A healthy breakfast has always been the secret mantra of well-being and longevity. Everyone strives to lead a healthy life and not all of us choose to skip breakfast. With changes in lifestyle and increasing traffic, unintentional skipping of breakfast has increased in recent years.
For some, breakfast is the easiest meal to skip, due in part to the wrong belief that it can reduce total calorie intake and control weight. Skipping breakfast can have a deleterious effect on health.
Below are proven facts why breakfast is the first step to break fast and start the day directing the body and mind towards a healthy lifestyle.
1) High glycaemic index breakfast helps reduce calorie intake and supports weight loss. Starting the day with a moderately high carbohydrate meal, causes a sustained hike in blood glucose and insulin levels for 2 to 3 hours post meal.
Elevated insulin levels stimulate the release of leptin, the appetite controlling hormone. As a result, appetite is controlled by 40 per cent for the next 6 to 8 hours, thereby reducing our overall calorific intake for the day. Research shows that having a healthy breakfast helps restrict excess calorie intake.
2) A high-fibre, low-calorie breakfast can reduce bad cholesterol, improve insulin sensitivity and prevent diabetes. Failing to break the overnight fast of over 10 hours can lead to low blood glucose levels, setting the body on a fat storage mode.
In this energy compromised state, the brain signals the liver to release energy to fuel our morning activities. The liver is forced to produce energy in the form of fat. Over the long run, this causes a rise in bad cholesterol levels.
Having a brunch meal restores blood glucose levels and the remaining fat is directed into the fat cells in the abdomen area. Central obesity leads to insulin resistance, hypertension and related cardio-vascular illnesses. Fortified wholegrain cereals have shown to reduce cardio- vascular mortality in adults.
3) Breakfast reduces evening snacking of fatty foods, food cravings and mood-driven eating disorders. Recent studies have shown that consumption of a high-protein breakfast reduced the release of brain signals which caused food motivation and also improved the diet quality among obese adolescents.
Digestion of protein is energy demanding, leading to breakdown of fat. Dietary protein, apart from increasing metabolism, also suppresses the hunger-inducing hormone Ghrelin.
4) An ideal breakfast should be:
1. Eaten before or at start of daily activities.
2. Within 2 hours of waking.
3. Typically no later than 10am.
4.Of energy level between 20 to 30 per cent of total daily energy needs.
