then we've got our toasts. You know, you've got your white bread, you've got your toast, you've got your butter, you've got your Vegemite, you've got your peanut butter, you've got your honey.

And then maybe on a weekend you've got your pancakes or you've got your bacon and eggs and ag- yeah, there's usually toast in the mix. And then we look at, like, continental [00:10:00] breakfasts and, like, eh, even just looking to other parts of the world and it's like pastries, you know, baguette, croissant. Or in some other parts of the world, in some other households, with a- an intention of being health focused, you've got fruit.

You've got fruit for breakfast. I have some thoughts on all of those. The main thing that is my issue with all of those options pretty much, except the bacon and eggs, would you believe it or not, is that they have a high sugar load.

Sugar, carbohydrates is not the basis that we should be starting our days on. Of course, we need sugar and carbohydrates to survive and live, right? It's a part of the, it's a necessary part of our energy balance in our bodies. But as I explained in my last episode where I spoke us through insulin [00:11:00] resistance

When we have meals that have heaps more sugar compared to the other macronutrients that could offset that sugar release, like protein or fat or fiber, we get a high blood sugar response and as a result, a high insulin output that follows to help mitigate and manage that high blood sugar, because we can't have that high blood sugar all the time.

When this is how you start your day, day in, day out, month on month, year on year This leads to metabolic dysregulation. There is really no two ways about it. This may be less likely to impact a child or a teenager or an adult that is burning through that energy really quickly and really efficiently. if they are very, very active, very, very active, not an average [00:12:00] level of activity for the modern child or for-- if we reflect back on our own childhoods for a minute.

A really, really high activity. Like doing an activity before breakfast first thing upon waking, then maybe breakfast, and then maybe more activity after breakfast to some degree, and then maybe a sport in the afternoon or the evening or a specific training session and just, like, active, active, active, ac-active.

Maybe then the body could tolerate that kind of sugar input. Even then, it would need protein and fat to, you know, to be nourishing fuel for that level of activity But for most of us, when we're having that input of these high sugar foods... And, and let's, and let's even just, like, break that down for a moment.

So, and again, if you've listened to my last episode, I will be repeating myself a bit because it's a really, really important concept. I really want... I was gonna say need. I really would love for you to understand this. Cereal. So you think of cornflakes and, you know, g- check out your pantry now. See what, [00:13:00]what's on those, um, nutrition panels and ingredients lists, um, on the cereals that you have in your own cupboard.

If it's a grain, if it's sourced from a grain at all, that is mostly going to be a carbohydrate. Cornflakes, oh my God, I could only imagine looking at that panel now. Actually, maybe I'll pull some up. Maybe I can live like I'm in 2026 and just look things up on the spot. Let's do cornflakes

Australia nutrition panel, and then let me pull up a few others. Weet-Bix, and then let me do Sultana Bran. Ooh, I had Special K if it was a special occasion. All right. let's look at this. When is this from?

So, uh, so first the serving size, and I can promise you none of us were looking at the serving size when we were children feeding ourselves cereal. Protein, 2.7 grams per serve. [00:14:00] Fat, 0.4 grams per serve. Carbohydrate, 28.7 grams per serve. This is for cornflakes. That is an imbalanced meal. That is a meal that is going to result in a high blood sugar response, and if you are not active, if you are not putting that glucose to work, it is going to translate to ill effects on health.

If you continue to eat that way, you will con- continue to get high blood sugar spikes. Your pancreas will continue to put out more insulin, more insulin, more insulin. Eventually, the insulin stops working as well. Blood sugar stays higher for longer, and your body goes into this, "Well, what do we do with this energy?"

And that is one of the key causes of weight gain, is high insulin. We call... There's a word for it, hyperinsulinemia. It's a thing. And as I mentioned at the start, you know, the, the [00:15:00] main thing that I'm thinking about here is PCOS and PMOS, this, this hormonal syndrome that affects so many women that I know personally, and a majority, over 80% of the patients that I work with, and myself And I'm just like, what were we all eating for breakfast when we were coming of age?

