Why is breakfast important?
“Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince and Dine like a Pauper”
It’s a well known phrase, but do you follow it?
During a busy morning, it’s easy to let breakfast fall low in your list of priorities, but taking just a few minutes to have something to eat can really make a difference to your day. If you don’t have time to eat before leaving the house, we have lots of breakfast ideas that can be eaten on-the-go or when you get to work.
Breakfast provides many benefits to our health and wellbeing
Breakfast provides the body and brain with fuel after an overnight fast – that’s where its name originates, breaking the fast! Without breakfast you are effectively running on empty, like trying to start the car with no petrol!
Nutritionists advise:
- breakfast should be eaten within two hours of waking
- a healthy breakfast should provide calories in the range of 20-35% of your guideline daily allowance (GDA).
Apart from providing us with energy, breakfast foods are good sources of important nutrients such as calcium, iron and B vitamins as well as protein and fibre. The body needs these essential nutrients and research shows that if these are missed at breakfast, they are less likely to be compensated for later in the day. Fruit and vegetables are good sources of vitamins and minerals so try to include a portion of your daily five at breakfast, whether that be a banana or glass of fruit juice.
Breakfast can be good for waistline too, research shows those who eat breakfast are less likely to be overweight and more likely to be within their ideal weight range compared with breakfast skippers. If you skip breakfast, you’re more likely to reach for high sugar and fatty snacks mid-morning.
Cognitive function
Breakfast also restores glucose levels, an essential carbohydrate that is needed for the brain to function. Many 
studies have shown how eating breakfast can improve memory and concentration levels and it can also make us happier as it can improve mood and lower stress levels. In studies amongst children, breakfast can improve attainment, behaviour and has been linked to improved grades. Just like any other organ in the body, the brain needs energy to work at it’s best!
Energy needs
People’s energy needs vary depending on activity levels and life stage but typically men require more energy than women. Growing children require a lot of energy, as an example boys aged 7-10yrs should consume approx. 1970 kcals per day, and girls aged 7-10yrs should consume approx. 1740 kcals. For adults, men require approx. 2500 kcals and women approx. 2000 kcals per day.
Long term health
Eating breakfast has long term health benefits. It can reduce obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.
National Health Service
Breakfast is an excellent occasion to eat together as a family when possible. Establishing good breakfast habits in childhood and maintaining them throughout adolescence may be an important factor in reducing the prevalence of breakfast skipping and developing good eating habits that last a lifetime.
So, breakfast really is the most important meal of the day!
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
In reality, the importance of breakfast varies from person to person, says Torey Armul, MS, RD, CSSD, LD, an Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics spokesperson. “The research is really mixed on breakfast with weight control,” she says. “Some people who skip breakfast have a much bigger appetite later in the day and tend to overeat. Other people find their appetite is no different later on.”
One problem could be that breakfast talk tends to be a yes-or-no question rather than a discussion of what a healthy morning meal looks like. A balanced breakfast contains a mix of protein, fat, and carbs instead, says Alissa Rumsey, MS, RD, CDN, CSCS, spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. But most American breakfast staples—think cereal, bagels, and muffins—are largely refined carbs, which give you a quick boost of energy but a crash later on. “Not only do you have fluctuating energy levels during the day, but you’ll also be hungry again soon after,” says Rumsey. “When you have a balanced breakfast, you’re giving yourself a boost of energy so your blood sugar goes up a bit, but the protein and fat help stabilize that energy.”
When you aren’t starving by lunchtime, you’re more likely to pick healthy foods and avoid overeating in the afternoon. On the other hand, a rumbling belly could kill your self-control, says Rumsey. Even if you aren’t hungry first thing in the morning, she recommends getting something in your stomach before lunch so you aren’t ravenous for your first meal. “It doesn’t have to be right when you wake up, but eating within a couple of hours sets the tone for the day,” she says. Sip a smoothie instead of biting into solid food, or pack a banana with two tablespoons of peanut butter. Starting your day with a balanced meal could also frame your whole day for diet success. “There’s a lot of power there to make healthy choices that carry you to make healthy choices the rest of the day,” says Armul.
But if you’re looking for a quick fix to rev up your metabolism, breakfast might not be the answer. “Some studies say it does boost metabolism, but other strong studies say it doesn’t—at least not significantly,” says Armul. “Sometimes we think we have more control over speeding up our metabolisms than we really do.” In reality, exercise is the only thing that’s been consistently shown to boost metabolism, she says.
THE LOW DOWN
Is Skipping Breakfast Bad For You? The Surprising Truth
“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” This myth is pervasive in society.
Breakfast is perceived as healthy, even more important than other meals.
Even today’s official nutrition guidelines recommend that we eat breakfast.
It is claimed that breakfast helps us lose weight, and that skipping it can raise our risk of obesity.
