Ep. 76 Better Breakfast = Better Hormones: Here’s What Teens Need

Not all breakfasts are created equal—and cereal, toast, and juice might not be the best start to your teen’s day. In this episode, Dr. Jenny Gourgari shares her top 5 favorite high-protein breakfast ideas for teens, explains why protein and fiber matter, and offers simple prep tips for busy mornings.

 🎧 Plus, check out past episodes on skipping breakfast (Ep 35), 

choosing healthy carbs (Ep 41), a

nd how much protein teens need (Ep 52).

 📥 Download the free high-protein recipe guide: lifestyleforteens.com/recipes

I’m Dr. Jenny Gourgari—pediatric endocrinologist, certified in obesity medicine and a health coach.
After helping hundreds of teens struggling with their weight and hormones, I’ve created a whole new path by doing what most programs miss: balance puberty hormones naturally and create habits that actually last.

Here's what makes this different:
✅ No dieting. No calorie counting. No shame.
✅ No more food fights between parents and teens.
✅ No weight obsession—just healthy habits
✅ Real science behind how puberty hormones affect weight
✅ A safe, supportive approach that prevents eating disorders

Because when teens understand their hormones and get the right support, they don’t just lose weight—they gain strength, energy, confidence, and freedom!

📲 Subscribe to my newsletter for weekly emails packed with easy tips, clinical insights, and practical tools

🎁 Grab your FREE high-protein recipe guide with 30 meals teens will love.
Links
30 Healthy Recipes for teens
lifestyleforteens.com/recipes

Smoothies Recipes for teens
lifestyleforteens.com/smoothies

Subscribe to my newsletter
lifestyleforteens.com/newsletter

Transcript

 Hello, welcome to another episode of the Lifestyle and Wait List for Teens podcast. This is Dr. Jenny Gourgari and on today's episode, I'm talking about breakfast for teens. What if I told you that not all breakfast for teens are created equal, and most teenagers are doing it wrong? Cereal toast, juice sounds healthy, but maybe it's not so healthy.

Let's dive into it now. First of all, there's mixed scientific evidence about the importance of breakfast with some studies supporting the idea that teenagers that have breakfast have less cravings and they feel fuller. Throughout the day. And there are also some studies that showed there was neutral effect of breakfast.

I covered this more on a previous episode. You can go and check episode 35 where I'm talking about skipping breakfast. And I go into more details about that. But on this episode, I will focus mainly. On what is considered a good breakfast for those teenagers that actually want to have breakfast, and they do have breakfast Now, what makes a good breakfast for teenager is a breakfast that has.

Protein. And the reason that the protein is good for the breakfast is because it increases the satiety when there are carbohydrates. We wanna have complex carbohydrates in the breakfast. The reason is because complex carbohydrates have less of an insulin surge. After the breakfast. So again, I had a previous episode.

You can go and check episode 41, where I talk more about two different examples, whether you're having breakfast with oatmeal or whether you're having breakfast with cereal, even though they can have the same calories, it does not have the same effect in terms of your hormones. So you can go and check out episode 41.

So we want a breakfast that has complex carbohydrates if there are carbohydrates, we want a breakfast that has protein. Now how much protein? Again, I have a previous episode. You can go and check out episode 52, how much protein a teenager need. And if you figure out the number, we aim for roughly a third of that.

Protein to be given at breakfast. And then we also wanna have fiber. Fiber is important in the breakfast, like in any other meal because it can help with hormonal surges of insulin. It can also help with satiety and make you feel fuller. And decrease therefore the cravings. So healthy fat is also another option that you add do your breakfast because it can also increase the satiety.

So a little bit of healthy fat. Protein fiber complex hydrates would be a combination of what would be a good breakfast for a teenager. Now I wanted to give you also some practical tips and say, what are some of my favorite breakfast options? So one breakfast option that I like is breakfast that has eggs that gives you, protein, you can have whole wheat tortilla that gives you complex carbohydrates and fiber by adding some spinach and tomato vegetables. And you can also add some fatted cheese, which can also give you some healthy fat and can give you some protein and can add some overall satisfaction. So you get a whole wheat tortilla you add.

Two eggs, a little bit of spinach, tomato, and feta. You wrap there you have it. Another great option for teenagers is to have Greek yogurt so again, you can have plain Greek yogurt. You add some berries, a little bit of granola or chia seeds, and that gives you, again, a combination of having good vitamin D and calcium and protein from the yogurt you can have berries.

That have antioxidants and have vitamins and can have fiber, and the seeds of course give you a lot of energy and fiber. So that will be a great second option. Breakfast for teenagers. My third favorite option which is actually one that I frequently have myself is oatmeal with peanut butter and banana and milk.

So I warm up the milk with some, oats then I put a banana. Sometimes I add nuts and a teaspoon of peanut butter that will give you healthy fats, protein, fiber and can really satisfy your hunger for many hours after you have that breakfast. My fourth favorite breakfast is cottage cheese and fruit bowl.

Again, cottage cheese is an excellent choice of calcium, vitamin D and protein. Then you can add some fruits like strawberries or pineapple and a little bit of flax seeds to get extra fiber, and it will. Give you high protein, and satisfy your hunger for many hours. And finally, a fifth option that is a good breakfast for teenager is to have an avocado toast with egg.

You have one whole grain bread, you add half an avocado, and then you put on top one egg. That can be POed or boiled egg. And that will give you, again, protein healthy fats. Complex carbohydrates. It will last you for a long time. So now that you have this five breakfast, I'm asking you what is the one breakfast that you wanna try this week?

And I know everybody has a busy schedule, whether it is school or work, or. There's always something going on in the morning, so I'm gonna give you some tips on how can we make it easy to grab these healthier choices for breakfast, because all, it's not very complicated to make this, but it does require a few minutes, which oftentimes teenagers don't have this this time in the morning, especially if they're rushing to get to school in the morning.

So to make it. Easier. What they can do is, first of all, you can prepare some of this the night before. So for example, you can have the tortilla ready to go and you can have the eggs ready to go and you can just mix it up in the morning. You can prepare also the oats with the milk and put it on the fridge from the night before, and then you just add the fruits in the morning.

Or you can, if you prefer it to be warm, it just takes five minutes to warm it up in the morning. You can also prepare and have extra eggs every Sunday night so that way you can just grab it, that is already ready and peeled and you put it on the toast, you put it on the tortilla so you don't have to wait for the egg to get ready during the busy week.

You can also prepare the breakfast the night before before you go to bed, so that way you are not rushing in the morning to have it. Ready. So those are some of my favorite breakfast options for teenagers. And I also have created 30 recipes for teens that are high in protein. That if you can go and grab it a lifestyle for teens.com for slash recipes, they can all be ready in less than 30 minutes.

So if you're looking for more ideas for high protein meals for teenagers. You can go and get it there. That's all I had for you. If you find this helpful, please don't forget to like and subscribe if you're watching on YouTube, and I'll see you next week. Take care. Bye.