You know, when we were coming up to puberty and then h- what were we doing in our teenage years? And it's also a little bit of this classic thing of like the younger we are... Like, it, it's so... It's, it's a bit of a cliche, but the younger we are, the more we can tolerate imbalances. Generally, if we're looking at it from, like, a vitality, like, constitutional perspective, we generally have more energy and capacity to be able to adapt to imbalances in our environment.

Um, especially if they're short-term, but even if they're a bit more chronic and recurrent. The, the vitality of a child, of a growing, developing body [00:16:00]generally is adaptive and flexible, and it can cope with these challenges, right? You're having cereal over and over again. Your body can adapt to that. You're a growing body, right?

But then people keep up... The- these become habits, right? Because we- we're told that it's healthy, we're told it's the right thing to do, or we've just been doing it for so long we don't know any other option. So as we get older, uh, we continue to do this and we don't have the same amount of vitality that we had when we were growing up.

And so our adult bodies, our older bodies have a hard time adapting to this high blood sugar, high insulin output. Oh my God, you know, what are we doing? The other thing that can result from that high blood sugar response is that if you're eating a meal like cereal where blood sugar goes that high that quick, there can be this phenomenon called reactive hypoglycemia.

Hypoglycemia being low blood sugar, where your blood sugar is getting to a high level, a critical [00:17:00] level, so your body puts more energy and more directive towards getting it down faster, and then the drop can happen quite suddenly. What happens in that drop is a crash in energy. What also can be triggered when you've got low blood sugar is a craving, a psychological signal to seek out more sugar.

So this can literally translate into sugar cravings that then perpetuate the cycle, intensify and perpetuate the cycle. And I would be so curious to know how you feel at around 11:00 AM if you have cereal for breakfast at 8:00 or 9:00. How are you feeling at 11:00 AM compared to if you had at least 30 grams of protein?

And remember, cornflakes, just as a random example, 2.7 grams of protein per serve versus 28 grams of carbohydrate. [00:18:00] Let's look at Weet-Bix. Weet-Bix is a healthy option, right? Yeah. Yeah, Weet-Bix. Let's look at the ingredients. Nutritional information. Protein, 4.1 gram. Okay. Fat, 0.4 gram. Okay. Carbohydrate, 21.7 grams.

Woo-hoo. Once again, we find ourselves looking at a very imbalanced nutritional panel. We don't wanna be starting our day with this soaring blood sugar. It is absolutely not what is conducive or in alignment with like balanced optimal human physiology. And we even think of Weet-Bix when it's like, "Oh yeah, I get my fiber in."

Per serve, the dietary fiber is 4.3 grams And is actually, what is a serving? 33 grams. [00:19:00] Okay, can you tell me how many Weet-Bix that is? Bet they won't. Let's look at the ingredients. Whole grain wheat. Anything wheat is carbohydrate. Second ingredient, raw sugar, salt, and barley malt extract. May I be maybe the first that you've heard to suggest that this is not a healthy breakfast?

Whole grain wheat 97%, raw sugar, salt, barley malt extract with some synthetic vitamins added. Imagine those ingredients separately, not in the final Weet-Bix form. Imagine those ingredients in a bowl in front of you. You probably wouldn't wanna eat it. Or you'd probably be like, "Oh, that doesn't look like a balanced meal."

Actually, that would probably be the thing that's more obvious. "Oh, this doesn't look like a balanced meal. This is just wheat. I'm having a bowl of wheat for [00:20:00] breakfast." And I will mention, and I will hold myself back from going into the absolutely rampant wheat intolerance that I am experiencing more and more s- from when I was first studying naturopathy, before I was even studying naturopathy. Wheat, especially if it's non-organic because of the impact of pesticides on our gut microbiomes, okay?

I just need you to get on board. I'm not gonna explain everything now. I just need you to hear me out for a second. Because of the inflammatory capacity of modern processed wheat, especially when it's non-organic, I am finding that wheat intake full stop can be behind a lot of symptoms, a lot of disease progression, a lot of flare-ups, a lot of inflammation in the body What's another one of the underpinnings [00:21:00] of polycystic ovarian syndrome, polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome?

