The sugar and fat content of most breakfast foods is comparable with dessert! Typically eaten breakfast foods that many people consider to be healthy are far from it. Starting your day with these foods can make it impossible to lose weight or improve your health. The high sugar content inhibits fat burning and promotes cravings and hunger for the remainder of the day. Flavored yogurt, granola, breakfast cereal, fruit juice and toast with sweet toppings are typical foods that many people start their day with. Have you ever stopped to consider the nutritional make up of these foods? There has been a media campaign for quite some time informing the public about just how much sugar is present in most breakfast cereals, and as a consequence, cereal sales are actually falling. One cup of a popular granola provides 26 grams of sugar. That’s 6 and a half teaspoons. One teaspoon holds 4 grams of sugar, so you can work out how many teaspoons are in a food by looking at the nutrition panel. Combine that with a glass of orange juice and you’ve got a sugar bomb. The average granola bar contains around 12 to 14 grams of sugar, which is the same as most candy bars. A granola bar is about as satiating as a candy bar too – most people are hungry an hour later. What about fruit yogurt? Plain, unflavored yogurt is a healthy food, but when fruit or vanilla is added, so too, in most cases, is a lot of sugar. The sugar and fat content of flavored yogurt is usually on par with ice-cream or custard. Muffins, raisin toast, smoothies and banana bread (which is really just cake) have as much sugar and fat as the average dessert. You can see some other comparisons here. It is fine to eat these foods occasionally if you really enjoy them, but if you’re trying to lose weight and get your cravings under control, these foods will sabotage your efforts. Eating protein in the morning, along with natural fats will keep you full for a lot longer and make it easier to lose weight and keep it off. Eggs, whey protein powder or dinner leftovers are all healthy breakfast options. See more in my new weight loss book, "I can't lose weight and I don't know why".