Eggs have long been a breakfast staple, and for good reason. They're a nutritional powerhouse, packed with high-quality protein, essential vitamins, and minerals. According to the Food and Drug Association of US, each large egg contains about 6 grams of protein, making it a great way to start your day. But why limit yourself to eggs alone? Let's introduce a protein-rich partner: hummus.

Hummus is a creamy dip made from chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, and garlic, is not only delicious but also a fantastic source of plant-based protein. While the exact protein content can vary, a quarter-cup serving of hummus can provide around 4 grams of protein. By combining eggs and hummus, you create a dynamic duo that offers a complete package of nutrients.

What Are Some Benefits Of A Protein-rich Breakfast?

A protein-rich breakfast can set the tone for a healthy day. When you start your morning with a good dose of protein, you're not only fueling your body but also influencing various aspects of your health. Nutr Rev study 2024 protein aimed to understand how the amount of protein we eat at breakfast affects our muscle mass and strength. After carefully reviewing thousands of articles, we selected 15 studies for a deeper analysis.

Their findings suggest that eating a high-protein breakfast may help increase muscle mass, especially for older adults. However, the impact on muscle strength is less clear. More research is needed to confirm these findings and to determine the optimal amount of protein for breakfast. In conclusion, while a protein-rich breakfast shows promise for maintaining muscle health, more high-quality studies are necessary to provide definitive answers. Here are some ways it can benefit you.

Muscle Health

Protein is the building block of muscles. Consuming protein early in the day can help stimulate muscle protein synthesis, especially important for older adults and individuals engaged in strength training.

Appetite Control

Protein helps you feel fuller for longer. By including protein in your breakfast, you can reduce cravings and overeating throughout the day.

Improved Focus

Protein-rich foods can help stabilize blood sugar levels. This can lead to improved focus, concentration, and overall cognitive function.

Weight Management

A protein-packed breakfast can help you maintain a healthy weight. Studies have shown that people who eat protein-rich breakfasts tend to consume fewer calories throughout the day.

Mediterranean-Inspired Breakfast Ideas

The Mediterranean-inspired breakfast as well as the entire cuisine has been noted to be very nutritious and good for your health. It is a delicious and nutritious way to start your day. By combining the best of Mediterranean cuisine with a protein-packed twist, you can create meals that are both satisfying and healthy. According to Cleveland Clinic Mediterranean Diet is a healthy eating pattern that focuses on plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. It also includes healthy fats, primarily from olive oil. This diet has been linked to a reduced risk of heart disease and other chronic health conditions. A registered dietitian can help you tailor this diet to your specific needs and preferences. Here are some dishes you can try

Hummus and Veggie Dip

Cut up fresh vegetables like carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers, and cherry tomatoes. Serve them with a side of creamy hummus. This combination provides a good dose of protein, fiber, and essential vitamins.

Hummus-Filled Omelet

Enjoy your classic omelet by adding a scoop of hummus to the egg mixture. The creamy hummus adds a unique flavor and a boost of protein. You can also add your favorite vegetables like spinach, mushrooms, or tomatoes to make it even more nutritious.

Hummus and Egg Sandwich

Spread a generous amount of hummus on a whole-grain toast. Top it with a fried or scrambled egg. You can also add some fresh herbs like basil or parsley for extra flavor.

In India, over half of adolescent girls and women are anaemic; one-fifth have low Body Mass Index, while micronutrient deficiencies like Vitamin D and Vitamin B12 affect 60% and 53% of girls and women, respectively. The resulting lack of energy, poor ability to concentrate, bone pain, chronic fatigue, insomnia, and a variety of other health challenges cause significant loss of quality of life, poor productivity, and high morbidity among women.

The multifactorial causation theory of nutrition effectively defines that, alongside nutrition-specific factors, nourishment depends on nutrition-sensitive factors, including socio-economic and cultural factors, that are often shaped by communities.

