What will happen to the body if you skip the morning meal, and why should you have breakfast? We will talk about this in this post. Yes, everyone has their own special vision on this matter. Someone says that I don’t have breakfast: my body is sleeping, then I’ll catch up... And others, on the contrary, try to eat at least a bun with tea in the morning.
Our first thought after sleep: should we sleep for another 10 minutes or is it better to have breakfast? Of course, most of us choose sleep. And then, while running, we don’t have time to eat or snack on a sandwich. And within an hour the empty stomach makes itself felt. Do you recognize yourself?
So let's figure out whether you need to have breakfast in the morning or whether you can do without the first meal, and also figure out what you can and cannot eat in the morning, so that an important meal does not go to waste.
Why you need to have breakfast in the morning, and the dangers of low-quality food
I believe that some statements that it is not necessary to eat in the morning are absurd. You need to have breakfast - and also thoroughly and thoughtfully, because this is the most important meal of the day! And now you can see this for yourself.
So why should you have breakfast? You shouldn't skip your first meal, if only for the reason that you won't be able to predict how your day will turn out. Sometimes it happens that during the day there is no time to eat. And if you skip breakfast, your body won’t get the energy it needs, and you won’t feel your best.
But most of us, even if we eat in the morning, do not do it right. Often it’s just tea or sweet coffee with buns, croissants, gingerbread, sandwiches with white bread or pasta.
It seems that it looks normal and quite satisfying, but with this breakfast model we fuel our body with a lot of calories, sugar, fats and so-called fast carbohydrates.
Such food does not provide the body with vitamins, minerals, fiber and proteins.
That is, our main meal is fast-carbohydrate. The following happens in the body: the blood sugar level rises quite quickly and significantly above normal. Next, the brain understands that this is not good and instructs the pancreas to produce insulin.
Insulin then neutralizes excess sugar in the blood. By the way, if a person has a sedentary lifestyle and is not engaged in physical labor, then this sugar is simply converted into fat deposits.
When blood sugar drops, a feeling of hunger sets in, a person may even feel slightly sick, and a feeling of fatigue occurs. This phenomenon is also called carbohydrate hunger. People who seemed to have had a fairly hearty breakfast not so long ago are again in a hurry to refresh themselves. For example, they came to work, sat down to have tea, with sweets, chocolates, buns... This is already perceived as a familiar ritual, as the norm.
But in reality this is not normal. Fatigue and a quick feeling of hunger are a signal from your body:
You got me in the wrong place! You had the wrong breakfast!
And such swings are repeated often during the day. Remember how many times a day you drink sweet tea and refresh yourself? It is the fact that you leave the house without a normal breakfast that can largely cause problems with blood pressure and excess weight, and this is the first step to diabetes!
Therefore, think about your lifestyle and diet. It is better to prevent a disease than to be treated for it for the rest of your life. This applies not only to diabetes, but also to stomach problems.
Why it is necessary and important to have breakfast: the benefits of a healthy snack
Imagine your body after sleep - metabolism slows down, and it urgently needs to be brought back to life. To do this, we need to eat something healthy and nutritious - this will allow us to prevent hunger in the pre-lunch hours and speed up our metabolism.
Now let’s remember how most of us see breakfast - sausage and bun, greasy scrambled eggs and ham with the obligatory mug of coffee and other joys of life. The first meal of the day should not be like this - this is a real blow to our body, which will not saturate it, but only irritate it. The result of such an ineptly planned snack is heaviness in the stomach and a quickly arising feeling of hunger.
In order to be healthy, strong and slim, it is important to start eating healthy - it is not as difficult as most of us think. The benefits that regular breakfasts bring are enormous:
- Losing weight instead of gaining weight - the facts remain facts: the metabolism of those who eat in the morning is better and faster than that of those who do not eat anything in the hope of a quick snack before lunch. Those who fast in the early hours have a metabolic rate that is 5-6% slower than it should be. Think about it: you yourself are causing your body to work incorrectly, but you could help it. Many will object - how to force yourself to eat something if you don’t even want a drop of poppy dew? However, the “carbohydrate hangover” is only our fault. Try to stop being content with “elephant” portions for dinner, start your day with a proper breakfast and see what happens.
