Do you know breakfast as the most important meal of the day?— your grandma most likely told you this. In the 1960s, Adele Davis rightly said, ‘eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.’ – In this blog, we will show you why.
Breakfast provides the energy and sustenance required for the day’s work. There are cultural variations and diversities to what people eat as breakfast. Nevertheless, whatever you decide to eat as breakfast should be able to provide enough calories for the day. In fact, you should aim at consuming about 18-30% of your daily energy intake at breakfast.
You most likely need fuel to kick start your day, especially after you’ve had an all night long fast. A healthy breakfast is a must for optimal health and wellbeing. But, skipping it is a worse option.
The decision about what and when to eat has shown results on general health and wellbeing. You don’t believe in the breakfast miracle? Read on; you’d send grandma a thank you note afterward.
Health food
Diet plays a significant role in maintaining optimal health status. More so, breakfast plays a major role in your diet. Although it is highly unlikely that skipping breakfast will result in severe dietary insufficiency, consistent intake of healthy breakfast exerts subtle but great importance on your overall health and wellbeing.
Eating breakfast has been linked with some tremendous health outcomes. One of which is a reduced risk of heart disease. Physicians recommend a proper and balanced diet for people who want to control their cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of diabetes.
Skipping breakfast is also common among unhealthy people who have a sedentary lifestyle—all the things you don’t want to be.
Breakfast is also associated with better cognitive processing and functioning. Skipping breakfast regularly has been said to result in a decline in brain excitability, and reduction in neuronal responses.
The National Health Service said, ‘eating breakfast has long term health benefits. It can reduce obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes.’ – well, what more do you want?
Better performance
Eating breakfast is a good way to jumpstart your metabolism.
An average adult sleeps for about 7-8 hours daily. During this sleep period, the body’s metabolism reduces to a baseline level. However, eating breakfast helps you jumpstart your metabolism, thereby increasing your overall performance, concentration, and productivity all day.
Kids who skip breakfast have been noted to have lesser focus, reduced attention frame, increased fussiness and crankiness – and dead social life. Do you want to kick that druggy feeling you have all day? Then ensure you eat your breakfast – grandma told you so.
Consuming less fat during the day
Eating in the morning should be a habit that you develop.
Understanding breakfast as the most important meal of the day, and using this knowledge to your benefit, will reduce cravings for junk food and fat during the day. Eating before you get really hungry keeps you filled, your blood sugar level remains stable, and the craving for junk is reduced.
It is known that if you completely deprive yourself of junk food, you may keep on craving them. Adding a controlled amount of pastries to your breakfast meal plan can help you keep this in check.
Controlled weight and BMI
Cutting back on breakfast won’t keep your weight down! Yeah, you read it here.
According to research, people who eat breakfast regularly can maintain a healthy weight and body mass index (BMI) compared to those who don’t – this doesn’t mean breakfast alone works the magic on your dieting program. Skipping breakfast may at first, reduce your weight, but cannot keep it down as the body will adjust to the new conditions.
Seeing as eating healthy breakfast allows you to control your junk food cravings during the day, it is a step in managing your diet. You may not need to eat a large breakfast; something substantial will do just fine.
Meeting daily Vitamin recommendation
Asides giving your body the jumpstart it needs to start in the day, a healthy breakfast supplies the body with loads of nutrients. Nutrients like vitamin B complex, which is naturally found in fruits and vegetables, are provided in a healthy breakfast plan.
In fact, nutritionists advise that a serving of breakfast should be 60% fruits and vegetables. All of these are so that the body is functioning on full throttle. Moreover, it is difficult to compensate for these nutrients later in the day if they were missed at breakfast.
Parents and guardians with school-age kids are advised to include fruit in their breakfast plan to ensure they miss out on nothing.
Higher calcium intake
Calcium is vital for healthy teeth and bone. More importantly, it is essential for the health and functioning of nerves and muscle tissues.
Calcium is mainly found in food such as milk and milk products, leafy green vegetables, nuts and seeds, breakfast cereals, fruit juices, and bread – all of which are typical breakfast food.
The recommended dietary intake of calcium is about 1,000 and 1,300 mg per day. This dietary recommendation is mostly fulfilled by 85% of balanced healthy breakfast meal plans.
Higher fiber intake
Fibers, though overlooked most times, are great for your health – mainly your gut health!
Fibers are mainly carbohydrates that keep the digestive system healthy. A daily intake of fiber can prevent or relieve constipation, aiding the smooth passage of waste through the digestive system. Fibers are also useful in removing bacteria and other buildups in the gut.
Eating fibers alongside fibers for breakfast helps in staying fuller for a more extended period, reducing the tendency to crave junk on the go. Veggies, whole-food carbs, fruits, and many more are sources of fibers that you can add to your breakfast plan.
What’s more, fibers are helpful in losing and maintaining a healthy weight.
Final thoughts
Eating breakfast is a personal choice. But we hope you’ve seen there are tons of benefits that make breakfast the most important meal of the day. So, before you begin your daily activities, get a healthy breakfast to eat.