Although women almost universally prepare food at home, gender norms compel women to prioritise serving food to family members before themselves, resulting in smaller portions and nutritionally inferior diets for themselves. This is particularly harmful to women when the demands of the body are high, such as during adolescence, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and peri-menopause. To break such harmful practices reinforced through generations, focused social and behaviour change (SBC) strategies that foster community action are essential.

Re-Positioning Women’s Nutrition for Effective Behaviour Change

The objective of SBC is to change knowledge, attitudes and practices of target groups and stimulate social change at the local and national level. Good SBC efforts can encourage community engagement, influence social norms, support policy advocacy, promote service uptake, reach underserved populations and foster a media environment that resonates with downstream engagement. Community Action can be an outcome of a good SBC effort.

An SBC approach meant to centre a woman’s nutrition needs within a household must target all decision makers within that family and community such as husband, mothers-in-law, elders, local leaders and other influencers. Rather than adopting a narrow woman-centred approach, messages that position the health and nutrition of a woman as central for the well-being of the entire family are more effective.

Communication strategies that emphasise outcomes that are valued by families, such as better nutrition leading to a reduction in sickness-related income loss, decreased healthcare expenditure, increased savings and improved productivity, are more appealing and acceptable in Indian and other similar societies. Such framing aligns women's nutritional needs with aspirations families are motivated to achieve.

Behaviour change rarely occurs after a single exposure to a message. New ideas gain acceptance when repeated consistently by trusted community sources like ASHAs, Anganwadi Workers, SHG leaders, Panchayat representatives, faith-based leaders, community elders, and frontline health workers. Consistent messaging across platforms builds trust, creates social acceptance, and gradually shifts expectations regarding women's health.

Also read: Eating 4–6 Servings of Whole Grains Daily May Lower Heart Disease Risk

Fostering Community-Led Collective Action

Evidence demonstrates that community-led collective action effectively shifts entrenched norms. Women's collectives provide safe spaces for discussion, peer learning, and collective problem-solving, becoming agents of social change rather than mere beneficiaries. Sustainable improvements require interventions operating simultaneously across multiple levels:

• Individual level: Knowledge, confidence, and agency for informed nutritional choices.
• Household level: Positioning women's health as essential for effective caregiving, household productivity, reduced healthcare costs, and overall family well-being.
• Community level: Women's collectives, SHGs, youth groups, Panchayats, and faith-based organisations fostering dialogue and establishing healthier behaviours as socially desirable.
• Institutional level: Frontline workers requiring training, supervision, and culturally appropriate tools for consistent messaging.
• Policy level: Integrating nutrition with livelihoods, women's empowerment, social protection, and primary healthcare rather than isolated sectoral programmes.

Also read: Can An Overweight Child Be Malnourished? Signs Of Hidden Malnutrition In Kids

Lessons from Implemented Programmes

JEEViKA, Bihar's State Rural Livelihoods Mission, demonstrates effective change. Rather than presenting maternal and child nutrition as isolated health issues, JEEViKA positioned nutrition within household well-being. Messages focused on how improved food practices enhance productivity, increase income, and strengthen family well-being. This framing resonated with household priorities and encouraged wider family participation, contributing to substantial improvements in dietary practices without directly challenging cultural norms. Messages were discussed during SHG meetings, reinforced through peer support, and complemented by frontline health services.

Alive & Thrive, implemented by FHI 360, generated important evidence on culturally grounded social and behaviour change communication in Bihar. Formative research found poor maternal diets driven less by food scarcity than by household norms regarding meal frequency, food allocation, and perceptions about eating during pregnancy. Importantly, many pregnant women were willing to consume more diverse diets when household members supported changes and messages addressed prevailing beliefs rather than simply providing nutritional advice. The programme emphasised repeated interpersonal communication, practical counselling, engagement of influential family members, and community-based reinforcement.

Food fortification provides a cost-effective population-level complement to this goal. Fortified staples can help bridge micronutrient gaps; however, they are complementary to, and not a substitute for, a balanced and diversified diet.

A comprehensive review across India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam concluded that integrating social and behaviour change interventions into community-based women's groups improves maternal and child nutrition practices through peer support, collective efficacy, and existing social capital.

