Do we still need breakfast?
Experts debate the food issue of the day
What gets you going in the morning? A warm croissant? Eggs over easy? Or, like a third of UK adults, are you strictly nil by mouth until noon?
Many of us were raised on the old adage that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Endless studies have shown that breakfast increases satiety, reduces obesity, improves diet quality, stabilises blood sugar levels and improves insulin sensitivity, lowering the risk of developing type-2 diabetes and heart disease.
But over the past decade, the rise of intermittent fasting and a wave of new research has challenged these long-held beliefs, disputing notions that skipping breakfast will lead to gorging on calorific quick fixes and increase obesity.
With so much conflicting information, we asked the experts to tackle the great breakfast debate…
YES BREAKFAST BOOSTS HEALTH AND HAPPINESS
‘Breakfast kick-starts your digestion, supplying your body with a burst of nutrients – B vitamins and calcium – to support metabolism, and activates your “mass movement”, helping to keep you regular,’ says Dr Megan Rossi, aka The Gut Health Doctor. ‘Studies
show that those who have a wellbalanced breakfast have better focus and brain power throughout the day.
‘It’s also a great opportunity to meet your dietary fibre needs. We need 30g of fibre a day but most of us struggle to get 20g. One study showed that an 8g increase in fibre per day reduces your risk of heart disease by 19% and type-2 diabetes by 15%.
‘Clinical trials also show that highfibre diets promote better mental health and lower risk of depression. This reflects the two-way communication between our gut and brain. When the bacteria in our gut eat fibre, they produce short-chain fatty acids that send positive messages to our brain.’
NO TWO MEALS A DAY IS MORE SATISFYING
‘We’re told that eating breakfast revs up metabolism and is a simple way to control weight. But is it true?’ asks Dr Michael Mosley, founder of The Fast 800.
A study of 300 overweight volunteers asked breakfast skippers to eat breakfast and breakfast eaters to skip it. After 16 weeks, they had lost roughly the same weight.
‘The research concluded that eating breakfast “had no discernible effect on weight loss”,’ says Michael.
‘What we know is that intermittent fasting is beneficial for our overall health. It can improve memory, decrease inflammation, lengthen life-expectancy, as well as improve glucose regulation, blood pressure, heart rate, and abdominal fat loss. Even reverse type-2 diabetes.
‘Time-restricted eating is straightforward: for at least 12 hours, you do not consume any calories.
‘Most adults eat for about 15 hours throughout the day, which does not leave enough time for cell repair.
The long-term health effects of this can be disastrous, loading the body with chronic physiological stress.’
The number of times we eat per day is important, too. A study showed that the same number of calories eaten over six small meals or two bigger meals resulted in more weight loss for the latter.
‘The two-meal group also felt more satisfied and less hungry than those eating little and often,’ says Michael.
WHAT TIME SHOULD YOU ‘BREAK YOUR FAST’?
Many nutritionists recommend eating within two hours of waking to kick-start your metabolism. One study by Forza Supplements even pin-pointed 7.11am as the optimum time to chow down.
However, Megan and Michael agree that it depends on the individual – whether you feel better sticking to an eight-hour eating window for the full benefits of intermittent fasting, or eat as soon as you wake to feel energised and keep you out of the biscuit barrel!