BENEFITS OF EATING BREAKFAST

 

Remember when you were small and your mother would not let you out of the house in the morning or let you go to school without giving you breakfast. It does not matter what she gave you, the important thing is that you eat something before leaving the house every morning. It turns out your mother was right about what most adults are denying: breakfast is the most important meal of the day. The right breakfast will strengthen you and help you to concentrate.

Depending on when you ate your dinner, you may have been fasting for 6-10 hrs. When you skip breakfast and also postpone eating till afternoon, your period of fasting goes up to 13-16 hrs. Where exactly do you expect your body to get the nutrients it needs to function properly? You are not on hunger strike and you may not be fasting, so what is the purpose of not breaking your night fast with a healthy breakfast? This is not a meal you should be fast to skip. In these very busy times most people are quick to skip breakfast. Two reasons they give for not eating breakfast are:

1. I want to lose weight 
2. There is not enough time

Reality check

1 .Skipping breakfast will not make you lose weight. When you skip meals your body thinks there is famine and goes into starvation mode. It holds on to everything you eat because it does not know when the next meal will come and turns it into fat. When this is coupled with the stress you go through every day, your body will produce cortisol and pack the fat in your already robust tummy. Result- weight   gain.

2 .Make sure all you need for a simple and healthy breakfast are available and then wake up 20-30 minutes earlier. Voila- enough time.

Why you should eat breakfast

1. One of the major benefits of breakfast is that it gives you the energy you need to get through the morning. Any doubts, skip breakfast and do not take coffee, by midmorning the papers on your desk will start looking like mountains and you will start glaring at them in anger. It will also make you unapproachable and if you already have an unapproachable attitude, hunger will take it to a new level.
2. When you skip breakfast, you will eat more at lunch. Food that will normally make you full will look very small on your plate and send you into resentment against everything and everyone.
3. Eating breakfast helps you stay focused and productive till the next meal.
4. When you eat breakfast you have the rest of the day to be active and your metabolism will take care of it.  However, if you overeat dinner your metabolism will slow down at night. Your body will spend the whole night processing and packaging fat which will end up in your belly, thigh or anywhere else your body deems fit to store it.
5. Breakfast stabilizes your blood sugar and prevents energy crash. The blood sugar is normally low in the morning. Skipping breakfast and then guzzling coffee when your energy drops is not a good idea. You are setting yourself up for a mid-morning energy crash. Coffee may get you energized for some time but the caffeine may leave shaking and tired when the effect wears off. The result is more coffee and then another crash.
6. Eating breakfast helps you to make the right food choices. You will feel full a longer time. Hunger makes you look for a quick fix. This usually comes in the form of fast food. This is dangerous and unhealthy as they are loaded with hydrogenated fat, sugar, salt, sugar and taste enhancers. A wrong choice if the reason you skipped breakfast was to lose weight.
7. A healthy breakfast aids in weight loss. Look at 2,4,and 6 again
8. Skipping breakfast makes the brain sluggish

 

                                  A healthy breakfast

When choosing what to eat for breakfast, there are just 2 rules to observe:

• It must be healthy
• It must be healthy

An unhealthy breakfast defeats the purpose of eating it.

A healthy breakfast should have: lean healthy protein (pix of yogurt bowl with mixed fruits and nuts and another of eggs and smoothie or Quaker oats with moi-moi).

Whole grains which provides fiber and sustained energy release: oats and bran cereals. They help you feel full for a longer time.

Vitamins: It should have fruits and vegetables (not packaged fruits juice or canned fruits). Get fresh fruits and veggies that are in season. That way you get the benefits of the food, without the chemical load of preservatives and other hidden unhealthy ingredients. (Pix of fruits)

Healthy fats: avocado pear, almonds, mixed seeds – a blend of four organic seeds, flax seed, sesame, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. This can be sprinkled on your oats, fruits or blended into your yogurt for a balanced and healthy breakfast.

There is nothing in a healthy breakfast that will make you put on weight and it does not take forever to prepare.

Please do yourself and people around you a favor and eat breakfast.