Breakfast and health
A healthy breakfast gives us energy for the whole day. Eating breakfast on the go, or no breakfast at all, is a bad decision, even if your day is scheduled to the minute.
The importance of breakfast for the body
Many people do without breakfast. Women try to devote more time to their appearance and at the same time sacrifice their morning breakfast for the sake of makeup. For many, a cup of coffee with a cigarette replaces the first one. Unfortunately, such people do not know that breakfast consisting of coffee and a cigarette is a very dangerous misconception.
Coffee stimulates the secretion of gastric juice, the physiological qualities of which are dangerous for an empty stomach, and a cigarette, in addition to harming the lungs, releases such an amount of nicotine into the blood that it leads to increased production of adrenaline and norepinephrine, which, in turn, increases heart rate, nervousness and increased gastric secretion. Excessive gastric secretion fills the stomach and, in the absence of food in it, corrodes the mucous membrane, which leads to gastritis and ulcers.
Studies have proven that neglecting breakfast leads to multiple negative effects on both the health of children and adults.
These are the consequences: weakening of memory, decreased creative thinking ability, frequent irritability and anxiety, stress caused by hunger, difficulties in logical thinking. In this situation, the body lacks the required amount of “fuel”, so it is difficult for a person to concentrate, he may experience dizziness, imbalance, blurred vision, muscle spasms, and even fainting.
During eight hours of sleep, the body remains without food and water. During the night, we manage to get really hungry, so our energy reserves need to be replenished with healthy food in the morning. Abstaining from food leads to a sharp drop in blood sugar levels. On the other hand, after eating, the blood sugar level rises and the metabolism disturbed after the night is restored. This contributes to the efficient functioning of the entire body. However, women should plan their breakfast menu with extreme caution to avoid sudden changes in blood glucose levels.
10 reasons why you shouldn't skip breakfast
Here are 10 more arguments to support the importance of a morning meal:
1. Nutrition for the brain
If you are a knowledge worker, then you need to have breakfast - your brain needs to be nourished in the morning for better concentration and memorization of information. One cup of coffee or tea won't provide all the nutrients your brain needs to start the day.
2. Strengthening the immune system
People who regularly eat breakfast have stronger immunity than those who neglect their morning meal.
3. Security deposit
Statistically, far fewer car accidents happen to people who have had breakfast. Of course, this fact may be a consequence of point 1.
4. For performance
Having breakfast increases an employee's productivity by 30%.
5. Anything is possible in the morning
Due to the fact that there is still a whole day ahead, which will require energy expenditure, morning calories never turn into fat.
6. Energy source
By limiting yourself to lunch, you deprive yourself of energy replenishment for the whole half of the day.
7. Controlling hunger
The foods you eat for breakfast affect your hunger throughout the day. For example, having breakfast with eggs will make you less hungry. Because of this, portions for lunch and dinner will be smaller. And if you have breakfast with cereals - rice, buckwheat or oatmeal - your consumption of fatty foods will decrease.
8. The key to slimness
Breakfast wakes up your body and speeds up your metabolism. It is also better to drink a glass of water at room temperature before eating.
9. For a healthy lifestyle
If you really can’t force your body to have breakfast, then don’t despair. There is a little trick - start doing exercises or jogging in the morning. After exercise, you can easily eat food to replenish the calories burned.
10. Good mood
Nothing lifts your spirits like something delicious in the morning. In addition, having breakfast in a calm environment can help you gather your thoughts and prepare yourself for the day ahead.
What should you do before breakfast?
In the morning, immediately after sleep, it is useful to drink a glass of warm water. Water starts all internal processes and helps remove toxins. You can add a drop of lemon juice or a teaspoon of honey to the water.
It is also important to do exercises or light exercises. You can do it without even getting out of bed. And after all these procedures, the body will really want to eat, and you are guaranteed a good appetite.
The benefits of breakfast
Doctors say that the benefits of breakfast for the human body cannot be overestimated. For many centuries, our ancestors considered the morning meal to be the most useful and important. Modern research confirms this opinion, which has developed over centuries.
Beneficial properties of breakfast:
- Helps thin the blood. During night sleep, blood movement slows down, which leads to platelets sticking together and forming blood clots. As a result, the risk of developing myocardial infarction increases. According to statistics, a heart attack in 70% of clinical cases is diagnosed in the morning. Breakfast prevents pathological thrombus formation and is a method of preventing myocardial infarction.