Inflammation.

The Weet-Bix ain't worth it, folks. It ain't worth it. And then ah, Sultana brand, the one that even I knew was healthy, and my mum who was, you know, so healthy and so health conscious, this is the one she would make me have. This is the one I would force myself to have when I s- told myself I was gonna be healthy this week.

Protein per serve, 4.3 grams. Fat, 1.3 grams. Hmm, higher than the others. Carbohydrates, 27.7 grams, of which 12.1 grams is sugar. Now, it does have a little bit more fiber than the others, 7.3 grams. This is still horrifically imbalanced. This is lacking protein [00:22:00] and has far too much carbohydrate. Carbohydrates are converted into sugar, and there's no two ways about that.

Carbohydrates are converted into sugar. If you think they're two different things, technically, structurally they are, but carbohydrate becomes sugar as your body is digesting and metabolizing it. Anything that can be converted into sugar can contribute to a high blood sugar spike.

And that's sultana bran. That's the healthy one. That's the healthy one that, be honest, you probably didn't even have 'cause it was too healthy and it was gross, right? And we were kids, and why did, we didn't want a h- healthy, gross thing,

Fruit Healthy, natural. Love it for that reason. It's natural. It's a whole food, technically, if you're having it in whole foo- food form. Please, please be having it in whole food form. Not gonna have much protein, not gonna have much fat. If this is how you are starting your day, you're putting a huge carbohydrate load in the morning.

[00:23:00] And again, there's nuance, right? Shout out nuance naturopaths. There's nuance. For some people, it may work depending on their metabolism and their energy needs and their actual energy output. But for the average modern person, we are having way too many carbohydrates, even if they're from natural whole food sources, compared to the level of output and activity we are doing.

And remember that cycle of high blood sugar. Ooh, quickly bring it down. Ooh, now it's too low. Now we're craving sugar. That is one of the key symptoms of insulin resistance, craving more sugar. The sugar isn't getting into the cells. Your cells are like, "Hey, where's the sugar we need to make energy, bruh?

Tell the brain we need more sugar." Enter sugar cravings. The cycle repeats. Same thing with toast. I won't crap on about it too much. Toast, bread. Where's it come from? Wheat flour. [00:24:00] It's carbohydrates. It's carbohydrates. They will be converted to sugar in your body. Why this is so important for the morning is when we start our day with that high blood sugar spike, the high insulin output,

we set up the rest of our day for less stable blood sugar. We set up the rest of our day for more sugar cravings, not feeling full as easily, um, maybe feeling an inclination to snack or search for more food

Now, and you might go, "Okay, cool. I don't care about that. I like my cereal for breakfast. What does that mean for me?" That translates to energy spikes and dips. Maybe you feel like you're riding high in the morning and then you crash by mid-morning, and then maybe you have a coffee to pick you up, and then you're crashing again by 3:00 PM.

And I bet you don't feel great about that cycle.

Another way that could look is in terms of mood and mental health. [00:25:00] I should be able to begin to explain but I cannot be- even begin to explain how much connection there is between your blood sugar and your mood and your mental health and the, the capacity of your brain Having these irregular blood sugar patterns, up, down, up, down, spike, crash, spike, crash, insulin, insulin, insulin.

Enter anxiety. Enter brain fog. Enter bouts of feeling high and hyperactive and then followed by bouts of depression. Cycle repeats. These are all connected. And I guess the other, you know, especially if you're having a wheat breakfast, the other thing that I really wanna get across is that point of inflammation.

So if you're having this kind of sugar load for breakfast and it's coming from a wheat source, you've got this double whammy of blood sugar dysregulation that's contributing to insulin resist- resistance that is at the seat of hormonal conditions like [00:26:00] PCOS, PMOS If you, for example, if you are struggling with fertility and you've been diagnosed with something like PMOS or PCOS, this could be a really key puzzle piece for you to shine some light on and make some changes to, and it could drastically improve your health.

