One of the country's leading doctors has explained how the choices he made at breakfast lead to him gaining weight as he urges everyone to think about what they eat in the morning. Professor Tim Spector, speaking to diet expert Michael Mosely on the podcast 'Just One Thing' said his breakfast made him gain 22lbs.
He said breakfast choices like toast and marmalade, tea and orange juice made him gain weight, adding: "When I was a healthy doctor epidemiologist, it [breakfast] would be mostly a cup of tea with low fat milk in it. And a nice glass of orange juice, and toast and marmalade. It would be brown toast - I didn't know at that time that they're often dyed brown.
"I was eating towards what I was told at the time as a doctor was a healthy diet. And it turns out that that diet had led to me gaining about a kilo in weight over the previous 10 years, so that I'd gained about 10 kilos over that time. And it was only when I stuck a glucose monitor on me as I was eating my breakfast that it shot up into the normal diabetic range.
"There was a worrying sign that really these carbs and sugars weren't right for me."
He now eats full-fat yogurt with nuts, seeds and berries and switched tea to coffee which helps him stay full until lunch.
He added: "This is why I say experiment your breakfast because for me, it was good to change to a high fat breakfast. So, I have full fat yoghurt with some nuts and seeds sprinkled on there and whichever berries I happen to have - either frozen or fresh depending on the season. I switched my tea to coffee, because we now know coffee is really good for your gut microbes.
"It was a radical difference. And I instantly saw that changing brought down my sugars. I wasn't getting sugar spikes. I also didn't feel nearly as hungry at 11 o'clock at work. I didn't feel I needed a mid morning biccy as I used to and I was just feeling generally better."