- Taking care of the health of the cardiovascular system - your heart also needs the necessary supply of vitamins and amino acids. Researchers say that a proper and healthy morning breakfast is good not only for weight loss, but also for reducing blood cholesterol and platelet levels. So starting the day right will be an excellent protection against heart attacks and strokes. Brew yourself oatmeal, cook aromatic buckwheat, a delicious omelet or eat a fruit salad - such an awakening will allow you to remain full and energetic for a long time.
- Helping our brain - the specialists of the Slavic Clinic know the answer to the question why breakfast is so important - the energy received from food helps us concentrate and better absorb information. The performance of a person who skips a morning snack will be much lower than that of his colleague who preferred aromatic oatmeal to the empty stomach a few hours after sleep. Do you want to perform your own responsibilities more efficiently? Eat breakfast right and you will quickly achieve success. The ideal option would be “complex” carbohydrates – whole grain bread or cereal.
- A shield that protects us from stressful situations - if you eat right and eat only healthy foods for breakfast, you will not have to worry about any difficulties that await you during the day. The body will find the strength to cope with them if you give it the necessary recharge.
- Strengthening the immune system – eating a morning meal containing prebiotics and fiber helps fight off infections and keeps our immune system in good shape. We recommend starting the day with cereals; be sure to choose not sublimates in bags, but fully cooked porridges. Add to them sources of essential coarse fiber - seasonal fruits. That's all: your delicious and healthy breakfast is ready.
- A unique way to wake yourself up - the body, having received a recharge in the form of a healthy breakfast, will start working much earlier, and it will be easier for you to wake up and get ready for the work day.
In addition, regular meals in the morning are also a real key to beauty and health. Timely satiation protects us from sudden attacks of hunger and accumulation of calories, and amino acids and vitamins obtained from food prevent premature aging - along with the desired slimness, you receive a charge of youth and strength.
But in order to have breakfast correctly, it is important not only to realize the need for an early snack, but also to understand which foods can be eaten in the morning and which cannot. For example, many people’s favorite scrambled eggs with fatty sausage or bacon are not the best start to the day. How to create a menu without annoying mistakes? Come to us. The Slavyanskaya Clinic employs a nutritionist of the highest category who is ready to help you create a healthy diet aimed at overall strengthening the body and reducing body weight. At the same time, we do not force you to give up your favorite foods - we give you the opportunity to lose weight simply, effectively, without breakdowns and hatred of a new diet.
Should you eat breakfast in the morning to lose weight? Yes, and you won’t get any other answer to this question. A hearty and healthy snack will help you avoid the hunger that you may feel at work, and will also eliminate the desire to buy a unhealthy hamburger or fries before lunch, which will further distance you from your goal. The result of regular and proper nutrition according to the programs offered by the Slavic Clinic is freedom from overeating and new kilograms, refusal of fast food products, a new healthy and slender life. Come to us to lose weight without harming yourself, and we will tell you which dish will be an excellent start to the day.
What's the best thing to eat for breakfast?
People often ask the question - “What is the best thing to eat for breakfast to feel alert and energetic throughout the day?” On the Internet or on television they often try to sell us another morning super system. How many nutritional bars and cereals are advertised that supposedly can replace a full breakfast!
So what should a proper breakfast be like so that the body receives all the necessary nutrients? The answer is simple: food intake should be balanced, that is, contain proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and fiber. I found products that contained all the useful elements to the maximum.
Cereals
Remember the famous: “Soup soup and porridge are our food!” Our ancestors were in many ways wiser than us, so even today we can’t live without porridge. But it must be from whole grains. The “pour boiling water over it, eat it, run away” option is not for a healthy diet. The porridge needs to be cooked!
Cereals are sold for every taste: there is the well-known oatmeal, buckwheat, rice, barley, semolina, millet, pearl barley, pea - there is a large choice. They contain fiber, healthy carbohydrates and group vitamins.
Dairy products
A healthy breakfast is cottage cheese and dishes made from it. There are also a lot of cooking options. It can be sweet, with berries or honey, or maybe with dill, for example - as you like. This product is rich in fats and proteins that the body needs.
