Health

Why Is Eating Breakfast So Important

During a busy morning, we tend to forget about eating our breakfast. However, breakfast is not just a meal. Eating breakfast is the way to live healthy. When we are sleeping at night, our bodies and brains still keep working and running out of energy. Eating breakfast breaks the overnight fast and provides our bodies and minds with health benefits. I highlight some of these benefits in the following section.

 

Provision of Essential Nutrients

A good breakfast gives us the nutrients that our bodies need to work and function healthily in the course of the day. It usually contains nutrients such as folate, fiber, B vitamin, iron, and other essentials that our bodies could only gain from foods. While our bodies could always use the stored recesses and make it to our next meal, the initial burst of these essentials cannot be achieved if we do not eat breakfast.

 

Blood Sugar Control

Studies show that eating breakfast helps control food intake regulation. As a whole, the people who do not eat breakfast tend to eat more later in the day, which typically leads to larger with less nutritious intakes that could wreak havoc on the levels of insulin in our bodies and result in higher blood sugar. Others studies also show that type 2 diabetes patients skipping breakfast are associated with a significant blood sugar increase across the day.

 

Optimized Memory Retention

Our brains need energy, which usually comes from the meals we eat every day, to maintain functioning and stay sharp. Eating breakfast to provide the fuel for our brains to keep focusing and concentrating is just the same as it does for our bodies to continue the physical activities.

 

Healthy Body Weight

If we restrict our largest meal of the day to breakfast, we will be on our way to shedding pounds. A study researched two groups with similar numbers of calories each day and different distributions of the calories to the meals in a day, upon walking to lose weight. It found that the group who ate more calories from breakfast in the morning had an average loss of 17.8 pounds during three months, while the group who ate less from breakfast but more later like snacks or a big dinner in the day, had a loss of only 7.3 pounds on average.

 

Reduced Risk of Heart Diseases

People who do not eat breakfast usually tend to overeat later in the day, and overeating plays a role in unwanted weight gain. Overweight is associated with high cholesterol as well as blood pressure issues, which leads to heart diseases. Studies have found that people who eat breakfast have fewer incidences of cardiovascular diseases than the ones who did not.

 

Improved Immune System

Eating breakfast could enhance our immune systems to fight cold and flu. A study has found that a substantial breakfast could boost our bodies’ gamma-interferon, which is a natural antiviral, and it could directly activate our immune cells. Skipping breakfast could result in a 17% decrease in gamma-interferon.

 

Live Longer

Studies have found that people who lived over 100 years are the ones who consistently eat breakfast or eat it more often. Also, people who eat breakfast regularly have less chances of getting into fatal habits such as smoking and excessive drinking. Besides, thanks to all the benefits of breakfast, the ones who eat breakfast have a better chance to ward off diseases.

 

In short, eating breakfast is very important for our health, and it is not an option but a must-do. If we cannot squeeze time from our busy morning schedule for a traditional breakfast, a healthy granola bar with high protein or something alike could be a good alternative.