Top 5 Picks On The Tim Hortons Breakfast Menu

Are some mornings so busy that you forget to start your day with a nourishing breakfast?

Once you are in your car, your next move may be to check out the nearest Tim Hortons, but you get stuck deciding on a healthy option to choose.

Well, you are in the right place! This article will go over healthy beverage and food options on the Tim Hortons’ breakfast menu.

This article was written by Chantel Alejado, Ryerson University Nutrition Student. Edited and reviewed by Veronica Rouse, MAN, RD, CDE

Top Takeaways

Tim Hortons offers a variety of beverages and breakfast items, but not all are equally healthy.
Healthy beverage choices include green tea latte with low-fat dairy or soy milk, chai tea with oat milk, iced green tea with soy milk, and real fruit smoothies. Be cautious with sugary options like caramel and chocolate lattes.
For food options, consider the egg and cheese sandwich, the egg white sandwich, the oatmeal, and the twelve-grain bagel paired with an egg. These options offer protein, fiber, and balanced nutrition.
If you’re looking for gluten-free options, Tim Hortons has limited choices, with hash browns being the only gluten-free breakfast item. However, many of their beverages are gluten-free.

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Breakfast At Tim Hortons

The fast-food chain offers various beverages and food options on its breakfast menu. Still, not everything may be as healthy as you would like. But don’t fret; we’ll break down just what you need to know for those Tim Hortons pit stops.

Watch What The Heart Dietitian Orders At Tim Hortons

Let’s Start with Healthy Drinks at Tim Hortons

Green Tea Latte Tim Hortons

The green tea latte or matcha latte consists of milk mixed with green tea. This is a great breakfast beverage to have on a cold winter day. Green tea is connected with multiple health benefits, including promoting heart health and protective effects against cancer (1).

To complement your matcha, you can choose from a variety of milk options, including dairy milk, soy beverage, oat beverage, and almond beverage. Choosing low-fat dairy milk or soy milk is an excellent heart-healthy option ahead of a busy workday as they contain many essential vitamins, minerals, and protein (2).

Chai Tea Tim Hortons

This drink is definitely for all you tea-lovers out there! Chai tea is black tea mixed with milk and spices. Some research has linked chia tea consumption to lowering blood pressure and promoting heart health (3).

You can opt for milk or no milk in your chai tea. If you decide on milk, oat milk is a healthy option. It contains beta-glucans, a type of carbohydrate that may protect against colon cancer and manage cholesterol levels (2). Oats are listed as one of the 39 foods that lower cholesterol and blood pressure.

Iced Green Tea Tim Hortons

The iced green tea is green tea mixed with milk and ice. It is a refreshing drink for those hot summer afternoons.

Soy milk is an excellent choice to add to your tea. It is rich in unsaturated fat, making it another fantastic heart-healthy option (2).

Caramel Latte Tim Hortons

Caramel lattes consist of an espresso shot mixed with steamed milk and caramel syrup.

They may not provide the most health benefits compared to other drinks discussed here. They use carmel syrup which contains added sugar. It is essential to be mindful that consuming a lot of added sugar, whether in food or drinks, may lead to health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and cavities (4).

Chocolate Latte Tim Hortons

Ah, the chocolate latte, also called the “Mocha Latte”! The drink contains a cocoa mix, and studies show that cocoa is linked to health benefits such as lowering blood pressure (5).

But there is a catch. A small drink contains around 24 grams of sugar and 5 grams of saturated fat in just 190 calories.

It is recommended that women consume no more than 6 tsp (24 grams) of added sugar a day and men consume no more than 9 tsp (36 grams) per day to prevent chronic illnesses like diabetes and heart disease (6).

Therefore a small chocolate latte meets a woman’s added sugar quota for the day.

Iced Latte Tim Hortons

Iced lattes are another drink for the taste buds! Like a regular latte, it has espresso with milk but served with ice. Espressos are a type of coffee, so they contain caffeine and may help you feel awake in the morning.

Real Fruit Smoothie Tim Hortons

Tim Hortons offers a strawberry-banana and mixed-berry smoothie. It is important not to get too caught up in marketing because the “real fruit” is actually from low nutritional purees and juices.

Fruit purees and juices may not be as healthy as actual fruits as the processing strips them of essential nutrients such as fiber. In fact, this smoothie (no matter what size) has 0 grams of fiber, absolutely shocking.

Image of Veronica Rouse with Free 7 day heart healthy meal plan freebie.