By the way, you are aware that a whole campaign has launched online against eating yoghurt and other fermented milk products in the morning. They say there is no benefit, they make the stomach bloat and bloat, and bifidobacteria, when they get into the stomach, are not digested. Complete game! For that matter, it is the intestines, not the stomach, that digests food.
I am telling you this based on my life experience. My grandparents started their mornings with kefir, lived to be 94 years old and did not complain about their health or bloating. In the Caucasus or Bulgaria, sour milk in the morning is normal. They live, may God grant us to live this long! The only condition is to look at the composition. There should be as little dyes, preservatives and other chemicals as possible.
And yes, good, high-quality cheese is an ideal product for your morning diet. But again, look at the ingredients. Today's cheeses on the shelves are often not even next to milk, and consist entirely of palm oil.
Meat
Contrary to the cries of Herbalife sellers and other bullshit, I will undertake to assert that chicken is an excellent, affordable and easily digestible source of animal protein, which we simply need! Because plant protein alone cannot satisfy the body's needs.
Fish is one of the best breakfast options! You can and should eat any of it. In the morning it is better to eat boiled or baked. It is good both as an independent dish and as part of sandwiches. A thin piece of any red fish, and with whole grain bread – beauty!
Fruits and berries
A healthy breakfast can include fruits, which serve as a source of vitamins, minerals, and various beneficial microelements, pectins and enzymes. You can, for example, just whip up a couple of apples, or you can prepare a delicious and nutritious fruit salad and top it with natural yogurt. You can add porridge - there are a lot of options, it all depends on your taste.
Berries, both fresh in season and frozen, are a source of large amounts of vitamins and minerals. Very easy to digest and simply necessary for normal intestinal function. They are good either separately or as part of a suitable dish, such as cottage cheese or porridge.
What else nutritious can you eat for breakfast? Smoothie! By and large, this is a classic milkshake. The only difference is that the main ingredients in a smoothie are berries, fruits or vegetables. We mixed everything we needed in a blender and got a large amount of vitamins and antioxidants.
Sweet additives
Honey can be consumed separately, a few spoons, or can be included in breakfast dishes, for example, in cottage cheese or porridge. It will saturate you with energy and help fight various harmful bacilli, viruses and bacteria. A friend from work replaced sugar with honey and began to feel much more energetic. Have you seen at least one sick beekeeper? :)
Dark chocolate will also be useful in the morning, provided that it is natural, and can be included in your morning meals. Good, high-quality chocolate promotes the production of endorphins - joy hormones that are responsible for a good mood.
It has long been known that it stimulates brain function. But, of course, you shouldn’t get carried away with this delicacy; it’s better to eat it at the end of breakfast, so to speak, for dessert - you won’t be full with carbohydrates alone.
Other
What else is healthy to eat for breakfast? Nuts! They are like batteries that can charge the body with energy. You can use them on their own, or as part of porridge, for example.
Eggs are also simply necessary in the morning diet: they are the source of the most easily digestible protein for the body! They also contain zinc, iron, calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium. Stories about terrible and harmful cholesterol in chicken eggs are not true. Many may not know, but they were rehabilitated! Hooray!
Whole grain bread is also extremely healthy because, like cereals, it contains a large amount of fiber, B vitamins, and mineral salts. I once read the composition of a white loaf - my jaw dropped, how many additives, improvers and other obscenities there were. Whole grain is preferable in this regard.
What about vegetables for breakfast? They are very rich in plant fiber, which is vital for the normal functioning of the entire gastrointestinal tract. They will perfectly complement a fish or meat dish. Another option is boiled or stewed vegetables.
As you can see, breakfast can and should be varied, tasty and healthy. In addition, the products that I brought are suitable for any budget. They certainly don’t cost more than toilet paper sausages.
Now you know what the best thing to eat for breakfast is to get all the nutrients you need and stay energized throughout the day. The main thing is to remember the composition of the products.
Unfortunately, there is so much information slag around that some people get a little lost. There are some huge lists of prohibited foods that you should never eat in the morning. Incomprehensible, far-fetched hypotheses arise, according to which it is harmful to eat, say, oatmeal on an empty stomach! What kind of nonsense is this?
