A powerhouse breakfast needs this mix of ingredients, according to a dietitian

Bunny Banyai is a writer. The 47-year-old shares her day on a plate.

7.30am I wake up every morning starving – it’s like my body forgets overnight that I’ve ever eaten before. I have a bowl of rolled oats, blueberries, pear, passionfruit, walnuts, sultanas and light Greek yoghurt with cinnamon, followed by my favourite supplement: Acyclovir, an anti-viral medication for herpes. I also take marine collagen in the misguided hope that it will erase my crow’s feet. I walk four laps of the oval near my house with my Labrador, Sadie.

1.30pm Lunch is almost always leftovers. Today it’s last night’s barbecued chicken breast, potatoes and a salad of cabbage and rocket. I do a five-minute YouTube workout immediately after eating, as I spend most of my working day sitting on the bed, hunched over a laptop.

3.30pm A date, almond and cashew butter snack ball.

6.30pm Basmati and wild rice with chickpeas, currants and herbs, plus a side salad of cabbage, bell pepper, radish and cos lettuce.

8.30 pm A corn thin with Vegemite and a spoonful of peanut butter straight from the jar.

Dr Joanna McMillan

Top marks for… Outstanding plant-food diversity, with wholegrains, legumes, nuts, seeds, fruit and vegetables all strongly represented. Your oat-based breakfast is a fibre and polyphenol powerhouse, and chickpeas plus salad at dinner are doing wonderful things for your gut microbes and long-term heart health.

If you keep eating like this you’ll… Continue to support a healthy microbiome and stable blood sugar, which helps explain your good appetite awareness and balanced snacking. The one thing to keep an eye on is iron, as a plant-forward pattern means absorption is lower.

Why don’t you try… Pairing iron-rich plant foods more deliberately with vitamin C – think citrus, berries or capsicum – to boost absorption. Occasionally adding eggs, seafood or red meat (if you enjoy them) to dinner would boost protein, helping to reduce the late-evening hunger that sends you back to the corn thins.

Bunny Banyai is the author of Around the World in 80 Meatballs.

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