Udaipur dietician shares 5 ‘healthy’ breakfast habits that may actually be unhealthy and cause bloating or fatigue

Make sure you rectify your breakfast habits to avoid afternoon slumps. Find out how you can modify them.

Breakfast is usually called the most important meal of the day. Your morning eating habits effectively shape the rest of your day, impacting your energy, focus, mood, and even digestion. If not planned well, you may feel tired, bloated or craving something by mid-morning.

The catch? Sometimes you may be doing all the right things, but still end up feeling uncomfortable at midday. There are some simple missteps you may not be paying attention to.

To understand what mistakes people commonly make, HT Lifestyle reached out to Udaipur-based personal dietician and nutritionist Ridhima Khamsera, who explained that sometimes ‘healthy’ morning habits can throw your body's rhythm off. While the habits themselves are not inherently bad, she emphasised that timing is often off. This means people tend to do them at the‘worst possible time.'

She shared that these ‘healthy habits’ which are actually terrible for your health:

1. Drinking a lot of water in the morning

While hydrating is good, the dietitian cautioned against ‘drowning in water' first thing in the morning. ’Many may assume that downing multiple glasses of water because, of course, more the merrier when it comes to water. But everything works best in moderation.

Ridhima revealed why this habit may not work in your favour, “When you down three or four glasses right after waking up, you're washing out all the gastric acid your stomach built up overnight. That acid is supposed to break down food. Dilute it too much and your digestion basically stalls, which is how bloating happens before you've even had breakfast.”

What's the fix then? Ridhima advised drinking only one glass of water and then eating something within 30 minutes.

2. Drinking fruit juice in the morning

Fruits are considered fresh sources of many nutrients, which is why fruit juices made from banana, mango, berries, or orange are popular. But the dietician flagged this supposedly healthy habit. Fruit juice rapidly spikes your blood sugar.

“Blending fruit shreds the fibre that's meant to slow sugar absorption. Without it, the natural sugars flood your bloodstream fast. You feel amazing for about an hour, then your energy drops off a cliff, and suddenly you're eyeing the vending machine,” the dietician explained.

Ridhima instead suggested, “Add protein powder or nut butter.” When you add these to your fruit juice, the sugar spike will be less drastic, and energy remains steady.

Breakfast habits need to be reconsidered, as some healthy ones too can cause trouble. (Picture credit: Made with Chat GPT)

3. Running on empty stomach

Beginning the day with a vigorous activity kickstarts your system, and sometimes people go for runs early in the morning on an empty stomach. But Ridhima revealed that it only heightens your stress hormones and may even interfere with performance and fitness results.

“For most people, though, working out on an empty stomach just spikes cortisol. That stress hormone makes the workout feel ten times harder and can actually mess with the results you're chasing,”she explained.

4. Coffee before food

You may have encountered many health hacks, from adding dollops of ghee to your coffee to make it a bullet coffee, to sticking to black brew to shake off morning grogginess. But coffee on an empty stomach may actually adversely impact your digestive system. It may cause acidity.

Ridhima added, “Caffeine tells your stomach to ramp up acid production. When there's nothing in there to handle it, that acid just sits around causing discomfort, sometimes even nausea. Regular coffee drinkers won't get seriously dehydrated from it, but it does push fluids out faster than normal.”

What does this imply? Do you give up your morning coffee? No, instead, the dietician advised eating nuts or toast before drinking coffee, as it changes how the stomach deals with the caffeine.

5. Skipping breakfast

Many diets and eating hacks have emerged that require you to skip breakfast, whether it is OMAD (one meal a day) or intermittent fasting, but entirely eliminating breakfast isn't a healthy idea.

Ridhima told us that people actually end up more distracted and foggy, and one is more likely to overeat later. She said, "When lunch finally rolls around, they're so hungry they eat too much and spend the afternoon in a food coma. Your body's metabolism does peak in the morning. A reasonable breakfast keeps things level and prevents that crash most people blame on the afternoon itself.

Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.