Did you skip your breakfast today? After you woke up this morning, how long did you wait to eat----1/2 houri, 1 hour, 2 hours?
New studies are showing that breakfast is even more important to general health than we thought. This is why I am seriously concerned that approximately one third of all Americans skip breakfast entirely every day! In this blog I want to convince you that you absolutely must eat breakfast and that it is a great way to make a major difference in your health and fitness level.
People who skip breakfast tend to gain weight and they have reduced energy and mental focus. This is a big problem in our schools today with many children skipping this important meal and heading off to school at the crack of dawn. Then everyone wonders why they cannot concentrate!
On the other hand, people who eat breakfast tend to have an easier time losing weight and maintaining a healthy body composition. When I am talking about healthy body composition I am referring to percentage of muscle and percentage of fat as it relates to total weight. We want to be as lean as possible and this means more muscle and less fat. When people eat breakfast, they tend to snack less on junk foods. In addition, people who eat breakfast have increased energy and mental focus. This can be seen in all age groups from small children to the elderly. Studies show that significant reductions in risk for obesity and metabolic syndrome can be achieved by simply eating breakfast.
So now, what do I mean by breakfast? This is a meal you eat within one hour after rising in the morning. When you sleep during the night, your body is basically in a fasting state. When you get up in the morning, you need your breakfast to refuel. When you wait too long to eat, your body actually begins to break down muscle rather than fat. Now the last thing we want to do is break down muscle! The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. Your resting metabolic rate improves when you have more muscle mass. Muscle loss decreases your ability to burn calories and increases your tendency to gain weight. Muscle loss can also result in injuries.
When you wake up in the morning your cortisol level is normally high. When you eat your breakfast, it helps reduce your cortisol. The protein in your breakfast plays an important role here by pushing this cortisol down quickly. You definitely don't want your cortisol to remain high. When it stays elevated, the immune system is suppressed, you make less testosterone and estrogen, blood sugar tends to elevate, muscle breaks down, and you inhibit your ability to metabolize carbohydrates.
To top it all off, studies have shown that skipping breakfast increases your risk of developing painful gall stones!
My simple recommendations for breakfast are that you include a healthy protein like; eggs, fish, chicken turkey, sprouted or fermented tofu or other beans, combination of beans and grains, or nuts and seeds. Then I suggest you add a fruit portion and/or a vegetable portion. It is optimal to have both a fruit and vegetable.
If you don't have time to prepare breakfast, opt for a smoothie. Take a tall glass and add protein powder, frozen berries, and water and use a wand blender to make it smooth and creamy. To work in a vegetable, separately you can mix a high quality greens product in some water. There are many such products on the market that are made of organic, nutrient dense vegetables.
Simply eating breakfast can result in increased energy and mental focus, leaner body composition, and improved overall health.
More about the importance of protein in my next blog.
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