Go on, have a healthy Nasi Lemak breakfast, says Time

Malaysia's Nasi Lemak makes it to Time Magazine's Top 10 international healthy breakfast offerings.

PETALING JAYA: It isn’t every day that you read about Nasi Lemak being described as a healthy breakfast offering but an article by Mike Dunphy in the Health: Diet/Nutrition section of Time Magazine’s website says precisely that.

Sitting pretty in ninth place is Malaysia’s pride and joy – Nasi Lemak, lovingly described by Dunphy as “supremely delicious.”

Explaining the components of the dish – rice cooked in coconut milk, anchovies, cucumbers, roasted peanuts, hard boiled egg and spicy sambal, he adds, “Yes, there’s a bit more fat than is good for you (eat less rice to reduce), but it’s balanced with lots of manganese, protein, and carbs.”

He also writes that the chilli in the sambal helps boosts metabolism although that particular point is contentious as far as nutritionists are concerned.

Taking first place is the “heart-healthy” offering of “meze-style” dishes that Turkey is famous for comprising olives, tomato, white cheese, parsley, eggs, honey, cubanelle peppers, cucumbers, garlic sausage, and savoury pastries.

Israel’s Shakshouka, a dish of eggs poached in a tomato and vegetable sauce, and served with a salad takes second place followed by steamed rice with tofu, pickled vegetables, fermented soy beans, dried seaweed, and fish that the Japanese love to dig into at breakfast time.

Fourth and fifth ranking on the health scale were Vietnam’s Pho breakfasts of broth, vegetables and herbs and Egypt’s Fūl Medames, its national dish.

Meanwhile Costa Rica’s black beans and rice with tropical fruits; Iceland’s Hafragrautur, an oatmeal porridge of milk with brown sugar, raisins, and melon seeds; and Russia’s Kasha, warm porridge of oats, millet, buckwheat, or semolina were placed sixth, seventh and eight as breakfast offerings packed with a wide range of nutrients like fibre, iron, manganese, magnesium and phosphorus.

Also considered super healthy is the vegetarian dish of Upma from India, “a thick concoction made from dry roasted semolina” that slides in at tenth place and is praised for its high dose of selenium, folate, thiamin, protein and vitamin E and B in the whole grains.

And there you have it – the Top 10 healthy breakfasts from around the world.