Breakfast, you’re still our number one

A recent article that appeared in the wellness section of the New York Times questioned one of the time honoured pillars of nutritional philosophy by stating that breakfast is not, in fact, the most important meal of the day and that skipping breakfast is OK.

I’m skeptical.

Before I continue, I should probably fess up; I’m a breakfast-eater. In fact, breakfast is my favourite meal of the day. I say favourite, not most important, because I believe in eating frequently throughout the day and that all meals should be viewed as nutritionally important. But I do love breakfast and have been known to have ‘breakfast’ for lunch or dinner as well. I’ve always resented omelettes being relegated solely to the morning.

I’m an active individual. I’ll also admit that sometimes I head out the door for my morning run without having a bite (depletion runs are a thing), but you can be sure I’m eager for it when I get back. If I wait too long to have breakfast (I don’t actually have a memory of ever skipping it entirely), I’m cranky and light-headed – not a good combo. When I’m at home, breakfast is a meal that I eat with my family, at school, with one of my housemates.

The author of the Times article, Gretchen Reynolds, cites a study by the University of Alabama, which focused on 300 volunteers who were trying to lose weight. The group was divided into three, with one group always skipping breakfast, one always eating it and the last continuing on with their normal habits.

Reynolds summary of the results of the study are as follows: “Sixteen weeks later, the volunteers returned to the lab to be weighed. No one had lost much, only a pound or so per person, with weight in all groups unaffected by whether someone ate breakfast or skipped it.”

That doesn’t sound like much of a reason to downgrade the morning meal to me.

The other study that Reynolds makes mention of was conducted by the University of Bath. In this case, 33 participants were randomly assigned to either skip or eat breakfast. Their activity was then monitored. It was found that the after six weeks, little had changed about the participants data; their weight, cholesterol and metabolic rates were about the same as at the beginning. However, the breakfast eaters had notably higher activity levels, as they moved around more in the morning than the skippers.

Again, that doesn’t seem to be much of anything to me. Though I thought the fact that breakfast-eaters are more active was interesting, as many studies have recognized the important of avoiding sedentariness, even if one isn’t ‘working out.’

While Gretchen Reynolds didn’t touch on it in her own article, there has also been extensive research done on the importance of eating breakfast. A 2013 study by the Harvard School of Public Health found that men who skipped breakfast had a 27 per cent higher chance of experiencing a heart attack than those who routinely ate breakfast. This study followed 26,902 men aged 45-82. Of this group, 1,572 of the men experienced cardiac events. After the researchers accounted for physical activity, smoking or other lifestyle factors, there was still a clear correlation between skipping breakfast and heart disease.

Other research from Penn Nursing showed that children who did not eat breakfast scored lower in verbal, performance and IQ testing situations than those that ate breakfast. The data was collected from 1,269 six-year-olds and indicates that for those headed into a learning or working environment, a morning meal is an important brain boost.

For athletes, breakfast has extra importance. As a runner, it is vital to provide one’s body with fuel for the day and the nutrition to recover from and prepare for workouts. You can bet the elites aren’t skipping out on fuelling up in the AM (click here for a cool article about what Olympians eat in the morning). Plus, post-long run brunch is one of the best things that running ever invented.

So, I had breakfast this morning and will tomorrow. How about you?