3 delicious – yet healthy – ways to give your breakfast a 2021 upgrade

Start as you mean to go on.

I am a firm believer that how you start your morning will have a huge impact on the rest of your day. Wake up late and end up rushing around to get everything and everyone ready? No doubt your whole day will end up feeling like you are chasing your tail. I feel the same goes for food. As in, if I start my day off right, with a healthy breakfast, I am far more likely to keep on making healthy choices throughout the day too. And right now, I am obsessed with these three delicious (and Irish-made!) products, genuinely making me excited for breakfast every morning: 1. Linwoods Crunchy Seed Clusters I am a creature of habit when it comes to breakfast, in winter, mostly opting for porridge (so warming, so comforting!) and in the summer, coconut yoghurt or fruit salad. What I do, however, crave, is a bit of variety when it comes to toppings. And right now, I am obsessed with the new Crunchy Seed Clusters from Linwoods. The flaxseeds and nuts one is my favourite, but I also love the pumpkin and chia seed version. I will add a couple of spoonfuls to pretty much any breakfast at this stage, be it porridge, overnight oats or scattered over fruits and yogurt. Even better? We had it as a topping on our Sunday morning pancakes recently, and it added just the perfect amount of crunch! The best bit is that the Crunchy Seed Clusters are also high in plant-based protein, meaning I find I stay full for longer when I have it for breakfast, and also they also contain Omega-3 ALA and magnesium, making them the perfect way to add a little extra health boost to my breakfasts every morning. 2. Homespun Chicory Root Syrup Let's face it – neither porridge nor pancakes are half as nice without a generous dollop of maple syrup. However – what if you could have that same sweet hit – without the blood sugar spike? Well – now you can. I am so totally obsessed with this new chicory root syrup from Irish natural food business Homespun, and feel like everyone should know about this. Chicory root syrup, as it turns out, is as sweet and delicious as maple syrup, but will cause no spike in blood sugars, is high in gut healthy prebiotic fibres and tastes so, so good! Seriously, I keep adding it to not only to my porridge or drizzled over yogurt, but also to sweeten my green tea, or even my cup of hot lemon water in the morning. Heck, I have even been known to smear some on top of my peanut butter toast, and honestly, the two together is pure heaven! 3. Circle of Light Green Coffee OK, so let's be clear – it is not the frothy, comforting oat milk latte I also need at some point every morning. But hear me out – this green coffee is so, so amazing and refreshing, I am now totally hooked. These unroasted, green coffee beans are a nutritional powerhouse, and high in a number of active ingredients, particularly chlorogenic acid, which has widespread health benefits as an anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant. And much as we love our usual morning java, science tells us that roasting the coffee beans destroys virtually all the nutrients in the beans. By drinking my coffee beans green (my favourite way to drink my green coffee is with ice and sparkling water, by the way), I am not only getting a serious antioxidant hit, but also keeping my heart healthy and skin looking firm (no, really!) The best bit? It actually tastes great too!