Is Skipping Breakfast Bad For You?

Is breakfast really the most important meal of the day? How many of us deserve the berating we receive when people find out we skipped breakfast? What should we be eating at breakfast to fuel our day? How much of the advice we are given by our trusted sources on when and how often we should be eating can be trusted? Tom untangles the morass of conflicting information the headlines fling at us and focuses on the facts.   KEY TAKEAWAYS The nature of breakfast has changed over the years due to our ability to store food and prevent spoilage. Many cereals are now on offer but, as these are usually highly processed and therefore have a high G.I. (Glycaemic Index), this means they raise our blood sugar faster. The NHS says that skipping breakfast leaves us hungrier later in the day and can mean us making poorer food choices and eating more. However, a conglomeration of many studies published in the British Medical Journal on skipping breakfast found that most of them were biased or of such poor quality that they couldn’t be used. The remaining 11 studies found there was no evidence for this claim.  The ‘little and often’ school of thought to minimise spikes in insulin has very little reliable evidence to support it.  Social factors such as wealth have more impact on weight gain than whether someone has breakfast or not. There is also no evidence that breakfast helps concentration. It is best to decide independently on if you want to eat breakfast by listening to your own body.   BEST MOMENTS ‘If we ask 100 people what breakfast is we’ll probably get different answers depending on their age, lifestyle, and cultural background.’ ‘There’s barely a trace of any micronutrients (in cornflakes), meaning that Mr and Mrs Kellogg now have to fortify these starchy flakes with chemicals and vitamins.’ ‘Interestingly, the data actually showed the opposite with a lot of studies providing evidence that skipping breakfast could actually be a useful strategy to reduce weight.’ ‘It seems like nutritionists, doctors, perhaps some food industry professionals have, like the general public, not been doing their homework and allowed themselves to be misled by these headlines.’   VALUABLE RESOURCES https://youtube.com/channel/UCQXAka99a6MdZexeEJaMZbA https://m.facebook.com/elevatehealthuk/ https://www.elevatehealthuk.com/ https://instagram.com/elevate_healthuk?utm_medium=copy_link ABOUT THE HOST TOM BUTTERFIELD I have always been interested in sports, unfortunately injuries and poor training decisions curtailed my dream of becoming a professional football player. I have always been very passionate about helping people and I get a real kick out of seeing people improve and make progress towards a chosen goal or aspiration. I have been actively learning and implementing knowledge for over 20 years with the aim of improving the level of service I can offer to my clients. This has included formal qualifications such as: BSc (Hons) in Sports Sciences Masters in chiropractic PGDip in Diagnostic Medical (Musculoskeletal) Ultrasonography 14 years clinical experience helping tens of thousands of members of the public to improve their health and wellbeing. Unofficially I have digested countless information in the form of audiobooks, books, videos, seminars, and countless conversations with experts within the health and wellbeing niche. I aim for at least one hour a day. The day I stop learning is the day I pack up my stuff and go home.   CONTACT METHOD https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-butterfield-801ba515/ https://www.elevatehealthuk.com/ [email protected] [email protected] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.