The health benefits of eating breakfast extend throughout your day, making it the most important meal of the day. Consuming a good, hearty breakfast is like priming a pump, to help your body get ready for a full day’s worth of activity. Not only does the first meal of the day heat up your metabolism to better burn calories, studies show that the effects of this “jump start” help keep the metabolism working at a higher rate throughout the day. Blood sugar levels rise up and remain higher longer, instead of having a quick drop off that might be generated by eating just high sugar content breakfast snack foods. Skipping this important meal does you no good at all. You will be hungry sooner, eat more later, and not have the good energy to function efficiently.
Additional health benefits of eating breakfast include an increased ability to use your brain, an excellent idea for those younger ones who need to pay attention at school. Some dieters have found that they have better success by flipping their food intake, having dinner for breakfast and typical breakfast foods for dinner. The higher caloric intake at the breakfast meal allows the body to function better all day, and the impact of a good breakfast helps the body become less hungry at later meals. The body can burn off the higher calorie levels all day long, instead of having food sit idle at night, turning into fat with inactivity. Calories burn faster in the morning, following the breakfast meal, and the body metabolism slows down near nighttime.
Being able to eat more food is another of the health benefits of eating breakfast. You can actually eat more with a good balanced breakfast followed by a moderate lunch and lighter dinner. People who skip breakfast eat more snacks during the day, and have heavier meals later. It is easier to incorporate protein, fiber and fruit into typical breakfasts. Breakfast eaters exercise more because they have the energy to do so, making personal fitness a by-product of eating healthy breakfast meals.
Tangible health benefits of eating breakfast include a boost in concentration, energy and productivity levels. Eating high fiber breakfast foods like cereal, fruit, grains, nuts, and yogurt are lower calorie than snack foods like doughnuts or sweet rolls. They give you needed bulk in your diet, last longer, help you feel full and less hungry longer. High protein breakfast foods like eggs, milk, and meats are good breakfast foods, but watch out for the fats like butter and cream cheese. Always take fats in moderation.
Eating breakfast will improve your overall nutrition, and help reduce the risk of heart disease and regulate cholesterol. Breakfast is important to body metabolism by breaking the fast of sleep time; long term fasting does not allow you to produce the enzymes needed to metabolize fat to lose weight. Extensive studies on this topic have been done by researchers at the Cleveland (OH) Mayo Clinic and Harvard University/Massachusetts General Hospital.
