Healthy Meats to Eat for Breakfast

While you might love the taste of greasy sausage and bacon in the morning, your body probably doesn't. Most breakfast meats are full of saturated fat, calories and salt. Instead, create a healthy breakfast that will give you energy and help you feel good throughout the day.

For a healthy breakfast that will keep you going, the Mayo Clinic suggests combining whole grains, low-fat dairy, fruits and vegetables, and lean breakfast protein.

Read more: 14 Protein-Packed Breakfasts to Power You Through the Morning

Choose natural ham over the processed kind and you can include it in your healthy breakfast ideas. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends a simple breakfast of a whole-grain English muffin with a slice of lean ham and some low-fat cheese.

The American Council on Exercise provides a healthier version of a strata in its Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole recipe, which makes a well-balanced breakfast.

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and oil a large baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Whisk 4 eggs, 4 egg whites and 1 cup nonfat milk.
3. Add 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon rosemary, ¼ teaspoon pepper, 5 cups spinach, 4 cups cubed whole-grain bread, 1 cup diced ham steak, ½ cup chopped roasted red peppers and ¾ cup shredded Gruyere or Swiss cheese to the egg mixture.
4. Mix everything together and put the mixture into the baking dish, pressing to make the mixture flat.
5. Cover and cook for 40 to 45 minutes.
6. Uncover the casserole, add a little more cheese to the top and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes.

Poultry is generally low in fat if grilled or baked, and you can add chopped up pieces of it to omelets. Other healthy breakfast ideas include wrapping one to two slices of turkey and some low-fat cheese into a tortilla.

Turkey sausage and bacon are other options to incorporate poultry as a lean breakfast protein. These foods are lower in fat than their pork counterparts.

According to the USDA, 2 pan-fried pork breakfast sausages have 14 grams of fat, while turkey breakfast links have 5.8 grams of fat for the same serving size.

Read more: 7 High-Protein Breakfasts That Aren't Eggs

Control what goes into your breakfast meat by making the Mayo Clinic's recipe for homemade sausage.

1. Combine ½ pound lean ground pork loin and ½ pound ground turkey breast.
2. Add 1 teaspoon each of sugar, dry mustard, sage, black pepper and onion powder. If you like a spicy flavor, you can add ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes.
3. Mix the spices into the meat and make 12 flat sausage patties.
4. Oil a pan with cooking spray and heat it over medium heat.
5. Put the sausage patties in the pan, cover and cook them for about 5 minutes for each side until they are brown and cooked all the way through.

Two of these patties contain 109 calories, 5 grams of total fat and 1 gram of saturated fat.