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Why Breakfast is Important

There are a lot of arguments going to and fro over whether breakfast is indeed "the best meal of the day" or whether we should skip the early morning feed up and opt for having a much later "breakfast" or waiting for lunchtime before eating again.

Here, I look at why breakfast generally considered to be the most important meal of the day and how it plays a role in helping a person to reduce their body weight by raising metabolism.

Why is Breakfast So Important?

Breakfast is the first meal of the day and the body's first hit of energy in the form of calories that it gets after a good eight hours of sleep. In that time it has been effectively fasting. In fact, the word breakfast is made up of the words meaning to break your fast. The point here is that you should start the day with a good breakfast to help you lose weight.

Now there are differences of opinion here. Some say to eat as soon after you get up in the morning as possible, as this is how to increase metabolism and get it working much faster and at a much higher rate sooner in the day. However, doing this negates one other important point in that once you've eaten breakfast you cannot exercise, or you're likely to bring it back up again!

For many people, the early morning run or workout is the only time they are in the necessary frame of mind to get motivated to do this and often the only time they actually have the physical time to do it. That means putting breakfast on hold at least until after you've done your exercises.

Rehydrate First

This is not a problem and in fact can work in your favor when to take into consideration the eating schedule discussed in the previous post, Eat Only When You're Hungry. So when you get up, it's important to rehydrate your body before anything else, so a glass of water is a good thing to drink before going out for your run or other form of exercise that you normally do.

After showering, then eat a good wholesome breakfast. It's important that breakfast fills you up and even more important that it fills you up with good quality protein plus some unprocessed, low GI carbohydrates. That's because they will release their energy slowly throughout the morning and prevent you from feeling hungry part-way through the morning before you eat your lunch.

This is important as you are far less likely to eat snacks if you are not feeling hungry and therefore not prone to gain empty calories by eating a mid-morning high calorie snack.

On the contrary, a high GI breakfast with processed carbs will cause your blood sugar levels to peak too early. This will result in giving you a rush of energy early on which will not be sustained through the morning and you will end up feeling hungry before lunch and tempted to grab a snack.

So the best things to eat for breakfast are what?

High Protein Boost

The best thing to get your body jumpstarted after the long fast during sleep is a breakfast of high protein ingredients.

Eggs top the list, with careful attention to making sure those eggs are from organic, pasture raised chickens and not from their unfortunate cousins kept in battery cages and never seeing the light of day along with many thousands of others. Trust me, eggs from chickens allowed to roam free and feed on worms, insects and whatever else they would naturally eat in the wild will be much higher in omega 3 fatty acid, important enzymes and compounds than their intensively farmed counterparts.

What goes well with eggs?

Bacon tastes great but watch out for unhealthy nitrates. Steak is better, especially that from grass fed, grass finished cows as it will also be higher in healthy compounds and vitamins that are much more bioavailable than plant sources.

Vegetarian? Your choices are more limited and be aware that the nutrients from plans are much less well absorbed by the body. However, eggs can and should make up a major part of your diet for health.

Vegan? While it is noble and morally commendable to avoid consuming any animal products, there are few nutritionally sound options available. Since plants make it very difficult for us humans to extract and absorb their nutrients by defending themselves with some very potent anti-nutrients such as oxalates, phytates and lectins, there is a great need to supplement many important nutrients to make up for the shortfall.

Oats to Start the Day

For vegans, porridge (oatmeal) is arguably the single best thing to eat for breakfast.

Oats provide low GI carbs and plenty of dietary fiber as well as a good supply of nutrients to set you up for the day. They help lower LDL while raising good HDL and regulating and steadying your blood sugar levels throughout the morning.

Try adding some walnuts, raisins, prunes, dried or fresh cranberries or blueberries to give it some added interest. Or go the whole hog and add some sunflower, flax and pumpkin seeds as well and you'll be doing your body a whole load of good!

Most processed breakfast cereals contain too high levels of salt and sugar to be remotely healthy and that includes a very well known bran based cereal. Whole wheat cereals are only any good if they contain no added salt or sugar, but these are difficult to find and remember that wheat contains phytic acid which is an anti-nutrient (it inhibits the absorption of nutrients) plant defense mechanism designed to stop animals eating it!

Muesli is a good substitute for porridge to add some variety, although again you should watch out for brands that add salt and sugar and seek out only those that are free of those and other additives.

The downside of breakfast cereals that contain no additives is they tend to lack the taste of the processed ones. So in order to make them taste better and be more interesting, try adding your own additives in the form of sliced banana, chopped dried apricots, chopped fresh strawberries, slices of apple, peach, plum... okay, you get the idea.

Fresh or dried fruits are an excellent addition to oat based cereals! Breakfast can indeed be a very healthy and exciting way to start the day!

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Posted on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 in Weight Loss Tips | 2 Comments