Eat breakfast like a king, Lunch like a prince and Dinner like a pauper is an old saying, and how true. Our body has gone without food for 10 to 12 hours during our sleep. To kick start our system and provide for depleting reserves of energy our breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It increases our metabolism and improves the alertness levels.

It is advised that breakfast should be consumed within 2 hours of waking and should meet around 20 to 25% of our daily calorie needs. However care should be taken that our breakfast is healthy and does not contains empty or sweet calories. The nutritious first meal of the day restores glucose level and provide for energy for the day.

People who skip breakfast start their day in low BMR, high fat storing way. They feel deprived of energy and eat disproportionately high calories in lunch or worse at dinner. As most physical activities are during the day time, if they would have consumed breakfast, it could have been burnt properly. They feel unable to concentrate on vital tasks and are irritable.

Healthy breakfast offers many advantages like it improve memory, concentration and lifts the mood. In addition to these there are many other health benefits like weight control, diabetes risk reduction, improvement in performance and in heart diseases. Here is a brief look at some of the studies discussing the benefits of breakfast:

1. Weight Reduction

According to a 1992 study published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition done on moderately obese women, it was found that after 12 weeks treatment the breakfast eaters lost 8.9 kg compared to the breakfast skippers who lost 6.2 kg. This suggests that eating breakfast helped reduce dietary fat and minimize impulsive snacking and therefore may be important part of a weight-reduction program.

In addition to healthy breakfast see other Steps to Easy Weight Loss

2. Diabetes

American Diabetes Association suggests eating the largest meal of the day at breakfast and the smallest at dinner may help people with type-2 diabetes to better control their blood glucose.

Research has shown that glucose levels rise in response to food differently at certain times of day. Blood glucose levels will rise higher and remain so for longer period than if the same meals are eaten in breakfast.

3. Heart Diseases

In a large study with 16 years follow up, published by National Institute of Health, it was found that men who skipped breakfast had a 27% higher risk of heart diseases as compared to men who did not. Thus concluding that eating breakfast was associated with lower risk of coronary heart disease.

4. Memory

A research by Department of Psychology, Tufts University examined the effects of breakfast on cognitive performance of school children. Results suggest that performance on most measures was enhanced by breakfast consumption and that the composition of breakfast also influenced cognitive performance in children, like short term memory and auditory attention. Results also suggest that breakfast composition may affect younger children more dramatically.

In addition to the above there are countless studies that indicate the benefits of healthy breakfast that is high on nutrient. It will give more strength and endurance for physical activity during the day. It has been observed that people who skip breakfast are most prone to snacking and usually eat more lunch.

Healthy breakfast should be low fat, balanced in carbohydrates, but rich in protein as it easily blunts hunger and keep you energized for long time. It may also contain both refined cereals and whole grains. Some of the good healthy breakfast ideas could be:

• Oatmeal – Rich in fiber, omega-3 fatty acids.
• Yogurt smoothies – Add some fruits. Loaded with calcium and proteins.
• Bananas – Eat on the go. High protein, rich in potassium
• Eggs – Boiled, scrambled, poached or omelet. Protein rich, low fat.
• Watermelon – Good to hydrate in morning. Negative calorie food.
• Whole-wheat bread – Rich in fiber.
• Poha, Upma or Steamed Idlis – Rich in fiber and tasty to eat

Also read: 10 Best Super Foods

It’s understandable that in today’s fast pace life we don’t have time for lavish breakfasts and usually people are quite rushed in the morning so they skip the first meal of the day some times out of busy schedule. But these few breakfast ideas that we have listed above won’t take much time to prepare and will be highly nutritious.

Start your day with high energy, more ability to concentrate and with low stress by making a habit to never skip this most important meal of the day. Don’t make any excuses and jump start your day with a power packed breakfast.

References:

1 Am J Clin Nutr. 1992 Mar

2 Circulation. 2013 Jul, 23

3 Physiology & Behavior 85 (2005)