breakfast3

Since I was a child I have always loved breakfast. My mom always prepared it for us. Even if we mostly ate cereal during the week, she always went all out every Sunday morning before church. That’s when she’d usually make us french toast and bacon or sausage. Yeah, I wasn’t always a vegan. I grew up in South GA, eating pork and meat was a requirement.

Anyway, as I got older she’d make me “coffee”. It was really a drop of coffee with a bunch of milk and sugar. It was special to me because she would serve it to me in the cutest little tea cups on a saucer. But my all time favorite treat was when we were low on groceries and my mom would make breakfast for dinner. For some reason, breakfast always tasted better at dinner time! That was the BEST! So, to this day, it’s the meal I always look forward to.

Having said that, I realize that not everybody feels the same way. I know people who can’t bare the thought of eating anything first thing in the morning. Of course, if you feel that way, it might be hard to get you to shift your mindset about it. Nevertheless, I’m going to try.

Turns out, there are many health benefits to eating breakfast. Here are my top five reasons:

1. Gets your metabolism going. The word breakfast itself explains why this is the case. In the morning you’re coming off a fasting state. Having breakfast, enables you to “break” the “fast.” Your body responds to not eating for hours and hours by slowing down it’s metabolic rate. By eating breakfast, you wake up your metabolism and get your engine revved up, burning those calories you need to burn to lose weight.  —

2. Increases energy  – eating breakfast replenishes your supply of glucose and provides other essential nutrients to keep your energy levels up throughout the day. Glucose is the body’s energy source. It is broken down and absorbed from the carbohydrates you eat. In the morning, after you have gone without food for as long as 12 hours, your glycogen stores are low. Glycogen is the glucose that has been stored in your muscle tissue and liver where it is released slowly overnight to keep your blood sugar levels stable. Once all of the energy from the glycogen stores is used up, your body starts to break down fatty acids to produce the energy it needs.

3. Decreases snacking throughout the day. People who skip breakfast tend to nibble on snacks during the mid-morning or afternoon. This can be a problem if those snacks are low in fiber, vitamins and minerals, but high in fat and salt. Without the extra energy that breakfast can offer, some breakfast skippers feel lethargic and turn to high-energy food and drinks to get them through the day.

4. Reduces Weight – One theory suggests that eating a healthy breakfast can reduce hunger throughout the day, and help people make better food choices at other meals. Some rationalize that by skipping breakfast they are saving calories. Typically, any calories “saved” at breakfast get consumed later. Hunger gets the best of breakfast-skippers. They end up eating more at lunch and throughout the day.

5. Boosts brain function. The brain needs fuel to function at peak performance. This fuel comes in the form of glucose derived from food. It’s needed to walk, talk and perform all other activities. When you skip breakfast your brain is forced to work extra hard in breaking down stored carbohydrates or to turn fats and proteins into usable forms of glucose. Eating breakfast has been proven to improve concentration, increase problem solving capabilities, enhance overall mental performance and boost memory and mood.

So, if you routinely skip breakfast, I hope these compelling reasons will inspire you to make it a regular part of your day.

Question: Do you usually skip breakfast?

Reference Links:

http://www.guardianeatright.co.uk/news/article.cfm?article_id=1178

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Breakfast

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