We are very excited to welcome belVita Breakfast Biscuits as the second Scoop Supporter for 2013. Scoop supporters are brands that eat, drink or think just like us and help us grow our Sub of the Month mentoring program for dietitians. Now, we all know breakfast is the most important meal of the day….yadda yadda….but what about the idea of biscuits at breakfast? At first I was skeptical. So our new Scoop Intern, Camilla Ferraro APD2be, and I headed out to research. And we bet you’ll be surprised at what we uncovered.
La Dolce Vita
I am in love with Italy and hold amazing memories of my Summer trips to Tuscany, Roma and beyond. And as Camilla is Italian descent (need I really have asked with that surname?) we headed to a local mega-Italian produce store. And just like a typical supermarket, there is an aisle just for breakfast. But lo and behold, no cereal box in sight. Instead it’s all about biscotti, cornettos and dried bread crackers. Camilla’s nonna crumbles biscuits into her morning coffee and the staff passionately told us about breakfast the European way. According to Research International eating biscuits for breakfast is a traditional habit in Southern Europe with 74% of biscuit consumption in Italy being at the breakfast meal. In fact biscuits are mentioned as an example of a suitable cereal-based food in official Spanish dietary guideline recommendations.
Source: fallonelizabeth.tumblr.com via Emma on Pinterest
Italians do it better?
But just because something is commonly eaten, doesn’t automatically make it nutritious and that’s where belVita comes in. belVita Breakfast biscuits are specially designed to have a low GI for sustained energy and are made with five wholegrains, providing 2.9g fibre per serve. A serve of belVita provides at least 22g wholegrains, contributing almost half of the daily target (48g/day) for wholegrains as recommended by the Grain Nutrition and Legume Council. They are perfectly portable and portion controlled (in packs of 4). And designed to be partnered with a skim latte, glass of milk or dunked in a yogurt pot for a calcium serve at breakfast. Just like you’d add wholegrain cereal to milk in a bowl, the Anglo way. Add a piece of fruit and you have a pack-it-and-go balanced breaky perfect for skippers. And let me assure you there are plenty of those. Even Miss Ten is starting to lose interest in breaking her fast, so I’m going to try this tween tempter:
Looking at negative nutrients, a pack of four belVita biscuits has only 150mg sodium, 1.9g saturated fat and around 10g of sugar, which is about 2 teaspoons (the same as my kids add to wholegrain cereal with honey, brown sugar or dried fruit). Camilla and I had fun designing and styling this train stop option for her busy Uni mornings with nut butter and apples slices. Oh my.
And on the days I’m not mindfully eating my slow-cooked oats and stewed rhubarb, on the deck for the daily vitamin D, I think this ricotta combo with the new Cranberry belVita, plus coffee (of course) is a scrumptious winner. There are 5 flavours in the range to mix and match: including new Cranberry variant, Honey & Nut with choc chip, Milk & Cereals, Crunchy Oats, and Fruit & Fibre.
So how about you lovely readers? Regrettably not everyone has the healthy habit like you and me. Do you agree that we need creative solutions to bring back breakfast for so many skippers? Has the breakfast landscape changed for members of your family? What other smart solutions or tips are there for skippers? How do you break your fast?
