Are You a Breakfast Skipper?

Posted by Ben:

When you roll out of bed (or get dragged/kicked/pushed out of bed), is breakfast the first thing on your mind? Is your stomach growling and your appetite overpowering? Well, it should be. For one, you haven’t fueled your body for 5-9 hours straight, so it should be hungry. And if you’re consuming a regular healthy diet, your body should be in tune with the schedule and expect fuel at relatively the same times each day. Or are you a breakfast skipper (as in "do you skip breakfast" not "are you a captain of breakfast")?

 

The debate seems to never end with breakfast. Is it the most important meal of the day? Or is it exactly the opposite, as Ori Hofmekler claims. In fact, he says we should not be eating breakfast at all. In his iHealthTube.com video, Hofmekler explains his idea that humans are primarily night eaters, and that by eating breakfast—and even lunch—we are ruining the natural rhythm of our metabolisms. According to his beliefs, we are eating at the wrong times and causing ourselves to be tired throughout the day because our metabolism is constantly working to break down our meals.
 

Those who believe that breakfast is one of the most important things we can do to stay healthy and maintain our weight say the exact opposite. Most nutritionists say eating breakfast jump starts our metabolism, which is the fat and calorie-burning engine of our bodies. Without breakfast, they say, we’d be in a lull all morning and our bodies would likely store more energy as excess fat and rely on the immediate fuel of lunch or dinner.
 

Dr. Neal Barnard writes in his book “Breaking The Food Seduction—The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings and 7 Steps to End Them Naturally” that people who miss out on eating breakfast often overcompensate by overeating later in the day. He says, “If you miss breakfast, you’ll overcompensate at lunch and in snacks during the day, and your overall calorie intake will end up higher than if you had eaten when you first dragged yourself out of bed. Having a healthy breakfast regulates your appetite.”
 

I never used to eat breakfast. I was never really that hungry in the morning, but that’s probably because I tended to eat later in the evening and snack right on up to bedtime. Thanks to my wife, who absolutely has to eat breakfast within minutes of getting out of bed, I’ve adjusted my eating habits. I eat breakfast every day. I eat dinner earlier. And I don’t snack all night long. My body has adjusted as well, and I have noticed that I definitely have more energy than I used to when I skipped breakfast.
 

I guess that makes me a believer. What about you? Do you eat breakfast? What do you have for breakfast...Pop Tarts and black coffee, or something a little healthier like oatmeal and juice? My favorite breakfast is fresh oatmeal from scratch with a couple slices of peanut butter toast and a tall glass of milk. What’s yours?

Posted by Ben