Introduction
Breakfast! Branded as the most important meal of the day, but is it and why? In this blog, I review the real reason why breakfast is known as the most important meal of the day, but more importantly when and what you should eat as your first meal.
What is breakfast?
You identify breakfast as the first meal of the day. Not only is it the earliest meal after you wake up and eat, it’s also when you break your fast of not eating. The term comes from the combination of “break” and “fast” meaning breaking your fast of not eating while you were sleeping.
Fasting
Fasting is simply not eating on purpose. No food, no calories, no nutrients. There are many reasons why you may fast intentionally. If you’ve ever had lab work done, sometimes you’re asked not to eat or drink (except water) for a certain time before your blood is drawn. This is known as “fasting.”
Some religions practice fasting, and many different rules are depending on your religious practice. Fasting dates back thousands of years. Advanced healers and yogic practices consider fasting to be a natural way of healing the body. In the 5th century BC, it was believed that feeding the body when you were sick could cause more harm and slow the natural recovery process.
Today, you’re encouraged to eat when you’re sick even when your body is telling you it’s not hungry. You don’t have an appetite for a reason! Listen to your body.
Benefits of fasting
There are many health benefits when it comes to fasting. Below are just a few reasons you may consider starting this practice:
Encourages blood sugar control. Every time you take a bite of food, your pancreas has to provide insulin to help keep your glucose levels steady. Not eating for an extended period gives your pancreas a chance to rest allowing insulin levels to drop. This is good practice for anyone who’s at risk for type 2 diabetes. Work with a healthcare provider who can adjust your medications if you’ve been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes before you start this practice.
Decrease chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation can certainly affect your health, especially in people with autoimmune disorders. Fasting can help to decrease levels of inflammation and boost optimal health.
Improve heart health. Fasting has been linked with lowering your risk of heart disease, lowering your blood pressure, triglycerides, and cholesterol levels.
Support weight loss. Restricting calories can help you to lose weight, but intermittent fasting is more effective. Fasting can increase your lifespan and health span.
Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is a popular and involved subject. One of which I could blog about separately due to its complexity. For this blog, I will keep it simple. Intermittent fasting involves alternating blocks of fasting and eating. This type of fasting does not involve which foods you should eat, but when you should eat them.
Intermittent fasting can be as simple as extending the number of hours of not eating after you wake up. Back to breaking your fast. If you normally eat within 1 to 2 hours after you wake up, you might wait 4 hours before you eat.
No calories during the fast. Water, plain coffee & tea are fine.
Fun fact: Many Buddhist monks and nuns generally don’t eat past noon, no evening meal.
When should you eat breakfast?
Does eating breakfast at a particular time have anything to do with your health? Yes! There’s more evidence that fasting, specifically, intermittent fasting has a positive impact on your health. Ultimately, this is a personal choice—both the time you choose to eat and what foods.
If you’ve never tried intermittent fasting known as IF, start with 12 hours. For example, if you last ate at 8:00 p.m., eat breakfast at 8:00 a.m. Meaning, not just what time you ate dinner, but the last bite of food you put into your mouth, including caloric drinks. If you had dinner at 8:00 p.m. but ate ice cream at 9:00 p.m. then breakfast would be at 9:00 a.m.
How important is breakfast?
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so THEY say. This famous phrase was repeated so many times over the decades that it became known as the “truth” without question. It was a marketing campaign to sell cereal and promote health by Kellogg’s.
Over time, breakfast became equal to getting energy and nutrients to start the day. Whether you eat breakfast at the traditional time (shortly after you wake up) or skip it, it doesn’t affect the number of calories you burn. In other words, eating breakfast doesn’t “jump start” your metabolism contrary to popular belief.
Does breakfast impact your health?
No, breakfast does not impact your health. There are too many other factors that weigh heavily on your health and breakfast is not one of them. The question that should be asked is, “What makes breakfast healthy?” The answer: your food choices and when you decide to break your fast (eat). There’s nothing healthy or unhealthy about the mealtime known as breakfast, lunch or dinner. It’s the food choices you make to eat at those mealtimes and when you eat them.
What to eat for breakfast?
Breakfast doesn’t have to be complex or made of traditional breakfast foods. Cereal is very popular but as convenient as cereal may be, it’s not the perfect healthy food or the most nutritious. Depending on which brand you buy it may have just as much sugar as pop tarts. Ok, I confess, I ate pop tarts when I was 12 years old! I outgrew that stage and hopefully you have too, by now.
Health tip: Cereal is a highly processed food and could leave you feeling hungry a few hours after you eat.
You don’t need to eat the usual breakfast foods like toast and pancakes but instead try cottage cheese, yogurt, eggs, avocado, nuts, and chia seeds.
To keep you feeling full longer, include some type of protein like eggs, salmon, or a protein shake.
Fun fact: In the 17th and 18th centuries the upper class in Europe ate bread, meat, and ale while the less fortunate ate porridge (boiled ground grain- not oatmeal). No beer for the poor!
There are plenty of breakfast ideas and recipes on the internet, but here are a few to get you started.
Breakfast options:
Greek yogurt with fruit sprinkled with some chia seeds
Eggs – your choice
Bacon, avocado, and tomato scramble
Smoothies – if you’re going for this option be sure to add protein powder.
Leftovers from last night’s dinner can make a tasty breakfast.
Fun fact: The first breakfast foods were simple like bread, cheese, and fruit. Over time, hot dishes grew more complex such as bacon and eggs, waffles and pancakes, or a drive-thru breakfast sandwich!
Conclusion
When deciding what time to eat breakfast, find what works best for you! Do some experimenting with the time as mentioned above.
Drink some water when you wake up. This will not interfere with your fast if you want to extend it.
There’s nothing special about breakfast. It’s a personal choice of when you eat your first meal of the day to break your fast.
Include a protein source as an optimal option so you don’t get hungry too soon after eating.
Remember, don’t eat just because the clock says so.
In optimal health,
Lisa
This may be my favorite blog to date.
How did I reach 60 years of age and never realize breakfast meant “break your fast”?
I also never knew, but was not surprised to learn, the significance placed on breakfast can be traced back to a marketing ploy to increase sales by Kellogg’s. I immediately thought of the connection between Mother’s day and the Floral industry…. or maybe that was Hallmark?
I very much appreciated your take on intermittent fasting. My diet leaves much to be desired, but with intermittent fasting, I can at least stay in the ballpark of my acceptable weight. Now I’m aware of other health benefits as well.
Fun read, thanks Lisa.
I look forward to your next post.
Thanks, Matt! I appreciate your dedication and relections. Happy to “school” you! 🙂
I was surprised to see “bacon” along with avocado and tomatoes for breakfast. I often have avocado on whole-wheat toast for breakfast. I’d like bacon but thought it was not a very healthy choice.
Very observant, Ezra! Bacon is a high-fat protein. 1 to 2 slices is ok occasionally-just cut back on the avocado.