Posted July 27, 2011
Starting the day with muesli for breakfast will make you feel full for a long time, noted Isabelle Keller, spokeswoman for the German Nutrition Society (DGE).
“It’s incredibly nutritious,” she said. Loaded with calories, muesli satisfies hunger much longer than two pieces of toast. It is also rich in dietary fibre and healthy fats.
To make a muesli breakfast a balanced meal, Keller recommends three basic ingredients, starting with a ready mix of various kinds of grains as a base, such as oats, rye and barley. Linseed, nuts and dried fruits can come on top of that. Whole-grain mueslis are better than crunchy ones, to which sugar is often added, Keller pointed out. “It pays to take a critical look at the label,” she said.
Secondly, muesli should be blended with a dairy product to increase its nutrient density further. Whether milk, yogurt, kefir or buttermilk, it is important that the product be low in fat because the nuts in muesli already contain healthy, unsaturated fats, Keller said.
As a third ingredient, Keller suggests fresh fruit, which provides additional vitamins and dietary fibre. The fruit can be seasonal: berries in the summer, then grapes, and apples and bananas year-round.