6 healthier breakfast options

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but many people skip it or make unhealthy choices. Follow these suggestions and you can start your day off right.

Instead of high-sugar orange juice in the morning, substitute a glass of low-sodium tomato juice. It's more filling, is less likely to spike your blood sugar and provides more nutrients and fibre.

What about drinking your fruit instead of eating it? No, not in fruit juice — which is often high in sugar and stripped of the fruit's fibre — but in a smoothie. Just toss 250 millilitres (one cup) of berries — strawberries, blueberries, raspberries — and a sliced (but not peeled) apple, peach or pear into your blender. Add 125 millilitres (1/2 cup) skim milk and a frozen banana, maybe a cup of ice if you like it thicker, and blend.

It can feel like eating some of those high-fibre cereals is tantamount to munching on cardboard. So try this: mix 75 grams (1/3 cup) of the hearty stuff with your favourite cereal. Choose a high-fibre cereal such as All-Bran, with 8.5 grams of fibre, and you're more than one-third of the way toward the recommended 25 grams of fibre a day.

Instead of sugary cereals, starchy breads, or greasy meat and eggs that make up the typical North American breakfast, go for a more Mediterranean style. An Israeli breakfast consists of foods like hummus, cottage cheese, tomatoes or fruit, plus sometimes a slice of raisin bread.

Grapefruits are loaded with folate, which has been found to significantly reduce the risk of stroke. But be cautious if you're taking daily medications. Grapefruit and its juice can interact with medications that have to be processed through the liver. Check with your doctor about any possible interactions between grapefruits and any medications you are taking.

Studies find that these tiny purple berries are loaded with valuable antioxidants that can slow brain aging and protect your memory. Not into cereal? Try baking blueberries into oatmeal to create your own oatmeal-blueberry granola bar, or mixing them into whole wheat pancake or waffle batter.

Adding fruit and staying away from the greasy breakfasts is the first step to eating right and it will help sustain you through the day.