Healthy Food on the Tim Hortons Breakfast Menu in Canada

Breakfast Wrap Tim Hortons

Tim Hortons currently offers a grilled breakfast wrap and the farmers breakfast wrap on their breakfast menu. You can select many toppings like bacon and sausage; however, the best combo would be egg and cheese.

Both wraps are a good source of carbohydrates and protein.

Tim Hortons also offers plenty of sauces to go with it, including creamy buffalo sauce and steak sauce. But, try not to go too overboard with the sauces as they often contain a lot of added sugar and sodium which can increase your risk of heart disease and stroke (6,7).

If you like wraps for breakfast, check out this easy tuna melt wrap that can serve as a quick balanced morning breakfast!

Egg Sandwich Tim Hortons

Plant-Based Protein at Tim Hortons

If you are looking for a plant-based meal, you may consider purchasing one of the two new breakfast items the Harvest Breakfast sandwich or the Harvest Breakfast Wrap. Both feature the Impossible plant based sausage with egg, cheese, and chipotle sauce.

This is a switch from the previously offered Beyond Meat breakfast options that weres on the Tim Hortons menu in 2019.

In terms of cardiovascular health, when comparing the Impossible Sausage with Tim Hortons regular sausage its saturated fat is cut in half, but it is higher in sodium. That being said, they are still significant sources of both nutrients that we want to eat less of when living with heart disease.

So even with this plant-based option, I still recommend sticking with the egg and cheese sandwich if heart health is a priority for you.

Tim Hortons Egg White Sandwich

If you prefer your eggs without the yolk, the egg white sandwich may also be a good breakfast option. The sandwich contains an egg white omelet with cheese and ham; all served within a toasted whole-grain English muffin.

The sandwich is high in protein, at 17 grams, and only 240 calories. The whole-grain muffin also offers 3 grams of fiber. Another excellent breakfast meal to get you ready for the day!

Tim Hortons Croissant Sandwich

Tim Hortons also offers croissants to layer your sandwich.

Croissants are undoubtedly delicious, but they are still a baked good. They are low in fiber and high in saturated fat. Saturated fat may raise your blood levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), also called the “bad” cholesterol, which puts you at increased risk for heart disease (9).

Tim Hortons Bagel Sandwich

Tim Hortons offers a variety of bagels to choose from to compliment your sandwich. They provide a plain bagel, everything bagel, a cinnamon raisin bagel, and a twelve-grain bagel.

The twelve-grain bagel would be a great item to add to your breakfast. Grains provide fiber and vitamins to keep you full and nourished throughout the day.

Pro Tip: Pair a bagel with your eggs, add a yogurt or latte and you’ve got a breakfast full of nutrients to get you up and ready for the day!

Oatmeal Tim Hortons

Tim Horton’s breakfast oatmeal is another heart-healthy meal that you can choose. It is a great way to incorporate fiber into your day as a regular size offers 5 grams! Fiber can help control blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels and keep you full longer throughout the day (8).

The oatmeal comes in plain, maple, and mixed berries flavors. Oatmeal provides you with your fiber and can give you some of your daily fruit if you choose the mixed berry route. If you pair it with a glass of milk, yogurt, or latte, you have a well balanced breakfast.

There are many varieties of egg sandwiches to choose from at Tim Hortons. Their menu offers sausage, bacon, and egg and cheese.

The egg and cheese sandwich offers a good amount of protein, without added saturated fats from the sausage or bacon. Eggs are highly nutritious as they are a great source of protein and vitamin D, essential in supporting bone health. Adding eggs to your breakfast would be a great way to start your morning!

Are There Any Gluten-Free Options at Tim Hortons?

First off, what is gluten? Gluten is a type of protein often found in wheat and grain products. Gluten-free products are recommended for individuals living with celiac disease, an autoimmune condition in which eating gluten may irritate and cause damage to an individual’s intestinal walls.

Now, back to Tim Hortons. The bad news is that Tim Hortons’ breakfast menu does not offer many gluten-free options. The only breakfast food item that contains no gluten is hash browns.

The good news is that many of their beverages are gluten-free, including all of their hot drinks and cold drinks.

Are the Gluten-Free Tim Hortons Options Healthy?

It depends on which ones you’re looking at. Hash browns are a great and tasty breakfast option to start your morning. One hash brown has only 117 calories with little saturated fat at 0.5 grams. Try pairing carbohydrates, like hash browns, with protein and fruit to make a balanced meal.