Everything You Need to Know about Breakfast
Breakfast, the most important meal of the day, right? Maybe, this is an ongoing debate in the nutrition field. The old saying goes breakfast like a king, lunch like a noble and dinner like a pauper, but what does the research say?
There are studies to suggest that those that have a higher calorie breakfast (about 700 calories) and a lower calorie dinner (about 300 calories) lost significantly more weight than those that had no breakfast and a high calorie dinner (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23512957/).
It has also been found that skipping breakfast is tied to unhealthy habits like poor diet and poor physical activity (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6893547/#B10-nutrients-11-02624). Skipping breakfast can also increase your risk of developing diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
People that skip breakfast are more likely to eat more calories, fat, and cholesterol while eating less vitamins, minerals and fiber (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17605303/) than breakfast eaters. So it seems that eating breakfast may set you up for a day of success.
However, more recent studies have also found that eating breakfast may not be the best thing, especially if you are trying to lose weight (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6352874/).
It appears that whether or not breakfast is important for you, may depend on your genes. Interestingly, studies have shown that your genes account for over 50% of how your body responds to breakfast, meaning your genes determine whether or not breakfast will be your best meal or perhaps not. Your genes only impact your body's response to lunch by about 30% and genes have 0% impact on supper timing, yeah you need to eat dinner earlier in the evening, regardless of your genes (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6669061/).
That being said, eating a quality breakfast is tied to better brain power or cognition, especially as we age (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27184286/). The data is also pretty clear that skipping breakfast can limit your activity throughout the day, you need fuel to move!
Confusing right?! Well, it seems that breakfast IS important but eating breakfast too early can impact your melatonin levels as well as your metabolism. So, perhaps not eating first thing when you wake up but waiting an hour or so to eat breakfast is best (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4786869/).
So how do you fit breakfast in? Mornings are busy and for many it can be one of the most difficult meals of the day to fit in. Here are some ideas, many of which you can batch prepare ahead of time to make mornings even easier:
Breakfast On the Go:
Hard boiled eggs (boil on the weekend so you can grab and go during the week)
Egg bake (prepare on the weekend, make sure to add TONS of veggies, and you can grab and go during the week, you can even cook in muffin pans instead of a cake pan)
Recipe here: https://joyfoodsunshine.com/egg-casserole/#recipe
I skip the bacon, use whatever veggies I have on hand and sometimes add ½ cup plain Greek yogurt to make it extra creamy
Fruit (bananas and oranges are easy to grab and go, but you can also wash and portion out any fruit ahead of time and eat on the go)
Parfait (put yogurt and fruit in portioned Tupperware to have on the go, in the winter I put frozen fruit in the fridge with yogurt a couple days in advance)
Nuts and cheese
Whole grain blueberry muffins (I add flaxseed too for some omega-3s)
Recipe here: https://www.wellplated.com/healthy-blueberry-muffins/#wprm-recipe-container-33499
Overnight oats
Recipe here: https://cookieandkate.com/overnight-oats-recipe/#tasty-recipes-25895-jump-target
Are you a breakfast eater or not? What is your go-to breakfast??