- Increases the speed of metabolic processes. Breakfast activates metabolism in tissues and “accelerates” metabolism. This prevents the gain of extra pounds and the development of obesity.
- Normalizes calorie expenditure. Breakfast fills the body with the energy necessary for physical and mental functioning. To maintain health, most of the calories should be expended in the first half of the day, and this is facilitated by the morning meal.
- Supports a rational diet. To improve health, there should be short temporary breaks between meals (3-5 hours). If you refuse to eat in the morning, the breaks between meals lengthen, which leads to stagnation of bile and the development of cholelithiasis. In addition, eating late usually shifts the time of dinner, which contributes to overeating and poor sleep at night.
- Promotes the entry of glucose into the blood, which is the main source of energy for the brain. This improves mental performance, normalizes mental activity, and protects the nervous system from the destructive effects of stress.
According to WHO recommendations, breakfast should be nutritious but light. The calorie content of the morning meal should not exceed 35% of the daily diet. Typically, people's first meal consists of eggs, oatmeal, sandwiches, cottage cheese, yogurt, pastries, tea, coffee or juice. But is it right to eat this way in the morning?
Skip breakfast for your health
If you do not have diseases of the digestive tract, serious problems with the body, and even more so if you lead a healthy lifestyle, then giving up an early breakfast will have a beneficial effect on the entire body, will give you a lot of energy, and increase your performance for the entire next day. Tested from my own experience.
According to my feelings, in the morning the body is not ready to digest food, and if you have breakfast, especially heavy food, you will spend a lot of energy, which will be difficult to replenish later. I suggest you watch this video, where the author also confirms the beneficial effects of not eating breakfast on the body and energy. What do you think about this?
Breakfast time
Time intervals for morning meals may vary. According to standards, the first breakfast is at 7.00-8.00, the second - 10.00-11.00. It is not necessary to take food in 2 meals; you can skip one meal depending on your hunger and daily routine. Some people do not eat at all during these hours, which in most cases is not harmful to health.
Doctors recommend drinking warm drinks (tea, but chicory is better) and hot food for breakfast. Sometimes a glass of warm water is enough. The high temperature of food promotes a comfortable start of the digestive system and prepares the organs for the subsequent intake of nutrients.
How to eat properly in the morning: what not to eat
Breakfast is healthy, but you shouldn’t eat junk food in the morning, because it won’t lead to a favorable result either. What foods should you avoid in the morning:
1. Breakfast cereals. The most popular morning food among the population. It's fast, cheap and creates a rich look in just a few minutes. They contain a large amount of healthy plant fiber, however, they contain quite a lot of sugar. It is these fast carbohydrates that create the impression of satiety, and after a few hours you will want to eat again and any food that quickly replenishes energy can be used.
What to do?
Replace such breakfasts with any cereal products. Among these may be muesli, oatmeal, you can even eat a small amount of semolina. It is also recommended to add dried fruits, fresh fruits, and nuts to your diet. But the dish itself can be filled with kefir.
2. Yoghurts. We are not talking about homemade yoghurts, but about finished products from the store. They contain a large amount of flavorings and sweeteners, which are deposited in the body.
What to do?
Replace store-bought yoghurts with homemade ones, or drink kefir in the morning.
3. Cottage cheese. This is a very healthy protein product. But according to the advice of nutritionists, it should be consumed in the afternoon.
Cottage cheese - chemical composition and nutritional value analysis
4. Smoked meats, any canned products. They generally do not provide any particular benefit to the body, especially when it comes to smoked meats. However, even canned homemade products do not need to be consumed in the morning. They may contain a large amount of acids, for example, malic, acetic, or sugar.
5. Citrus fruits and bananas. Citrus fruits contain a large amount of acids, and taking them on an empty stomach can provoke gastritis, abdominal pain, and heartburn. Some may also experience allergic reactions. But bananas are a source of magnesium; if you eat only them in the morning, this can upset the balance in the body.
What to do?
Eat these fruits along with other healthy foods and do not allow their total volume to increase during breakfast by more than 25%.
6. Bacon, sausage. Usually, morning sandwiches are a common meal for both schoolchildren and adults. However, these products contain large amounts of salts, nitrates, dyes and other chemicals.
What to do?
If you are used to eating heavily, it is better to have breakfast with chicken fillet and turkey. This dietary food will quickly replenish your energy balance and will not cause weight gain.
