Skipping Breakfast? 8 Reasons to Make You Think Twice Before You Do

Breakfast is literally the meal meant to ‘break the fast‘ from all the hours spent sleeping and it’s proven skipping it can cause a wave of bad chain reactions throughout the body, which can affect the outcome of your day.

I confess I’m not a breakfast person (or an early morning person), however I know too well the downside of running out of the house without so much as a slice of bread or hot drink in my system. So I’m learning to make more assertive decisions about fitting breakfast in; whether that be waking slightly earlier, or grabbing a quick bite on the go. As networkers, go-doers and get-a-headers, starting the day off to a good start both mentally and physically is instrumental in surviving any fight or flight situations we’re often faced with in our busy urban lifestyle.

So the next time you’re thinking about skipping breakfast, consider these 8 reasons…

The most important meal of the day…

1. Breakfast foods provide us with energy and are good sources of important nutrients such as calcium, iron and B vitamins, as well as protein and fibre. Research suggests if you miss these nutrients at breakfast they’re less likely to be compensated for later in the day.

2. There is evidence that eating breakfast can improve endurance exercise performance and jump-start your metabolism.

3. When you eat breakfast you’re telling your body that there are plenty of calories to be had for the day.

4. When you skip breakfast the message your body gets is that it needs to conserve rather than burn any incoming calories.

5. Eating breakfast might help the body regulate blood glucose concentrations. Skipping breakfast has been shown to increase high blood sugar following a meal in people with type 2 diabetes.

6. If you skip breakfast, you are likely to overeat at other meals or snack to keep energy levels up and hunger pains down.

7. A daily pass on breakfast can sabotage your diet and create conditions that lead to weight gain. Research shows those who eat breakfast are more likely to be within their ideal weight range compared with breakfast skippers. So actually breakfast can be good for the waistline too!

8. In general, those who eat breakfast have more energy, better concentration, and eat healthier throughout the day. Without breakfast, people can get irritable, restless, and tired.

Balanced meal: Breakfast foods provide us with energy and are good sources of important nutrients such as calcium, iron and B vitamins, as well as protein and fibre…

Breakfast on the go? Plan ahead to grab some fuel for thought… My to go place for breakfast is usually Gail’s Bakery which also doubles up for a few hours as my workstation for meetings or emails – making breakfast on the go is a treat as well as productive!