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Breakfast: Is It the Most Important Meal of the Day?

By Jiri Kaloc

There’s quite a lot of debate about whether breakfast is important or not in a healthy diet. Some say you need it to kick-start your metabolism and have enough energy for the day, others say there’s nothing special about breakfast and that there might even be health benefits to skipping it. Let’s look at some interesting arguments from both sides and the science behind them.

Eating breakfast doesn’t boost your metabolism

A popular argument for breakfast is that you should eat in the morning because it boosts your metabolism and thus helps you maintain a healthy weight. What matters for metabolism is the overall amount of food you eat in a given day. It makes no difference at which times you eat. Studies show that there is no difference in calories burned in a day between people who eat or skip breakfast.

Breakfast can serve as weight gain prevention

Just the fact that you eat in the morning won’t burn more body-fat, but it might help in a different way. Skipping breakfast makes you hungrier at lunch time and work lunch is usually full of stress and not exactly the best nutrition. And let’s be honest, for most people, no breakfast and poor lunch will result in constant junk snacking during the day and poor dietary choices and over-eating in the evening. And that is what is connected to weight gain for sure.

Skipping breakfast may have health benefits

Skipping breakfast is in effect intermittent fasting which has been shown to effectively reduce calorie intake, increase weight loss and improve metabolic health. However, it’s important to note that intermittent fasting and skipping breakfast is not for everyone. The effects vary with each person. Some may experience the above mentioned positive effects, while others may develop headaches, drops in energy, and lack of concentration.

Depends on what kind of breakfast

As you can see, there are good reasons for both eating and skipping breakfast. You just need to be honest with yourself and observe the effects it has on your body. If you don’t feel hungry in the morning and you’ll be able to get the nutrients needed later in the day, then don’t force it. However, if you feel hungry in the morning and you like breakfast, go for it! Just be sure to choose a healthy, nutrient rich breakfast and avoid those sugar bombs that are mistakenly called breakfast nowadays. This whole month will be about breakfasts and as usual, you’ll learn some healthy recipes!

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