My Healthy Starts Blog: Real Food Breakfasts Without Gluten, Dairy, or Gimmicks

Delicious, simple & healthy

This isn’t about cutting things out, it’s just eating differently, enjoying food and keeping off the pills.

I often speak to people who find themselves suddenly needing to change the way they eat — whether it’s because of a health condition, a new intolerance, lose weight or a desire to feel better. Sometimes that means adding flaxseed or flaxseed oil for therapeutic reasons; other times it’s about cutting out saturated fat, sugar, gluten, or dairy altogether.

Breakfasts full of Nutrients

• Omega-3
• Fibre
• Vitamins
• Minerals
• Protein
• Soluble Fibre
• Antioxidants
• Flavonoids
• Polyphenols
• Butyrate and other short chain fatty acids

I enjoy my breakfasts but it’s nice to know that eating this way is going to makes sure I get enough of all these nutrients that help keep one healthy.

Fend off hunger pangs; Make weight control easy

I lost a few stone twenty odd years ago and kept it off despite being an undisciplined gannet when it comes to food. Eating well, with all these nutrients helps curb the hunger pangs from many directions which makes it easier not to snack on fattening stuff. However I did try eating slightly differently and allowed myself a bit of leniency last summer, and found I’d put on half a stone. So come August, I went back to a more careful diet, bigger meals, especially breakfasts, and lost the half stone so easily I found I had overshot my target by another half stone and as that was a good thing I’ve kept it off for 9 months without effort and temptation to revert to less good ways of eating.

Ground Flax and Flaxseed Oil Really helps

Flax is always a useful ingredient as an alternative to the foods one can’t eat. It also helps a lot with providing the nutrients that are hard to get especially when you are cutting things out. But use flax and you aren’t so much cutting things out, more replacing empty foods with nutrient dense food.

Flax will help take care of many nutrient you might not normally think about. You will get from Flax: Omega-3, Fibre, Soluble Fibre, Minerals, Protein, Antioxidants, Flavonoids (in particular:, kaempferol, naringenin and quercetin), Polyphenols,Butyrate and other short chain fatty acids.

20 years of creating new breakfasts

I’ve been living this way for over twenty years — avoiding saturated fat, gluten, and dairy, and cutting out most sugar and oats too. The health benefits have been so transformative that I’ve never looked back. I didn’t get into buying the usual gluten-free or dairy-free replacements — they were expensive, hard to find, and often full of ingredients I didn’t want. Instead, I started creating my own alternatives. Flaxseed makes great alternatives. 

It’s been a fun and fascinating journey of experimenting in the kitchen. I don’t have much spare time or patience, so everything I make has to be quick — but it also has to taste great and be good for me. The results? Affordable, real food that helps me feel my best, maintain a healthy weight, and even impress my doctor with excellent blood test results.

That’s why I’ve decided to start sharing my breakfast ideas here. My goal is to offer quick, easy, budget-friendly recipes that are truly nourishing — no gimmicks, no ultra-processed substitutions. Just simple meals that work for real life.

I’ll be posting regular updates with the breakfasts I make, with explanations about why I choose the ingredients I use, along with tips to adapt them to your tastes and dietary needs. I hope these ideas make your mornings a little easier — and a lot healthier.