Navigating the Retreat for a healthy breakfast can be challenging, especially to the groggy Vassar student. VCFit’s rule of thumb? Ignore the middle; go around the perimeter.
Walking into the Retreat, the first thing a patron is assaulted with is an array of sugary baked goods, placed in the center kiosk where the salad bar lives following breakfast hours. On any given day, these can include chocolate-filled croissants, muffins, danishes, donuts and cinnamon buns. Don’t be fooled by fruit flavorings or healthy-sounding ingredients; just because there are apple slices on the strudel or bran in the muffins doesn’t mean any of this is health food. These pastries have the same nutritional values as desserts, with calories in the 400-500 range, tons of sugar and none of the important breakfast nutrients, like fiber or protein.
Keep walking straight, and you’ll run right into the grill. While this menu has better offerings than the baked goods bar, you still need to be cautious.
Setting ingredients aside for a moment, its important to point out that the Retreat prepares food on the grill in a very healthful way. They use canola oil in the all of the frying, which, because of its low in saturated fat and high in helpful omega-3 fatty acids, is the healthiest of the cooking oils. The Retreat also uses trans-fat free oils and sprays in their grilling, meaning their cooking methods do not add unwanted cholesterol and fat. That said, however, healthy cooking methods do not equal healthy food; fried, no matter how, is still fried, adding tons of extra empty calories to your daily intake.
Back to the menu, I’ll first point out that the Retreat uses cage-free eggs, meaning the chickens that produced the eggs weren’t caged and were allowed space to roam around naturally, making it more humane for the chicken, and healthier for their eggs. The Retreat menu has a variety of omelets and egg breakfasts that are great options, as long as you ask for wheat toast on the side, and skip the home fries. With the breakfast sandwiches, we recommend you get it served on a multigrain bagel, English muffin, or on wheat bread, and skip the fatty additions like bacon and too much cheese; maybe instead ask for the deli ham and forgo the cheese altogether. Also, we know everyone likes the cinnamon-sugary sensory experience of Retreat French Toast, but we say nay; there’s no nutritional benefit.
The rest of the perimeter has other options in store; for example, the cereal rack. Most of the cereals are loaded with sugar, and have very little protein or fiber; this is a bad combination for breakfast, since the sugar will only keep you energized for a little while, and, as there’s not fiber or protein to keep you satiated, you’ll have hunger pangs about an hour after you eat. You should always look for the cereal that has the highest amount of fiber and protein, while still keeping your eye on the number of calories. We picked Raisin Bran Crunch (280 cal/6g fiber/5g protein) and Kellogg’s Granola (240 cal/4g fiber/5g protein) as the healthiest bets; they’re a little higher in calories than some of the others, but at least they’ll keep you full until lunch.
Generally speaking, I suggest the oatmeal over any of the boxed cereals. The Retreat prepares the steel-cut variety at breakfast, which is the inner portion of the oat kernel. Less refined than their rolled or instant cousins, these little guys are high in B-vitamins, calcium, and protein, and also have 8 grams of fiber. They’re also free of the sugar and additives that processed cereal has.
Looking at yogurt, the Retreat definitely has a ton of options, from light to organic to fruit on the bottom. We recommend the Stonyfield Organic Low or Nonfat yogurts; it’s the only organic one the Retreat offers, and it has all of the probiotics necessary to keep your digestive tract running smoothly. Yes, it is indeed higher in calories than the Dannon Light and Fit (80 cal vs. 150 cal), but Light and Fit is mostly chemicals, and doesn’t have the same calcium and protein content as Stonyfield; this means its just empty calories and no nutrition.
Even nutritionally better than yogurt, though, are the Breakstone Cottage Cheese Doubles. They only 130 calories per serving, but also have 11 grams of protein (almost twice that of most yogurts), 15 percent of your daily calcium (as much as many yogurts), and a whole serving of fruit. For people looking for a light option, this might be your perfect breakfast food.
The Retreat uses a local bakery, Formisano’s in Saugerties, N.Y., for their bagels. Bagels really aren’t that good for you, since they’re the caloric equivalent of 3-4 slices of bread, and their spreads usually tend to be high in calories and fat. Still, they’re one of my favorite breakfast foods that I struggle giving up, so I recommend, for myself and others to keep it healthier, go with the multigrain/wheat bagel, and put some peanut butter on it; it’s high in calories, but the carb/fiber/protein combo keeps me full at least until lunch, if not later.
One thing to say about fruit in the Retreat: this time of year, its pretty much fantastic. On the right side of the entrance is a farmer’s market-esque set up, with baskets full of local produce. Right now, because it’s early September, different varieties of peaches are abundant; we recommend you add a least one piece of these to your breakfast. The benefit of eating local produce is that there’s less of a transportation time, meaning you’re more likely to get fruit that’s perfectly ripe (a.k.a. nutritious), instead of underripe from being picked too soon and shipped long distance. Peaches are really high in Vitamin C and fiber, and have only 60 calories per fruit, which makes them a great breakfast choice. Plus, they’re ridiculously tasty, so it’s totally fine to indulge.
I’m also loving that the fruit salad cups, once a staple in the now-deceased Atrium, have found their way to the Retreat fridges as a daily, instead of sporadic, offering. There’s about three servings of fruit in one of those, so go ahead and eat up, but try to balance it with some protein, as too much fruit can give you the same sugar spike as a bowl of sugary cereal.
Breakfast beverages are pretty self-explanatory. Coffee and tea are fine, as long as you don’t go overboard on the half-and-half and sugar. The Retreat has lots of different juices, which are great as long as you don’t substitute juice for actual fruit. Orange juice provides the same kinds of vitamin and mineral benefits as a real orange, but an orange has more fiber and one-third of the calories of a box of Tropicana…so we’ll let you decide.
