The porridge experiment (part 2)

Here’s an update on my breakfast experiment. As you may recall from part 1, the Chinese doctor asked me to eat porridge with black sesame, walnuts and goji berries for breakfast in order to boost my qi. Being always open to experimentation in the quest for optimal health, I decided to give it a go at least for a couple of weeks. My main concern was having a big whack of carbs first thing in the morning, which I expected to mess with my blood sugar regulation, hunger and potentially digestion. I was also worried about gaining to much weight from the extra carbs and giving up my morning keto-induce alertness. On top of that, my coach wants me to up my protein intake to put on more muscle.

To address potential carb-related issues, I did not use glutinous rice as indicated in the recipe I found. Instead, I cooked the first batch with medium grain rice, the second batch with a mix of medium-grain and basmati and subsequent batches just with basmati. Basmati is the lowest glycaemic-index rice, so does not rise blood sugar as much as other types. Every batch yields 4-5 serves, which means that every time I eat breakfast the rice has been cooled and reheated, increasing its resistant starch content (this is food for gut bugs). I’m also having a smaller serve than the big bowl that the “fish food lady” suggested, and adding two boiled eggs to increase the protein content (see pic below). I tried it with a scoop of protein powder (French vanilla-flavoured WPI) one day but didn’t like it, first because I don’t like sweet breakfasts, and second because the combination made the stevia aftertaste very noticeable.

So far I haven’t had any digestive issues. Some days I do get hungry at mid-morning, which is annoying, but I haven’t felt too groggy/tired. I’ve also noticed that the carb content is not an issue if I eat low carb the rest of the day. I’ll probably keep having this breakfast for a couple more weeks to see if it really makes a difference.

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