What you have to avoid (and what you have to eat) at your hotel breakfast buffet to get a healthy plate
Ah, the breakfast buffets of the holiday hotels! Perhaps they are the best part of summer vacation for many who choose a résort to spend their days of rest. And is that most of us spend almost daily breakfast coffee with milk quickie to have at our disposal all kinds of food and products for a few days a year. And the temptation to take everything we do not usually eat in our day to day is great, we are not going to lie.
Start the day with a good breakfast, especially if we have time to enjoy it, is a pleasure that we can generally only afford on vacation. But if you also want that breakfast to continue being part of a healthy diet, we tell you what you have to put on your plate and what is best left on the buffet tray.
What you have to avoid to get a healthy breakfast buffet
Sausages such as sausage, chicken breast or choped
The sausages in general do not stop being ultra-processed foods with little nutritional value . We only need to take a look at your label in any supermarket to check that usually tend to have enough flour in its composition, in addition to sugar in some cases such as chicken breast or turkey. Better to avoid them and eat at noon or at dinner some good quality meat.
In many of these hotels, especially if we are in a summer area where there are many foreigners, it is customary to have an iron to make sausages or bacon strips at the moment. The sausages are obviously an ultraprocessed and not recommended product (it is not usually good quality meat). As for bacon, it is also a processed meat rich in fats: consider if your consumption is going to be sporadic and make a decision based on it.
Industrial bakery such as croissants, cookies or donuts
Eye with the “homemade” pastries: it is still pastry and containing sugars, refined flours and unattractive fats
No matter the country or region you go to, in all the breakfast buffets of the hotels you can find a wide variety of industrial pastries in the form of mini-croissants filled with chocolate, ensaimadas with icing sugar or donuts with colorful toppings. All this is refined flours, low quality fats and sugar, things that are not recommended for breakfast or for another meal.
Beware of the claim of “homemade pastries” or “homemade cookies” : when we read a similar claim we tend to think that it has been made with “natural” ingredients and that it may not be as harmful as its industrial brothers. However, it is still pastries with flours, fats and sugars, and it is still a bad option at any time of the day.
Sugary cereals to mix with milk or yogurt
The paradise of the cereals is not in the specialized bars that begin to appear in our cities , but in the breakfast buffets of the hotels. At least we will always find at least five or six varieties of cereals, most of them sugary , with which to fill a bowl before returning to the table.
What is the best option if we want to have cereals for breakfast? Try the traditional Corn-Flakes (those in the rooster box) or the crispy müesli mixed with milk or plain yogurt (unsweetened). If there is oatmeal or a similar option, keep well the address of the hotel to repeat in the future.
The almost infinite variety of juices (and soft drinks)
We have already spoken on previous occasions that the fruit is always better to consume it in bites than in the form of juice . When we squeeze it, we lose all its fiber and remarkably reduce its satiating capacity (if you do not eat four oranges with bites, why do you drink them in juice?).
The fruit is always better at bites, always!
That supposing that the juices are natural, because in many hotels it is not like that: in many occasions the juices are concentrated with powders (with a lot of sugar) that are hydrated with water. Better to hydrate with water and an infusion or coffee. The sodas we already know that they are not a good option at any time of the day.
What you can put on your plate to get a healthy breakfast buffet
Fill your plate with fresh fruit
One of the great things about the breakfast buffets of the hotels is that they offer the guests a huge variety of fresh fruit ready to eat : you do not have to worry about cutting the watermelon , peeling the apple or chopping the Kiwi because you have everything ready and within reach. The breakfast paradise! A bowl full of fresh fruit is an unbeatable idea to start the day.
Beware of the brightly colored pseudo-Macedonian that is also common in many hotels: that mixture of pineapple, apple and “cherries” cut into small pieces and put in syrup in a giant bowl. It is fruit, but fruit dipped in water with sugar. If we can choose fresh fruit, it will always be the best option.
Fresh cheese and whipped cheese
It is also traditional in many buffets to offer a wide variety of cheeses that we can combine with the fresh fruits we have talked about before. Cured cheeses are the ones that usually provide a greater amount of fat and calories, but you can choose fresh cheeses to include at breakfast.
Fresh whipped cheese is a good option to mix with fresh fruit and nuts
More and more times, near the yoghurts we can also find fresh whipped cheese : it is an excellent option to combine, for example, with a handful of nuts and pieces of fresh fruit. Get a big bowl and make your own healthy breakfast including these ingredients.
Throw eggs to breakfast
Another reason why it is worth breakfast at the buffet of many hotels is that they have a cook expressly only to prepare tortillas and scrambled eggs during breakfast . Surely many of you do not eat an omelette at breakfast because of the mess that is put to make it in the kitchen first thing in the morning: take advantage if your buffet is a bar of this kind for breakfast some eggs well at home.
There are also usually cooked eggs in some hotels: they are another good option for breakfast, especially if we can accompany them with a good quality whole grain bread (in the buffets there are usually several types of different breads: search well if you can find one that does not be industrial).
Salads and vegetables
If at the hotel most of the guests are foreigners there will surely be a place in the buffet where we will find a salad area or at least vegetables. The vegetables are ideal to accompany our boiled, scrambled eggs or our tortilla, and we can take them at any time of the day: we do not have to limit their consumption to lunch or dinner.
Vegetables also have a place at breakfast, and provide vitamins and flavor
Also in many cases we can find freshly made (and usually homemade) ground tomato ready to spread on the toast and combine with olive oil and a few slices of ham. As we said before, look for an integral bread that is of good quality and opt for the serrano ham (it is also a processed meat, but the sporadic consumption does not have to worry us).
And you, what breakfast do you have at the hotel buffets when you are on vacation?