The Way Forward

Improving women's nutrition requires moving beyond food distribution, supplementation, and knowledge-sharing. The challenge is fundamentally social as much as nutritional. Food availability creates opportunity, but social norms determine utilisation. Lasting improvements depend on transforming beliefs, behaviours, and relationships governing food allocation within households, demanding culturally grounded communication, repeated reinforcement from trusted actors, and sustained collective action through women's groups.

Women's nutrition should be recognised as a strategic investment in household resilience, economic productivity, community development, and national human capital, not solely a maternal and child health issue. When women are well-nourished physically and mentally, benefits extend far beyond individual health.

Future programmes should move beyond information dissemination towards community-owned social norm transformation, using collective action as catalysts for sustained behavioural change. This represents one of the most promising pathways for improving women's nutrition at scale while strengthening family health, livelihoods, and community resilience.

By Dr Amrita Misra, Visiting Professor, Azim Premji University

Whole grains are becoming more popular day by day because of their nutritional benefits, and a recent study has highlighted another major advantage of eating four to six servings. According to the study published in the European Heart Journal, eating four to six servings of whole grains every day may help lower the risk of heart disease. As heart disease is arguably one of the most fatal ailments, these findings, if true, can give hope to millions.

The research shows that eating a diet rich in whole grains may help to prevent heart disease. The study emphasizes that these foods reduce body weight, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and glucose in the blood, which in turn play a major role in lowering the risk of heart disease overall.

The lead researcher Dr. Helda Tutunchi from Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Iran said, "Although higher whole-grain intake has long been linked to better heart health in population studies, clinical trials have produced mixed findings. This left an important practical question unanswered: How much whole grain should people eat to meaningfully improve cardiovascular health?"

"To address this, we systematically combined and analyzed all available randomized controlled trials to identify the amount of whole grain associated with the greatest benefits." She added.

The findings came after trials conducted across Asia, Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Brazil. Notably, more than 6,500 people took part in these trials. The thorough analysis showed that whole grains significantly reduced people's body weight, waist circumference, and blood pressure, as well as levels of total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, and interleukin-6, a sign of inflammation in the blood.

The study suggested that these benefits might be seen in those who eat 30 to 40 grams of whole grains per day, but the maximum benefits were found in people eating 60 to 100 grams per day. This amounts to around four to six servings of whole grains a day—for instance, oatmeal, a sandwich made with whole-grain bread, and a serving of brown rice.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr Cecilie Kyrø of the Danish Cancer Institute in Copenhagen and her colleagues noted that more than 50 years ago, Sir Denis Burkitt and his fellow researchers suggested that refining staple carbohydrates—and removing the cereal fibre in the process—could contribute to a wide range of Western diseases by affecting stool volume, bowel transit time and the environment within the colon.

Whole grains are cereal grains that retain all three major components—bran, germ and endosperm—in the same proportions found in the intact grain. They can be consumed as whole kernels or flakes, or ground into flour and used to make bread and other foods.

When we think of malnutrition, we often picture a child who is thin or underweight. But malnutrition can sometimes look very different. An overweight child can also be malnourished.

A child may consume enough—or even too many—calories and still not get the nutrients needed for healthy growth. Diets high in processed foods, sugary drinks and refined carbohydrates can lead to excess weight while being poor in iron, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, protein and other essential nutrients.

This is particularly important today, when childhood overweight and obesity are increasing alongside micronutrient deficiencies. A child’s weight alone therefore cannot tell us whether the child is adequately nourished.

Parents need to look at the overall picture—growth pattern, height and BMI for age, dietary habits, physical activity and, when required, blood tests for specific deficiencies.

Parents should also remember that “eating more” does not always mean “eating better”. A balanced diet containing adequate protein, vegetables, fruits, whole grains and other nutrient-rich foods is essential.

The goal should not simply be a healthy weight, but a healthy, well-nourished child.

Dr. Ashish Gautam, Principal Director, Robotic Surgery, Laparoscopic & Minimal Access Surgery, Max Hospital, Patparganj