Breakfast has long been regarded as the most important meal of the day, and its purported benefits have grown to include weight management. However, it turns out that eating breakfast to avoid overeating later may be bad advice.
Breakfast has long been regarded as the most important meal of the day, and its purported benefits have grown to include weight management. However, it turns out that eating breakfast to avoid overeating later in the day may be bad advice.
According to David Allison, dean of the Indiana University School of Public Health at Bloomington, who has conducted research on the subject, whether we eat or skip breakfast has "minimal discernible effect on body weight." "At this point, the results appear to be quite clear."
So, how did it become common knowledge that eating breakfast is good for our waistlines, and why does this belief still hold sway? The makers of cereal, the quintessential breakfast food, deserve a lot of credit.
Beginning in the early twentieth century, C.W. Post, an American cereal maker and food manufacturer, elevated breakfast's status with advertisements touting Grape-Nuts' ability to do everything from help children grow to boost adults' brain power.
In her book Three Squares: The Invention of the American Meal, food historian Abigail Carroll writes, "Because of his innovative promotional techniques, Post's influence on the morning meal... was profound." Not only did Post's advertising influence what people ate, but it also influenced what they expected breakfast to do for their health.
By the 1950s, Grape-Nuts advertisements extolled the product's alleged weight-loss properties. One advertisement, for example, depicted a young woman smiling and holding a sexy dress against her thin body while a larger woman glared jealously at her. Another stated that "the slimmest weight watchers just happen to eat Post Grape-Nuts."
The theme was continued in a Grape-Nuts ad campaign from the 1960s, which featured a woman named Caroline Burke and her teenage daughter, Dale, who looked exactly like her mother. The iconic TV commercial featured a young man inadvertently grabbing Caroline in the pool and exclaiming, "Oh, no, Mrs. Burke. "I mistook you for Dale!" What's her secret to staying so trim? Breakfast of Grape-Nuts and exercise
In the decades since, the Kellogg Company has used advertisements for Special K to reinforce the message about breakfast and weight. People of a certain age may recall the "pinch an inch" commercials. "If you can pinch an inch" off your waist — and who can't? — "the Kellogg's Special K breakfast may help you lose weight," one expert says.
Similarly, the Special K Challenge ad campaign promised that eating the cereal for breakfast and one other meal per day could result in a six-pound or jeans-size loss in two weeks. Kellogg could point to published research that backs up the claim — research that the company helped fund.
Cereal manufacturers' financial support for breakfast-related studies is also likely to have influenced our perceptions of the morning meal. Breakfast eaters tend to weigh less than breakfast skippers, according to most studies. Some studies that did not receive industry funding yielded similar results. The issue is that many of these studies show only associations rather than cause and effect. It's possible that breakfast eaters are slimmer due to other lifestyle habits or characteristics that the study didn't take into account.
Sorting this out will necessitate randomized trials, or studies that can demonstrate cause and effect. And, in such studies, which randomly assign participants to either eat or skip breakfast, breakfast tends to fall short.
In 2019, Australian researchers found that participants assigned to eat breakfast did not lose more weight after pooling results from seven trials — a type of study known as a meta-analysis. They also did not consume fewer calories. Breakfast eaters consumed 260 more calories per day than breakfast skippers.
In a separate meta-analysis published in 2020 by Harvard researchers, people who skipped breakfast lost slightly more weight than those who ate breakfast.
"However, the evidence is not strong enough to recommend eating or skipping breakfast," says Harvard study senior author Marta Guasch-Ferré.
One limitation of all of this research is that it only looks at whether or not people ate breakfast, not what or how much they ate. Having a massive stack of chocolate-chip pancakes for breakfast is not the same as having steel-cut oats with berries.
"It is unlikely that consuming a breakfast full of sugars, refined carbohydrates, and processed meat is a good strategy for overall health and weight management, and it may be better to skip breakfast than eat low-quality foods," Guasch-Ferré says. However, she adds that a healthy breakfast is "absolutely fine."
Carolyn O'Neil, a registered dietitian and author, advises people not to force themselves to eat in the morning if they aren't hungry.
If you do eat breakfast, she recommends "a combination of foods that will help nourish you as well as give you staying power."
This includes including protein, fiber, and fat to help you feel full. Sliced tomatoes and cheese on a whole-grain English muffin is one of O'Neil's favorites. Whole-wheat toast with peanut butter or scrambled eggs with lots of vegetables can also work.
According to O'Neil, the morning meal does not have to consist of traditional breakfast foods. It can include dinner leftovers.
If you choose sweet breakfast treats like doughnuts or pastries, she suggests limiting your portions and combining them with foods high in fiber and protein to avoid a blood sugar spike followed by a crash.
When shopping for cereal, look for brands that are high in fiber and low in sugar. If your favorite cereal isn't particularly nutritious, try combining it with one that is. "Think of it like a tossed salad," says O'Neil.
Coffee with breakfast can be part of a healthy breakfast (and protective against many diseases) as long as you don't overdo it or load it up with cream and sugar, according to research.
O'Neil recommends avoiding a large breakfast, which can make you feel sluggish. Instead, keep a healthy snack on hand, such as plain yogurt and nuts, to tide you over until lunch, if needed.
According to Allison, eating breakfast may have additional benefits such as increasing alertness, boosting mood, and improving metabolic health, though these effects, like weight control, are "not truly well-proven."
In the end, whether or not to eat breakfast is a personal choice based on your preferences and goals.
"Experiment with different things and see what works for you," Allison advises.
Robert J. Davis is the author of "Supersized Lies: How Weight Loss Myths Are Keeping Us Fat — and the Real Truth About What Works."
CLICK HERE TO LERAN MORE.... https://bit.ly/39ERqko