16 Alkaline Breakfast Foods So That Your Day Starts Well

These days, alkaline diets are often promoted as a way to improve health. This is based on the idea that the pH of your food can influence the way that your body functions. Modern diets are often highly acidic, which suggests that alkaline breakfast foods could be better for you than acidic ones. 

The underlying theory is based on the idea that metabolic waste may be neutral, acidic, or alkaline, and that the pH of this waste is directly related to the food that you eat. Excess acidic metabolic waste (or ash, as it is sometimes called), could then make your blood more acidic, causing flow-on effects throughout your body. 

The idea is controversial, there’s no denying that. 

While many people swear by an alkaline diet, others claim that the whole concept is nonsense. Our bodies keep a tight rein on pH, so it seems unlikely that our diet could directly influence pH. 

Still, the human body is complicated and there is a lot that we don’t know. Alkaline rich foods do tend to be good for you anyway, so you may see some benefits from focusing on this type of food, regardless of the evidence behind the diet. 

Alkaline Breakfast Foods

• Avocados
• Tomatoes
• Leafy Greens
• Eggs
• Chia Seed Pudding
• Alkaline Pancakes
• Grain Free Granola
• Smoothies 
• An Alkaline Soup
• Quinoa Porridge 
• Buckwheat Porridge
• Baked Beans
• Mushrooms
• Spelt Bread
• Spelt Wraps
• Sprouted Bread

Avocados

Many classic breakfast options are acid-forming, but thankfully avocados are an exception to this pattern. Avocados also happen to be a good source of healthy fats, along with a variety of other interesting nutrients. 

You can use avocados in many ways, with avocado on toast and guacamole being some of the most popular options. 

However, using avocados for breakfast does get trickier when you're focusing on alkaline foods, as processed breads and grains tend to be acidic. Thankfully eggs, which we’ll talk about soon, can be viable on an alkaline diet, even though they’re not straightforward. This means that you can take approaches like baking an egg in the hole of an avocado.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are another popular breakfast choice and, interestingly, they're something that you can still enjoy on an alkaline diet. Like citrus fruit, tomatoes are acidic, but they are alkaline-forming, so the effect is similar to eating alkaline foods. 

There are plenty of ways to use tomatoes, like slicing them for a sandwich or including them as part of a salad. If you’re taking the sandwich approach, you’ll need to be careful about the bread that you use, as many types of bread are acidic. Thankfully, there are some exceptions. We highlight some of these later in the list.

Leafy Greens

Leafy greens don’t have much protein or fat, so you can’t just rely on them for a satisfying breakfast. Even so, leafy greens can be a good addition to your breakfast. They provide you with important nutrients and can taste pretty good too. 

Including leafy greens in a smoothie is a classic way to take advantage of them. This way the flavors of the greens get buried somewhat, but you still get all the nutrients. You can also use leafy greens in other ways, such as including them in a salad or sautéing them.

Eggs

Eggs are an interesting case, as they're not vegan-friendly, while most other alkaline foods are. They tend to be neutral when they are first laid, but the alkalinity increases with the age of the egg. This makes older eggs a better choice on an alkaline diet, as long as they are still safe to eat. 

You can also choose to just focus on the egg white, as this tends to be naturally alkaline. Of course, the egg white isn’t as nutritionally rich as egg yolk, so it might not always be a good choice. 

Regardless of whether you choose older eggs or not, eggs are still an important alkaline breakfast choice, simply because of their protein content. Many other alkaline breakfast foods aren’t very filling at all. This can be a problem first thing in the morning. You need to have enough energy to keep you going for the day.  

Chia Seed Pudding

Chia seeds tend to have a moderate alkalizing effect on the body. This is good news, as these tiny seeds are a powerful source of many important nutrients. They’re also an easy way to increase your fiber intake. 

The seeds are small and don’t have much flavor at all, so you can eat them in many different ways. An easy approach is to simply sprinkle the seeds on your normal breakfast. 

You can also try a chia seed pudding. This is a fantastic all-in-one breakfast that doesn’t take much effort to create. A chia pudding relies on the way that chia seeds absorb liquid and become gelatinous.

This means that you end up with a pudding-like texture without needing any thickener at all. You can use almost any type of liquid, although a plant-based milk tends to be the most common choice. You can also include extra ingredients for flavoring, like cocoa powder. 

Alkaline Pancakes

Regular pancakes aren’t a great choice on an alkaline diet, but there are alkaline pancake recipes. These use a different combination of ingredients, so the result is much more alkaline than pancakes normally are. 

For example, this recipe from Ty’s Conscious Kitchen relies on spelt flour as a key ingredient, along with blueberries and nut milk. Indeed, spelt often turns up in alkaline pancake recipes. Some may take advantage of seeds as well. 

Spelt isn’t strongly alkalizing, but this isn’t a major problem. You can easily get strongly alkalizing foods elsewhere in your diet or even as another part of your breakfast. 

You can also use buckwheat to make alkaline pancakes. Despite the name, this pseudocereal isn’t a type of wheat and doesn’t contain gluten. 

Grain Free Granola

Here’s an alkaline version of another breakfast classic. The idea here is that you’re making a version of granola that doesn’t rely on grains at all. Doing so works well, as the grains are the main acidic aspect of granola. Cutting these out also means that your granola can be lower in carbs and perhaps richer in nutrients. 

Making granola without grains isn’t too difficult, as you can largely rely on nuts and seeds. However, you’ll need to be a little more careful when trying to make an alkaline version of granola, as many nuts and seeds aren’t alkaline. 

Pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds, and almonds can all be added into the mix, but steer clear of most other nuts and seeds. You can use fresh coconut too. Just be wary of dried coconut, as this can be acid-forming. 

Smoothies 

It’s easy to see why smoothies are still so popular as a breakfast food. They’re fast, easy to prepare, and taste good too. And, when made well, smoothies can be very good for you. 

The trick is to choose your smoothie ingredients carefully. You’re looking for healthy ingredients that will provide plenty of nutrients, but aren’t high in sugar. It’s particularly important to think about the sugar content of your smoothie. Otherwise, you risk ending up with a very sweet smoothie that is as bad for you as a candy bar. 

You’ll also need to be looking for alkaline smoothie ingredients. Doing so will often leave you with a green smoothie, one that heavily relies on leafy greens as a key ingredient. But, don’t worry, green smoothies can taste very good. 

If you’re still fairly new to making smoothies for breakfast, you could do a Google search and look for alkaline smoothie recipes. These will already have a good balance of ingredients, so you can be certain that they’ll taste delicious. 

An Alkaline Soup

While soup isn’t a traditional breakfast food for many of us, some people do regularly eat soup for breakfast. And, why not? Soup tends to be warming and delicious. 

You could make a light soup to complement the other parts of your breakfast or you could make a heartier soup instead. Either way, you’re starting your day well.

The trick is to rely on alkaline ingredients in your soups. To do so, you’ll need to focus on vegetables, as meat tends to be acidic. Soy-based products can be used too, such as miso and tofu.

In fact, miso soup is a good alkaline choice and an easy soup to enjoy for breakfast (it’s a common part of Japanese breakfast). While the soup is high in sodium, it is also probiotic rich and the benefits of the soup far outweigh any potential issues. 

Quinoa Porridge 

Oatmeal is a classic breakfast choice. It’s also highly acidic, so you can’t eat it regularly on an alkaline diet. Quinoa, on the other hand, has a mild alkalizing effect.

This little seed also happens to be very good for you. It’s powerful as a source of protein and other important nutrients. 

While quinoa isn’t normally served as a porridge, doing so isn’t too difficult. It helps if you can rely on quinoa flakes, as these have a more suitable shape then the more common round quinoa seeds that you find. 

You can use plant-based milk, a little coconut oil, and some cinnamon to provide you with the texture and flavor profile that you’re looking for. Adding chia seeds can be useful too. These will absorb some of the liquid and help to bind your porridge together.

Buckwheat Porridge

Buckwheat is a pseudocereal like quinoa and it’s another option for making an oatmeal-like breakfast. To do so, you’d rely on buckwheat groats.  These are hulled buckwheat seeds. They’ve often been toasted, which gives them a delicious flavor. 

The other ingredients to use are similar to making porridge from quinoa. The main difference is that it’s best to soak the buckwheat groats overnight before you make the porridge. You don’t need to take this step with quinoa. 

Baked Beans

A classic English breakfast is baked beans on toast, where the beans come from a can and are in a tomato-based sauce. This is a surprisingly powerful choice for breakfast, as you’re getting something hearty that will keep you full for hours. 

It’s much healthier to make baked beans yourself using lima beans and tomato paste. We’re highlighting lima beans, as these are one of the few types of beans that are alkaline forming in the body. Most other beans are acid forming instead, so they can’t be part of your alkaline diet. 

Mushrooms

Mushrooms tend to be alkaline. They’re also common as a breakfast food anyway, so they’re a logical addition to this list. There are plenty of delicious ways to cook mushrooms, such as cutting them up and frying them, baking the mushrooms, or stuffing them. 

You can also combine mushrooms with other alkaline ingredients, such as quinoa. For example, you could create a type of risotto using quinoa, mushrooms, and other vegetables. This meal could easily be alkaline if you choose your ingredients carefully. 

Spelt Bread

Bread made with wheat tends to be acidic, but some less common flours will provide you with an alkaline product instead. Spelt is one of the most common examples. and many recipes for alkaline bread use spelt flour as a key ingredient. 

Spelt itself is considered an ancient grain. It is strongly related to wheat , which means that it does contain gluten. Even so, spelt tends to be seen as healthier than wheat, as it contains more nutrients and has additional fiber. 

Making spelt bread (or another type of alkaline bread) means that you can still enjoy some of your breakfast favorites, even when you are avoiding acidic foods. 

Spelt Wraps

You can also buy or make wraps that use spelt rather than wheat. This allows you to create breakfast or brunch burritos. These will mostly need to be meat free to keep them alkaline, but you can still rely on tofu as a key ingredient. 

Fried mushrooms can be a good addition to the wraps too, along with leafy greens. You might even add some nutritional yeast to create a cheesy flavor in the meal.

Sprouted Bread

Seeds, legumes, and grains tend to be acidic or acid-forming. We’ve mentioned a few exceptions to that pattern already, but there’s also one other area to talk about – sprouting. Most of the time, seeds, legumes, and grains move from being acidic to alkaline once they have been sprouted.

This means that sprouted bread is a more alkaline choice than other types of bread. This includes sprouted bread that you purchase from the store, like Ezekial bread, and sprouted bread that you make yourself.

Even so, the alkalinity versus acidity of the bread is likely to vary depending on the recipe that is used and the amount of sprouted grains versus unsprouted grains. If the product uses mostly unsprouted grains and only a few sprouted grains, for example, the bread may end up more acidic than alkaline.