BREAKFAST ... The one meal you do not want to skip!Hangry – a colloquialism used (mostly by millennials) to describe the state of being so hungry that it makes you feel frustrated and angry. This is what we often experience when lunch time rolls around and we’ve skipped breakfast. I am sure most of you have heard that it is the most important meal of the day, yet so many of us skip it entirely and land up munching on the first sugary, fatty and energy dense food we can get our hands on. Breakfast is so named because it is literally the meal that breaks the fast, because during the period overnight from when you’ve eaten dinner and including sleep, your body “fasts” or goes without food for about 8-10 hours. Breaking the fast in the morning with a healthy meal is so important for the following reasons: 1. Eating breakfast has been shown to reduce obesity and weight gain: The reason behind this is that skipping breakfast leads to you being ravenous by lunch time which often results in satisfying unhealthy food cravings and overeating due to being so hungry. Breakfast also kickstarts our metabolism preparing it to digest and use food effectively for the day. In a large study on thousands of children and young adults who skipped breakfast had higher body mass indexes (BMI) and waist circumferences than those who ate breakfast on a regular basis – leading to a higher incidence of obesity across this group. In an alternative study subjects who ate a large portion of their daily food intake at breakfast had lower BMIs and generally felt more energetic throughout the day than subjects who skipped breakfast. 2. Breakfast kickstarts your brain: It has been found that children who regularly eat breakfast have higher IQs than those who only eat breakfast now and then. Eating breakfast regularly has been associated with better behaviour in school, increased academic performance and test scores. The same is true for adults, our brains need food to function. A work day can be stressful and overwhelming but it is always worse when you’re hangry on top of it all! 3. Skipping breakfast increases your risk for developing heart disease and diabetes: In fact, a study showed that adults who skip breakfast have as much of a 15 -21% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Cardiac disease risk factors such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, elevated blood fat levels and cholesterol resulting from skipping breakfast increase the likelihood of developing cardiac disease. A study completed over a period of 16 years on 20 000 male subjects in America found that men who skipped breakfast were 27% more likely to develop coronary heart disease. So, make your breakfast a priority and a heart healthy meal at that! 4. Breakfast is a great opportunity to essential nutrients in our diet: By skipping breakfast, we restrict ourselves to having to get all our vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids and amino acids through lunch and dinner. If you eat three meals a day, skipping breakfast is literally reducing the opportunity for nourishment by one third. Children cannot meet their dietary requirements as growing humans through two meals per day only. Spreading the uptake of nutrients like vitamins and minerals throughout the day is also more beneficial for our bodies as the body can only absorb so much during digestion. A healthy breakfast would be foods rich in micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) as well as high in protein and fibre. This means that most of the sugary breakfast cereals, muffins and pastries are out. Try to include some fruit or vegetables in your meal to increase the fibre and micronutrient content of the meal. If you like to have eggs in the morning try to add in some spinach, bell peppers, tomatoes or anything you like with the meal. If you enjoy having oats or other kinds of porridge in the morning add some seeds or nuts as a healthy fat source and some pieces of fruit as well. Or in case you are an avid breakfast skipper and have no idea what you like to eat in the morning here are some ideas: If the reason you skip breakfast in the morning is because you are short on time then try to make your breakfast the night before or set your alarm that 10 minutes earlier in the morning – your body will be more grateful for the food than for the extra few minutes of sleep! Use the suggestions above to guide you when going out to eat breakfast as well – instead of the croissant with jam and cheese, choose the health bread with eggs. You might enjoy the croissant (and please have it now and then because they are delicious!) but the low GI, high protein meal will serve your body and energy levels for the rest of the day well after you’ve forgotten what you ate that morning!
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AuthorDanielle Gemeliaris has been dancing for half her life and has always been passionate about food, nutrition and the science behind them. The knowledge she gained through her studies, as a dancer and her experience as a health and wellness coach through Herbalife, has made her uniquely qualified to help dancers better understand nutrition and the role it plays in their lives. She hopes to offer the readers of this blog the opportunity to gain a basic working knowledge of nutrition, the role it plays for dancers and learn how to make better more informed food choices in the future. Archives
April 2019
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