It could drastically improve your fertility, genuinely, just by changing your breakfast. I don't think this is being spoken enough about in, in wherever office you are getting diagnosed with PCOS or PMOS, people are not talking about what did you have for breakfast every day growing up? And what do you have for breakfast now?

And let's really understand your blood sugar regulation and how your body handles sugar, and how your body responds via insulin.

It's critical. And then a- again, with the wheat component, ooh, especially if you have any degree of [00:27:00] gut issues, any degree of bloating, if you've ever suspected that you have IBS or you've queried if you have a, some kind of intolerance, if you've ever queried if you have celiac disease or you've experimented with a FODMAP diet.

If you're just bloaty, farty, gassy, bit constipated, bit diarrhea-y sometimes, have a nervous stomach,

and you have wheat every morning, I have some follow-up questions. It could be a really, really key culprit.

Before I give you my tips, I want to look at the other side of the coin. And this is one that I can also relate to, so I'd love to hear your stories about this as well. So I've s- spoken about having these, like, pretty high sugar breakfasts And then something changes maybe as we get older. It probably started for me on some, yeah, probably some of my teenage years.

Probably reached a peak in my employment years, uh, you know, in my early 20s of, um, oh, maybe it starts with, "I need to eat less." Maybe it starts with shame. "I need to eat less. I need to lose weight." [00:28:00] Um, maybe it starts with, "My day is so busy, I don't have time for breakfast." Maybe it starts with waking up feeling nauseous and feeling like you can't stomach breakfast.

And then we fall into this pattern of skipping breakfast altogether. And you might even find, oh, Yeah, I don't have breakfast, and I've got so much energy, and I can just go, go, go, go, go. Oh, and I get all this stuff done, and then it's not until I look at the clock, and it's 2:00 PM. Oh, and I go, "Oh, okay, I should probably eat."

I would love to tell you that that's okay. But what I'm actually gonna tell you is that it's not just a cute, like, personality quirk. It's not just like, "Oh, oh, you know, I'm just, oh, just my brain's all over the place, like I don't have time for breakfast." It's not cute. It's not fun. And by golly, your hormones are probably asking for some support on that front if that is a factor for you, if you are regularly skipping breakfast.

Even, even if you're trying to lose weight, es- I would dare say [00:29:00]especially if you're trying to lose weight Skipping breakfast is not the time to skip food. Here's what happens. There's a couple of things. First thing, and this is the thing... I also talk about this in regards to coffee. I'll, I'll give you my hot tips

We wake up because we have a surge of cortisol that is meant to rise in the morning. That gets things going, it gets our waking systems online, gets our metabolism going. It's important for a lot of things

After, within a certain amount of time of waking up, our body expects like, "Okay, we'll be getting some fuel," and that can help sustain all the processes that we need, that we need to function, that we need to run to stay alive. And then maybe a couple of hours pass, and you know, this will vary for some people.

Some people, you might start feeling the effects if you don't eat within 30 minutes of waking. For others, you might be going on an hour, two hours, three hours. And then your body goes, "Oh, that fuel we thought we were gonna get, it hasn't come in. [00:30:00] Okay, well, we need some source of cellular energy to run all these things that we need to live.

So all right, let's spit out more cortisol and adrenaline," and that will, you know, support... I mean, I mean, it does so much. So we can get the brain focusing, so we've got, um, a little bit more, a little bit more blood circulation and glucose being directed towards the muscles so we can keep moving. then that cortisol is also going to eventually start breaking down some muscle tissue, and that's gonna make glucose available to the cells that need it.

So you've got some glucose stored in your liver, um, as glycogen, and then there's also this other process where your body can convert protein from muscle into glucose. So your body does want glucose, right? It needs it. My, my message of the first half of this podcast is not abolish glucose. Abolish sugar, no.[00:31:00]

Your body does need sugar. So with this extended fasting on a regular basis, you are spiking your cortisol hormone, your stress hormone. You are putting your body into this state of we're underfed and we're under-fueled, and we need to compensate for that. And this is why, because of that cortisol spike, that's why you can kind of get a kick.