What not to eat for breakfast
I must immediately make a reservation that the concepts “eaten at breakfast” and “on an empty stomach” are different things. But, unfortunately, they are often confused, which is why numerous disputes arise and conflicting recommendations are born.
Let me give you an example: you wake up and drink a glass of orange juice on an empty stomach. This can harm you, although juice is a storehouse of vitamins, and everyone knows it. And if you drink it, but, for example, after a portion of oatmeal, then in this case it will only be beneficial.
Below we will discuss exactly what you should not eat on an empty stomach. And since after sleep we experience a feeling of hunger, because all the food has been digested during the night, we can call this list this way: what not to eat for breakfast.
- Not only the orange juice I have already mentioned, but all citrus fruits contain acids (citric, malic, malonic, oxalic, tartaric, succinic, adipic, lactic, etc.), which can cause irritation of the gastric mucosa. If you eat citrus juice for breakfast, it can lead to gastritis. In addition, with such a morning meal, you can develop a rather severe allergy.
- The advertising did its best and formed a strong opinion in us that there can be no harm from quick breakfasts (cereals, kashkek-minutes). However, they contain a lot of fast carbohydrates and flavoring additives that are quickly digested. As a result, when you are hungry, you will snack at work or at lunch and eat much more than your body needs.
- Sandwiches with sausage also do not provide any benefit. All sausages are products of the chemical industry, and, as you yourself understand, there is practically no meat in them. But it’s full of chemicals: dyes, thickeners, preservatives and other obscenities. This is a blow for the body; in the morning it is not ready to fight this chemical bomb.
- Fresh vegetables contain acids that can irritate the stomach lining if eaten on an empty stomach. In the future and with constant use, a person may experience gastritis, duodenitis, and some may experience heartburn. Therefore, it’s better not to eat cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers early in the morning :)
- Coffee on an empty stomach can harm the stomach, pancreas, and cardiovascular system; it is better to drink it after a full meal.
- It is undesirable to drink cold water and carbonated drinks in the morning: they slow down blood circulation and, as a result, worsen digestion.
- Eating sweets in the morning won’t lead to anything good either. A lot of sugar is harmful to the pancreas, which has not yet started working at full capacity in the morning, just like the rest of the body.
- Sweet potatoes (or yams) also contain a lot of sugar. If you eat sweet potato on an empty stomach, it can cause bloating and increased gas production, and who wants that?
- To digest a piece of red meat, the body needs to expend a lot of energy, and in the morning, when it is not yet fully awake, it is difficult to do this. And it often happens that after eating a chop for breakfast, a person walks around in a half-asleep and lethargic state for half a day.
- Persimmon on an empty stomach can cause an astringent effect, which, in turn, can disrupt the digestion process for the whole day.
- Spices, herbs, and spicy foods can also irritate the walls of the stomach and cause various disorders.
Some of you were probably surprised by what you shouldn't eat for breakfast in the morning. Who would have thought that freshly squeezed juices and vegetables, which usually benefit us, can harm us if consumed on an empty stomach.
But I would like to emphasize that all people are very different. Someone may say: “I’ve been eating sausage for breakfast all my life and I feel fine” - and this is true. But another person will end up with an ulcer after a month of such breakfasts.
In Mongolia, breakfast is a dish of boiled lamb with a high fat content. In Peru, in the morning they eat fresh sea fish marinated in the juice of some citrus fruit, and for them this is normal and natural. It has been this way for centuries.
This suggests that there are only some very general recommendations. It is worth paying attention to them so as not to harm yourself with a frivolous attitude towards the most important meal.
A hearty breakfast: benefit or harm
It's time to remember: for health and slimness you need to eat in small portions. The more abundant the food you consume in the morning, the higher the risk of becoming addicted to overeating and filling your stomach to capacity instead of giving it only the essentials in accordance with the norm.
The ideal breakfast dish is not greasy scrambled eggs with sausages, but porridge rich in fiber, vitamins and microelements. It contains a lot of “slow” carbohydrates, which allow us not to feel hungry for a long time. In addition, this distribution of calories allows you to evenly divide the remaining calories into subsequent meals - it will turn out much more honestly and healthier than if you overeat in the morning and then refuse lunch and dinner.
