Breakfast: Not As Important As They Want You To Think

Food choices are a business, plain and simple, and if you can be manipulated into choosing specific foods then those companies that produce them, profit. That said, maybe breakfast has been a profiting food manipulator all these years.

Parents telling children that it is the most important meal of the day, making sure they pile on a hearty plate before school, has created households of cornered consumers. Throw in extensive advertising and the companies that spend the most to get you the message, win.

Recently, however, the mantra of breakfast being such an important staple may not be as important as they want you to think.

Breakfast Studies

Some state that skipping breakfast can result in many adverse effects, particularly weight gain. It is believed that one will binge eat during the day if they miss a hearty breakfast even causing them to choose many unhealthy options.

However, according to researchers at Cornell University, they,

“…found that adults who don’t eat breakfast tend not to overcompensate by eating larger or unhealthier meals during the day. In fact, they consumed fewer calories per day than those who diligently ate breakfast.” (BigThink)

Therefore, skipping breakfast could be a choice that enables you to make it through the day with less food rather than more.

Intermittent Fasting

As you rise in the morning your body begins switching to “wake mode”. Eating breakfast may interrupt this process.

According to Dr. Andrew Weil, a proponent of natural medicine, he recommends,

“…a healthier option involves allowing more time than usual to pass between meals. This may mean skipping breakfast and eating only two meals at, say, 1pm and 7pm. Of course, these meals need to be nutritious and packed with vegetables, healthy fat and plenty of fresh foods prepared the ‘old fashioned way.’” (Alternative Daily)

Some suggest a quick, natural choice such as a handful of nuts and raisins hours after rising and before lunch so as to maintain enough blood sugar to avoid feeling deprived or psychologically famished. In time, a light or skipped breakfast becomes the norm and your body adjusts turning three meals per day into two, with healthy one-time snacking in between.

Detox Time

Some theories suggest that upon waking in the morning, your body is in the middle of detoxing which may be the reason you rise with bad breath, oily skin and the need to evacuate your bowels. This became a belief in the bestselling series of books titled Fit for Life by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond.

In these books it was believed that our body detoxed between 4am-12pm. As a result, it was recommended to only consume water or water heavy fruit for breakfast so as to allow the body internal cleansing and easy digestion during this detox.

The authors stated that a heavy breakfast resulted in slowing or shutting off this essential detox process so the body could use as much energy for digestion. A breakfast heavy in carbs and especially animal products such as meat, eggs and/or dairy could take hours to digest. Such heavy digestion requires a lot of systemic energy that could be used more efficiently if a very light (such as fruit, with bananas last if you want more filling substance) or no breakfast at all is chosen.

Possibly Less Inflammation

It is becoming more apparent that eating certain foods and sometimes the hour they are consumed may increase systemic inflammation.

According to research conducted by a team led by Valter Longo, PhD, member of the University of Southern California (USC), Norris Cancer Center, and USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, that was reviewed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,

“From arthritis to cancer to heart disease, many major health conditions stem from damage caused by chronic inflammation. Periods of fasting appear to trigger damage-repairing adaptations in your cells,” (Prevention)

Skipping breakfast and choosing more fresh foods, less processed foods, and especially less sugar (a huge American breakfast staple), just may lead to minimal systemic inflammation and a better quality of health.

So breakfast may not be as important as they want you to think. Make educated breakfast choices if you need to eat such as healthy, organic fresh fruits. However, when you get used to it, skipping breakfast may lead to more energy, less weight gain, reduced inflammation and more. Be sure to always drink water in the morning, particularly room temperature with a fresh squeezed lemon in it. This will certainly rev up metabolism, digestion enzymes and overall detoxification. Check with your doctor to make sure skipping breakfast is a safe choice for you and start feeling less full, less bloated and more alive.