We each have our own early-morning routine. Whether we sit down to a large, homemade breakfast, grab a coffee and bagel from Starbucks or opt to skip the first meal of the day altogether—we’ve pretty much all carved out our customary way to start the day.
Even still, nutritionists and researchers have been telling us for years that eating breakfast is essential to kick-starting your metabolism and aiding in reducing food consumption the remainder of the day. We’ve been encouraged to wake up and start feeding and fueling our bodies.
But a group of German researchers is now telling us that a smaller or non-existent breakfast is the way to ensure your daily caloric intake stays small. The study, published in Nutrition Journal, contradicts the advice to eat breakfast.
“Researchers studied the food intake of 280 obese adults and 100 of normal weight. The subjects kept records of everything they ate over two weeks, and were carefully instructed about the importance of writing down what they ate as soon as they ate it,” according to a report from the New York Times.
Both groups of adults did not change their non-breakfast calorie intake throughout the study. The only change they made to their daily routines was adding breakfast, which largely consisted of bread, eggs, yogurt, cheese, sausages, marmalade and butter. Seems a hearty—not healthy—way to start the day and thus, reason why their overall intake increased rather than decreased or remained stable.
The Germans’ study sought to find a correlation between adults eating breakfast and feeling less hungry as the day unfolds because of the breakfast they consumed.
By simply adding breakfast high in fat and calories (up to the participants' discretion), it’s no wonder the adults in the study increased their overall daily caloric intake.
Seems the jury is still out on this one and that this study doesn’t really provide substantial analysis or evidence that skipping breakfast is the best option. The German researchers had the right idea, but their methodology was slightly off.
There is lots to weigh in on with this topic, because it seems that a person can find a routine that works for him or her and stick to it, not because it is universally believed to be the right option, but because for that person, it is the option that he or she has integrated into his or her balanced life.
Do you eat breakfast in the morning? What’s your morning routine? Does it work for you? Please share with us your view on this topic because it seems people remain divided on the topic.
Diet: Bigger Breakfast, Bigger Daily Calorie Count
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/health/research/01diet.html?_r=1&ref=health
Impact of breakfast on daily energy intake - an analysis of absolute versus relative breakfast calories
http://www.nutritionj.com/content/10/1/5/abstract
Rethinking the Big Breakfast
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/rethinking-the-big-breakfast/#comments