It's like you might wake up groggy, and then you fast, and then you get this, like, second kick of energy. If you're having coffee or any kind of caffeine on top of that, that's where it can turn into, like, a really ungrounded kind of mania

Is that ideal? Is that the kind of nourishment that our body is genuinely asking for? Now, this is not a conversation about, therapeutic fasting. This is not a conversation about water fasting. I'm, I'm not even going there today. But I wanna acknowledge that those things are, that those things exist.

What I'm talking about is a regular habit of skipping breakfast.

The other problem with skipping breakfast [00:32:00] is that because our bodies, because our physiology is primed for survival, we have some mechanisms in place to keep us alive naturally. Your body will be more primed to absorb certain nutrients within an hour of waking up because it's like, "Okay, we're awake, we're alive, and now we need some of this and some of this to, to run these processes."

Calcium and iron are two that come to mind off the top of, uh, off the top of my head. Calcium, interestingly enough, being the more important one for survival. Uh, calcium is technically an electrolyte. Calcium is so important. We think about it in terms of bones, but it is so important for nerve tissue, muscle tissue.

If we don't have enough calcium, we will die. It's a thing if there's not enough calcium in our blood. So your body wants some calcium pretty close to waking [00:33:00] up. Same with iron. Your, your body is most able to absorb iron within an hour of waking up-ish. When we skip breakfast, the mechanisms that we have biologically go, "Oh, we haven't got that fuel."

Similar in the way that it will start breaking down muscle tissue to get glucose when it, when it's detected that it hasn't got glucose or carbohydrate. There will be processes that kick in that will start to draw calcium from other tissues This is just an example. Now, what's the thing we start caring about when we're 50 or 60 years old that we're told to worry about, especially if we're women, we need to be really mindful of it, and we take Ostelin for it, 'cause that's the cure, right?

It's our bones.

Calcium will be sacrificed from our bones to stay alive

Is skipping breakfast really that worth it? I don't know. I don't know that it is. 

The last problem before I tell you what we can do about it, I promise you I'm gonna tell you what you can do [00:34:00] about it . The last problem is having coffee before breakfast or having coffee or a caffeinated beverage for that matter on an empty stomach, and it's similar to the last process. Okay? Your body needs genuine fuel.

Your body in the morning within a certain period of waking needs genuine fuel. Caffeine in the form of coffee or black, a strong black tea or an energy drink is not genuine fuel

The particular response is gonna vary from individual to individual. But what we can see is that intake of caffeine, for some people, the blood sugar will spike in a, in a dysregulated way. For some people, the cortisol will spike, so yet you get that adrenalized feeling, oh, oh, oh, got energy, da, da, da, da, da.

That's gonna crash eventually if you're not fueling yourself with actual food. And one of the mechanisms of caffeine and why it can [00:35:00] translate to a- wakefulness and alertness is that it blocks certain receptors in your body that are activated in tired states, that, that will, when you're under-resourced or when you're ready for sleep, when there is not enough energy, these receptors will be activated, and you will get cu- you will get cues of tiredness.

You will get cues to go to sleep. It is a protective mechanism, right? Caffeine blocks that mechanism. And again, the degree to which it blocks that mechanism is gonna vary from person to person, genetics, all sorts of factors, but that's how it works. So you may be undernourished, underfueled, underslept But the caffeine gives you this false sense of like, "Oh yeah, no, I've got plenty in the tank.

Yeah, I can go." Do that day in, day out, time after time. That's gonna lead to some imbalances, and dare I say, that's gonna lead to some imbalances that can result in disease, that can result in symptoms that you, if I was to bet, [00:36:00]don't want.

So my recommendation with coffee is to have, if you, if you must, if you must have your coffee, have it with or after breakfast. Can I say especially if you are someone who tends towards a bit of anxiety, bit of a nervous tummy, a bit of overwhelm Any kind of, you know, dare I say any kind of mental health diagnosis, please stop having coffee on an empty stomach.

You will notice the difference. It might take some adjustment. You will notice the difference. The other thing we can do with coffee, this was more popular, dare I say... I'm saying dare I say a lot, ew. Gotta curb that in. Um, reign it in. Reign it in. The other fun thing we can do with coffee is something that was more popular around 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, bulletproof coffee.

