Breakfast – the first meal of your day with which you start eating after fasting the whole night! Among the three meals you have in a day, your breakfast is of the most importance. You start the activities of a hectic day after eating your breakfast. So the amount of energy that you draw from your breakfast will impact on your work performance right from the first work item you need to address for the day.
Your body needs rest at the end of the day. On average, we sleep for 7 to 8 hours each night. This gives your body the strength to regain energy for the coming day. Even dreaming during your sleep is going to consume energy. Dreaming is a process that increases your rate of metabolism and therefore your body expends more energy.
There is food stored in your body for deriving energy when you do not get your food at the scheduled time. This is in the form of body fat or glucose. Glucose is stored in the muscles and hepatic tissues. The hepatic stores could be used for muscle glycogen, but muscle glycogen cannot store the hepatic substances. As you sleep, you use your body fat and a part of your body’s glycogen to re-fuel!
You may now wonder – what exactly should you eat for your breakfast? As your body uses up all the food as you sleep during the night, you must get up and give your body ample food. As your glycogen level goes down after the night’s sleep, you could choose to have some carbohydrates on your breakfast table. As you pick your carbohydrates, go for some whole grained, low glycemic supplements. Try to avoid bleached carbohydrates. You should include whole grain breads and oatmeal in your breakfast since foods like these do not cause an insulin spurt and are easily absorbed into your blood stream.
If you are wondering about the importance of protein in your breakfast, then you are heading the right way. A well balanced breakfast should also have enough protein along with fats. But if you exercise with high intensity, your body may not be able handle the fats in your breakfast, so reduce the amount of fat to be consumed correspondingly.
There are a lot of people who skip breakfast which could be harmful for your body. Breakfast is as important to your body as is sleep, and skipping your breakfast on a regular basis would weaken your body gradually.
In fact, a lot of health practitioners advise that breakfast should be the heaviest meal of your day. But then, some people find it difficult to eat too much in the morning, possibly because of a heavy and late dinner. Try to reduce the amount of food that you consume for your dinner. If you still find it difficult to eat a substantial breakfast in the morning, you may consult a dietitian for the right choice of food. However, you should remember that a healthy breakfast is one which has optimum amount of fats and proteins in it.
