Becoming vegan and committing to eating healthier to support your growing strength and fitness can both be tricky changes. When combined, perhaps even more so.

But there’s really no problem eating vegan and healthy! Nor getting enough protein. Have a look at my lunch and dinner recipes if you want more examples.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, as the old wives’ tale goes.

But is it really?

Studies show that eating breakfast prevents obesity or is associated with a lower BMI. At least when coupled with good sleep1 and active livestyle2.

However, these are all observational studies, meaning no causality should be assumed.

The correlation might just as well turn out to be that people who plan better make healthier meals (obesity prevention) and are more likely to eat breakfast. We just don’t know for sure.

Interestingly it seems like the explanation of the lower BMI might lay with increased activity in the breakfast eaters3.

Regular breakfast eaters also perform better in school4 (though it won’t increase your IQ5.)

With all those potential benefits listed above, combined with my love of eating food, of course I’m a firm breakfast eater myself.

But what to put on the plate exactly?

Nutrients

Food is so much more than nutrition: comfort, tradition, mating, status, etc, etc. But let’s put culture aside for a while and look at how to use food to power ourselves.

There are, roughly speaking, five groups of nutrients for humans: proteins, carbs, fats, minerals and vitamins.

I will outline how I divide my calories over those groups in a later article (sign up to not miss it!) but for now we’ll keep it simple.

The most common vitamin and mineral deficiencies for vegans are in iron, calcium, vitamin D and B12. So those are the ones I try to make a little extra effort to get.

The rest are considered depending on what meal it is. After training I want more carbs and in the morning I prefer to eat a little extra fat to keep me full longer.

Keep that in mind for the following recipes.

Without further ado, here are my two favorite, healthy breakfasts for vegan athletes!

Power porridge Ingredients 100 g Oats (steel-cut for more fiber)

30 g Peanut butter

1 tbsp Coconut flakes

3 dl / 10 oz Oat milk (*fortified oat milk helps with [B12 supplementation](/vegan-b12)*) Directions Measure the oats in a glass and then pour them in a pot. Pour double that amount of water in the pot and then start heating it. Stir frequently. When it looks like porridge, after just a few minutes, it's done. :) Pour in the peanut butter and coconut flakes and then mix it all together. Fill bowl with the oat milk and get to work! 704 kcal 29 g protein 84 g carbs 28 g fat