And it kind of became popular in, [00:37:00] like, these gym bro circles. And look, sometimes the gym bros have genuinely helpful tools for, for balancing physiology. So a bulletproof coffee is essentially coffee with some source of fat. People do it with butter. People do it with coconut oil. People do it with an extract of coconut oil called MCT oil.

Back in my gym girl days, I would do it with MCT oil. But a bit of grass-fed butter, you know. The idea there is that, yes, you're still getting the coffee in, uh, but you're putting it with a, another alternative fuel source that your body can use for genuine nourishment, and also fats are really important.

So let's work back from there and go through the problems and then go through some solutions. So-

I've given you the solution for coffee. Let me give you the solution for skipping breakfast. So what is the antidote? Okay, Karinda, you've told us that cereal isn't good enough, toast isn't good enough. [00:38:00] By God, if toast isn't good enough, pancakes probably aren't good enough.

We're not even gonna talk about waffles or crumpets and/or scones and all these delicious things.

You've told me fruit isn't bloody good enough. Um, and you're making breakfast sound really complicated, so it's making me wanna skip it, but you've told me that isn't good enough. So what the hell, Karinda, do you want me to do for breakfast?

I would love for you to have a protein first breakfast. I would love for you to have a breakfast that contains approximately 20 to 40 grams of protein. Now, you're gonna start looking at protein on the back of your, uh, packaged foods, and you're gonna start realizing, "Oh, okay, getting that target can be a little bit tricky."

So you're gonna go easy on yourself, and you're gonna start small. And starting small might be switching to an egg-based breakfast. Egg has some good fat, [00:39:00] has some protein. Not super high protein, but it's a start. If you're going from cereal or toast only, having some eggs, that's good If you eat meat, that makes my life a lot easier.

I do recommend free-range, organic, uh, wherever possible. And sometimes it helps to just really throw out all the conventions of breakfast that you thought you knew. Forget what's conventional for a breakfast. Forget what's a normal breakfast. Start thinking of, like, lunch and dinner meals, and start seeing those as suitable breakfasts.

It's gonna be the more savory things and the more animal protein-containing things that are gonna be physiologically, biologically a healthier breakfast. So eggs; uh, bacon, uh, free-range, nitrite-free if you can source it; mince of any kind; uh, chicken, [00:40:00] chicken anything. you might wanna go the fish route.

Salmon filets, not farmed Australian, please, God, no. wild-caught salmon filets, wild-caught smoked salmon. You might like... You might be good with your canned fishes, and you might go a can of sardines, a can of mackerel, a can of anchovies. Oh my God, I would love that for you. And then we can look at our, you know, more or our less animal-reliant protein sources.

We can look at beans and legumes. You know, adding a side of chickpeas or black beans or kidney beans to something. If you are having toast with eggs, you know, chuck these beans in as well. Lentils. Can you have a side of lentils? Of course, we've got the tofu and the tempeh, which you might be more familiar with if you've spent any time being a vegetarian or vegan.

These are also options. Uh, I would recommend if you're having any soy product, including soy milk, but especially tofu and tempeh, I would recommend, uh, sourcing an organic, non-GMO one because, uh, non-organic [00:41:00] soy can be quite problematic. So you've got options. And then if you do wanna go a more sweeter rou- route for breakfast, look, I'm not gonna hold that against you. Uh, start off with your base of oats. Forget, forget the processed Weet-Bix.

Forget your wheat-based cereal base. Let's go for oats. Oats are a grain, so they're carbohydrate-heavy, but they're not a source of wheat. Sometimes they can contrain- they can contain gluten just because of sharing processing equipment.

That's something to be aware of, especially if you know you're gluten sensitive or intolerant, or you have celiac disease. Please keep that in mind. Have oats as your base, or think of whatever, whatever carb-based breakfast you currently have. Think of that as your base. And then I want you to think of this idea of, like, how can you layer it on so that when you eat that food, [00:42:00] it's not just like carbohydrate, oh, convert to sugar, high, high blood sugar spike.