This seems like a problem, because up to 25% of Americans regularly skip breakfast (1).
However, new high-quality studies have started questioning the universal advice that everyone should eat breakfast.
This article takes a detailed look at breakfast, and whether skipping it is really going to harm your health and make you fat.
Breakfast Eaters Tend to Have Healthier Habits
It’s true, many studies show that breakfast eaters tend to be healthier.
For example, they are less likely to be overweight/obese, and have a lower risk of several chronic diseases (2, 3, 4).
For this reason, many experts have claimed that breakfast must be good for you.
However, these studies are so-called observational studies, which can not demonstrate causation.
These studies show that people who eat breakfast are more likely to be healthier, but they can not prove that the breakfast itself caused it.
Chances are that breakfast eaters have other healthy lifestyle habits that can explain this.
For example, people who eat breakfast also tend to eat a healthier diet, with more fiber and micronutrients (5, 6).
On the other hand, people who skip breakfast tend to smoke more, drink more alcohol and exercise less (7).
Perhaps these are the reasons that breakfast eaters are healthier, on average. It may not have anything to do with the breakfast itself.
In fact, higher quality studies called randomized controlled trials suggest that it doesn’t really matter whether you eat or skip breakfast.
Bottom Line: Breakfast eaters tend to be healthier and leaner than breakfast skippers. This may be due to the fact that breakfast eaters have other healthy lifestyle habits.
Eating Breakfast Does Not Boost Your Metabolism
Some people claim that eating breakfast “kick-starts” the metabolism, but this is a myth.
These people are referring to the thermic effect of food, which is the increase in calories burned that occurs after you eat.
However, what matters for metabolism is the total amount of food consumed throughout the day. It makes no difference at which times, or how often, you eat.
Studies show that there is no difference in calories burned over 24 hours between people who eat or skip breakfast (8).
Bottom Line: Whether you eat or skip breakfast has no effect on the amount of calories you burn throughout the day. This is a myth.
Skipping Breakfast Does Not Cause Weight Gain
As mentioned above, people who skip breakfast tend to weigh more than people who eat breakfast.
This may seem paradoxical, because how can not eating make you gain more weight? Well, some claim that skipping breakfast causes you to become very hungry so that you overeat later in the day.
This seems to make sense, but isn’t supported by the evidence.
It is true that skipping breakfast causes people to be more hungry and eat more at lunch, but this is not enough to overcompensate for the breakfast that was skipped.
In fact, some studies have even shown that skipping breakfast may reduce overall calorie intake by up to 400 calories per day (9, 10, 11).
This seems logical, because you are effectively removing an entire meal from your diet each day.
Interestingly, the eat/skip breakfast dilemma was recently tested in a high-quality randomized controlled trial.
This was a 4-month long study that compared recommendations to eat or skip breakfast in 309 overweight/obese men and women (12).
After 4 months, there was no difference in weight between groups. It simply didn’t matter whether people ate or skipped breakfast.
These results are supported by other studies on the effects of breakfast habits on weight loss. Skipping breakfast had no visible effects (5, 12, 13).
Bottom Line: Higher-quality studies show that it makes no difference whether people eat or skip breakfast. Skipping breakfast makes you eat more at lunch, but not enough to compensate for the breakfast you skipped.
Skipping Breakfast May Even Have Some Health Benefits
Skipping breakfast is a common part of many intermittent fasting methods.
This includes the 16/8 method, which consists of a 16-hour overnight fast followed by an 8-hour eating window.
This eating window usually ranges from lunch until dinner, which means that you skip breakfast every day.
Intermittent fasting has been shown to effectively reduce calorie intake, increase weight loss and improve metabolic health (14, 15, 16, 17, 18).
However, it’s important to mention that intermittent fasting and/or skipping breakfast does not suit everyone. The effects vary by individual (19).
Some people may experience positive effects, while others may develop headaches, drops in blood sugar, faintness and lack of concentration (20, 21).
Bottom Line: Skipping breakfast is a part of many intermittent fasting protocols, such as the 16/8 method. Intermittent fasting can have numerous health benefits.
Breakfast is Optional
The evidence is clear, there is nothing “special” about breakfast.
It probably does not matter whether you eat or skip breakfast, as long as you eat healthy for the rest of the day.
Breakfast does not “jump start” your metabolism and skipping it does not automatically make you overeat and gain weight.
This is a myth, based on observational studies that have since been proven wrong in randomized controlled trials (real science).
At the end of the day, breakfast is optional, and it all boils down to personal preference.
If you feel hungry in the morning and you like breakfast, go ahead and eat a healthy breakfast. A protein-rich breakfast is best.
However, if you don’t feel hungry in the morning and don’t feel that you need breakfast, then don’t eat it. It’s as simple as that.
