Breakfast: The Most Important Meal of the Day

Breakfast is the most important meal to make you get going. Studies have linked good breakfast to a smaller waistline and improved health.

Those who eat good breakfast are less likely to have atherosclerosis

The October 2017 Journal of the American College of Cardiology supports the old maxim that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. A study of more than 4,000 middle-aged adults in Spain found that those who ate breakfast were less likely to have artery-clogging plaque (atherosclerosis) than those who avoided a morning meal. Nearly 75% of the breakfast skippers had signs of plaque buildup, compared with 57% of those who ate a big breakfast and 64% of those who ate a lighter morning meal. Breakfast fans tended to eat more healthfully over all and were less likely to be obese or have high blood pressure, diabetes, or unhealthy cholesterol levels. In many studies, whether in the past, or recent years, conclude: Skipping breakfast is linked to higher risk of atherosclerosis.

Is skipping breakfast a good practice to lose weight?

Researchers at Cornell University published in Physiology & Behavior in 2013 that college students ate 145 calories more at lunch when they ate nothing in the morning than they did on a day they ate breakfast. Those who take in lesser calories while skipping breakfast are still more likely to gain weight in the long run.

Rania Mekary, PhD, of the Harvard School of Public Health says, “If you starve yourself, your metabolic rate might end up decreasing. You might lose weight, but is that something good long-term?” Researchers have found out that starving yourself without breakfast and eating less the whole day will only give you temporary weight loss. You will end up regaining your previous weight and gaining more weight due to a phenomenon called “physiologic rebound” or some sort of “feedback mechanism” that makes you eat more and snack more after starving yourself for a few days.

The breakfast of champions

Eating a high sugar/high carbohydrate breakfast is detrimental in terms of appetite control and snacking. A good breakfast is high in protein – such as Greek yogurt with blueberries, granola, and nuts, or a breakfast burrito with eggs, lean meat or soy, and vegetables (University of Missouri School of Medicine).

Eating breakfast make you smarter

2013 observational studies in China found out that kids who ate breakfast had higher IQ scores than their peers who didn’t.