Don’t skip breakfast

If your eating pattern was a triangle, would the thick part be in the morning or the evening?
 
More and more research shows it’s better to eat more early in the day and taper off than to start small and ramp up calorie intake later in the day. According to two large Swedish studies, being obese was associated with a meal pattern shifted to later in the day. Bad habits revealed in the study were omitting meals early in the day and eating at night. A key message from these and many other studies: Don’t skip breakfast, especially if you are trying to lose weight.

“Breakfast literally ‘breaks the fast,’” says Grace Wong, a dietitian in Calgary. “Eating a healthy breakfast gives our body energy to start our day and jump-start our metabolism. Many people choose to skip meals, including breakfast, attempting to reduce caloric intake. This may lead to overeating at lunch or snacking too much in the morning.”

Eating a proper breakfast increases our sense of fullness for the rest of the day, cuts down on cravings, and also helps us to obtain important nutrients. 

A recent study conducted in the U.S. and Venezuela concluded that this triangle theory (start big and taper off) works: Women who ate the most calories in the morning — 610 calories at breakfast, 395 at lunch and only 235 at dinnertime, for a total of 1,240 calories —- lost more weight over the long run than women eating a traditional low-carb, low calorie diet equalling 1,085 calories a day.

Breakfast also helps us think better. “The benefits of breakfast are well-documented in research, particularly the connections between breakfast and learning among students,” says Wong.

Studies in children show that eating breakfast helps them maintain attention to tasks in the late morning, improves their memory, and reduces the number of errors they make.

Is it important what we eat for breakfast? A healthy breakfast includes three out of the four food groups listed in Canada’s Food Guide, according to Wong. The groups are: 1) vegetables and fruit; 2) grains; 3) milk and milk alternatives; and 4) meat and meat alternatives.

“Balance is the key for any meals of the day, including breakfast,” she says. Examples might include eating cereal, milk and fruit or toast, peanut butter and milk. Another example might be tortilla, scrambled eggs and tomato.

Wong often recommends high-fibre grain choices for breakfast because fibre is essential for good health and it keeps us full for longer. “A bowl of old fashioned oatmeal will likely last you through your morning,” she says. Even if you have no appetite in the morning, Wong suggests it’s better to have a piece of fruit or a glass of milk than nothing at all.