Do you eat breakfast? If you don’t then you are with about 50% of the British population who skip breakfast too. The UK is pretty evenly divided by those who do and those who don’t. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day according to some sources. It’s certainly something I was told repeatedly as a child. Unfortunately trying to prove this is really tricky as most of the scientific research backing this up is by the breakfast cereal manufacturers. Some research done in the 1960’s resulted in the mantra “breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper. This has not been proven as such as the research is usually not very helpful due to small sample sizes and using people with a specific demograph – ie, they are lean which is nor representive of our bodies today.
Why You Should Eat Breakfast
There are plenty of arguments for eating breakfast which are listed out in the five points below. My own rubbish breakfast habits came from liking “extra” sleep in the morning rather than getting up and looking after myself. Now I try and set a decent example and eat a healthy, nutritious breakfast to set me up for the day.
1. You don’t start your day on an empty stomach
There is nothing worse than skipping breakfast only to end up being really hungry an hour later when you are in class and can’t get to some food. If you are at work and in a meeting or sitting within earshot of co-workers trying to ignore the angry growl in your stomach that is so loud every one can hear it, that’s excruciating. Conversly though, there are people who conpain that once they start eating, they are hungrier and eat more throughout the day. The best thing to do is to listen to your body and as long as you don’t fall into the potential pitfalls below then it’s not a problem.
2. Unplanned eating leads to bad decision making over food
I’m a big of a stickler for planning or at least trying to plan food. It’s cost effective but more importantly in this context, if you are over hungry it can lead to poor decision making over what to eat. When we are craving food, then our bodies kindly direct us to the nearest high calorie stuff that is full of fat, sugar and salt to instantly safisfy our appetites. Most of us are aware that this kind of food is not good for our health in the short or long term. This kind of unplanned eating leads to weight gain without any shadow of doubt.
3. Our bodies like routine
We are highly predictable creatures and most of us perform better under a routine. This is particularly true of our bodies who like regularity: regular sleep, regular ablutions and regular meal times. You can try an experiment to prove how much your body likes routine. Try eating a packet of crisps every day for a week at exactly the same time, then see how much your body is expecting to be fed the crisps at that time in the next week. It’s really quite scary how your body really anticipates the crisps.
4. Are we just lazy and disorganised?
Think back to a time where breakfast has been prepared for you. Maybe by a parent, or a partner or if you have been lucky enough to stay at a nice hotel. I know if I stay at a hotel, I always manage to eat breakfast as there is a menu, with lots of choice some lovely surroundings and someone else is cooking it for me. The meal is also planned for and I have set aside time to eat and enjoy it. Can I transfer these points to my everyday home life? Perhaps prepare your breakfast the night before along with your lunch Get up ten minutes earlier to give yourself a bit more of a chance to develop an appetite.
5. Shift working and anti-social hours
Not everyone works a nine to five job. Our society runs for twenty four hours now, more than ever. Hospitals and police services have to run all the time. You may have a new born baby and they don’t sleep through. If you’re having to get up at 3.30 am to collect eggs then you probably won’t have a lot of appetite at that time in the morning. This is when you need to take your breakfast to work so you can have something nutritious when Annie Appetite finally wakes up. Not all of us can take breakfast and eat it at work though. It’s a bit difficult if you are a teacher and have to stand in from of a class. We all need to plan our food or we end up making poor choices that are detrimental to our health.
I’ve got some other articles on my website that you might like: https://cookingwithfi.com/10-ways-to-save-money-on-your-food-shop/