When we put other nutrients in with our sugary carbohydrate-y meals: protein, fat, fiber, we slow down that blood sugar release. It's a nice softer, steadier curve than this high, sharp, triangular spike. Up, down. Um, the Glucose Goddess, a scientist, uh, who specifically studies, uh, glucose regulation in the body, and she has done some f- fantastic work in this field, highly, highly respect her.

she calls this concept putting clothes on your carbs. Naked carbs are gonna result in a higher blood sugar spike and will be more likely to cause negative health consequences compared to clothed carbs. So having some oats, for example. I'll add some chia seeds. I'll add some [00:43:00] flaxseeds. I'll add some buckwheat kernels, which are high in protein.

You could add some teff or polenta, which would also be high in protein. This is a- where you can also add your fruit, ideally with the skins on, so there's a bit more fiber. Do have some kind of protein powder, whether that's a plant-based one, a whey-based one, or a collagen-based one. I personally love collagen.

Again, I would recommend grass-fed organic if you can source that.

So add in some protein powder. That is... That's when I feel most confidence with oat- oats or porridge or cereal for breakfast. And then think of it similarly if you have toast for breakfast. Can... Say you have it with peanut butter, can you add another mixed nut butter on top or on the side? Can you add some tahini from sesame seeds?

Can you add a side of smoked salmon or a can of sardines or mackerel, or a [00:44:00] palmful of chickpeas, or a palmful of lentils? Season it with some olive oil. You know, add some fats in there. Can you do a classic bacon, egg, one other form of protein on top So a, a hydrolyzed collagen powder would definitely be my recommendation

if you feel less confident with adding, with upping the protein in your breakfast using whole foods, or switching your breakfasts dramatically, I would say if you feel like you don't know where to start, have the breakfast that you have, if you're having it at all. Add 30 grams of collagen protein in water, in milk, in a hot chocolate.

Add it to your coffee as well. Oh, that's the other thing in bulletproof coffee that I forgot. Yeah, there would usually be some kind of, um, collagen added. That's the easiest place to start. If you're not having any breakfast at all, have a protein shake. If you're having a carbohydrate-rich breakfast, offset it with a protein shake.

Can you maybe reduce [00:45:00] the portion of the carbohydrate component that you would normally have and add the protein shake? These are some options. These are some options. I believe our misunderstanding of what is a healthy breakfast and the habits that we were sort of raised to be embedded into us are fucking with our hormones.

And it's as simple as that. And it's as simple as that. And I don't criticize your breakfast, my breakfast sometimes. I don't criticize to be an annoying bitch, you know. I genuinely want better health outcomes for us present day. And then I want us to be able to, to help our children and future generations have better health outcomes because modernity and convention is not cutting it in terms of vital thriving health.

It's not cutting it, and so we've gotta change some [00:46:00] things. Okay? We gotta change some things. And it starts with breakfast. They were right. The most important meal of the day is breakfast, but there's some conditions to what makes that a really high quality breakfast

Now, obviously this is all general advice. This is not medical advice that is tailored to you. But if you would like to work with me directly

I do have some spots ava- available, uh, coming up into spring 2026 to work with some new patients, to meet some new faces, and to help you on your hormone healing journey, your whole, your whole health journey, but especially honing in on hormones, menstrual cycles, periods, and fertility. And lately, fertility has been taking over my life, and I am not mad about it.

So if, whether you have diagnosed hormonal conditions or not, whether you have active severe symptoms or maybe just some mild signs of imbalance, there is always something that can be done. [00:47:00] And if you've got that feeling in your gut that something is just not right, something hasn't been right for a long time, I would love to hear from you.

Check out the links in the description below, wherever you're watching t- or listening to this, for the link to book in for a free call. That's all you need to start. Let's have a chat. Let's have a free 15-minute chat. Let's talk about where you're at. Let's talk about where I could help you get to, if you like.

In the meantime, take care, try a different breakfast, and I'll see you in the next one. [00:48:00]