7. Donuts, pancakes, pancakes. They contain a large amount of carbohydrates. First of all, they are harmful to the figure, and can also cause heaviness in the stomach and nausea.
Donuts made with yeast, with cream filling - chemical composition and nutritional value analysis
Pancakes - chemical composition and nutritional analysis
Pancakes - chemical composition and nutritional value analysis
Where is the truth?
Proponents and opponents of breakfast give a lot of arguments in favor of eating in the morning or avoiding an early meal. It can be difficult to understand this issue in order to finally join one movement or another. In my opinion, the truth lies in the individual approach. We need to listen to our body, which often gives us the right clues.
If you feel hungry in the morning, then eating is necessary. It is important not to ignore your body’s requests and not skip breakfast. Otherwise, metabolic processes are disrupted and the risk of developing digestive tract diseases increases. If there is no feeling of hunger, you do not need to force yourself to eat, otherwise you will greatly harm your body. Remember, the body has not yet woken up and is not ready to work to digest food. You can limit yourself to just a cup of tea, chicory or drink juice. For some people, the first meal should be no earlier than 2-3 hours after waking up. You need to make time for brunch at work or take food with you.
Separately, I would like to say about the benefits and harms of a hearty breakfast. No expert will advise you to take fatty and heavy foods on your stomach after waking up. A set lunch can be dense, which involves taking first and second courses. And this is physiologically justified. By the middle of the day, the body needs to replenish the calories expended for people who work according to a standard schedule.
An early meal should not be excessively high in calories and volume. “Heavy” foods can minimize the beneficial effects of morning meals on the body. Eat a light breakfast that does not overload your stomach and liver. It is useful to have breakfast with cereals, such as oatmeal, semolina or millet.
Proper breakfast for an athlete
During training, athletes burn a large number of calories, so breakfast is a must for them. They need not only a supply of calories, but also amino acids that affect muscle growth, as well as vitamins to maintain balance in the body. One of the biggest mistakes is skipping breakfast. An athlete's breakfast must contain protein and grains. Easily digestible proteins include cottage cheese or chicken, but cereals are porridge.
What about nutritional supplements? Protein shakes or gainers will be useful specifically for strength athletes, and you should not refuse them in the morning, as they are an additional source of energy. But on rest days there is no need to use them, because their intake must fully correspond to the athlete’s energy expenditure.
What not to eat in the morning
American nutritionists have come to the conclusion that not all foods will be healthy for athletes for breakfast. Moreover, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If you eat a large amount of foods containing magnesium, you can cause a malfunction of the heart. These include bananas.
But oranges and smoked meats can provoke gastritis, especially if you eat them on an empty stomach. Nutritionists also recommend not eating tomatoes, persimmons, cucumbers or peppers in the morning. But yogurt will be more useful during the second breakfast. Why? Due to aggressive gastric juice in the morning, all the beneficial substances in yogurt can be completely destroyed.
But eggs can be eaten by athletes, because they do not stimulate weight gain, but are a source of natural protein.
A proper breakfast is the key to health, energy and good mood. It is worth choosing high-quality and nutritious foods for the morning, in which case the body will be saturated with a sufficient amount of substances that will be processed into energy, and not into fat deposits.
Healthy and light breakfast
Oat pancakes
To prepare these wonderful and delicious pancakes you will need:
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 cup oatmeal
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 glass of kefir (can be low-fat)
- 1 egg
- salt, sugar and cinnamon to taste
Preparation:
1. Initially mix all the dry ingredients: flour, cereal, salt, sugar and cinnamon.
2. Then beat the egg into the mixture and add kefir. Mix everything well. Add baking powder.
3. Heat the frying pan, grease it with oil and spoon out the dough. Fry oat pancakes on both sides until golden brown, 3-4 minutes.
4. You can serve pancakes with honey, jam or fresh berries.
Fried toast with egg
You will need:
- bread for toast (1 slice per person)
- eggs (one egg for each toast)
- salt, pepper, herbs
Preparation:
1. Heat a frying pan and grease it with a little oil.
2. Take bread for toast and cut out the core (as in the photo). Place the toast in a frying pan and fry it a little on one side.
3. Turn the toast over, the bread should fit snugly to the bottom of the pan. Drive an egg into the middle of each toast, add salt and pepper and add herbs on top. Cover with a lid and fry for 3-5 minutes until the egg inside the bread is ready. Study the calorie content of bread and choose the type that suits you.
