Breakfast is often dubbed as the most important meal of the day. After a good night’s sleep, one’s body is famished and will need nourishment. So a breakfast meal helps the body recharge and re-energize.
Despite the importance of breakfast, many still skip it, intentional or not. In the U.S., 25 percent of individuals skip breakfast every day.
There are plenty of reasons people don’t eat breakfast. Someone who woke up late may skip breakfast to immediately start work at home or go to the office. They’d rather not eat than be marked tardy. Others don’t have an appetite early in the morning. Being busy is another common reason for skipping breakfast.
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Issues with Skipping Breakfast
It may seem trivial, but the mere act of skipping breakfast can be detrimental to one’s health.
Problems with Weight
Maintaining a healthy weight is important in keeping one’s overall health at its best. A healthy weight lowers a person’s risk of various diseases. Unfortunately, during the pandemic, more people started gaining weight. APA found that 42 percent of Americans with weight changes gained weight since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
When someone skips breakfast, their metabolism starts to slow down. Slow metabolism increases the risk of excess weight gain. In a 2013 study, researchers found that people who ate late are more likely to skip breakfast. And these late eaters are also less likely to succeed in their weight loss journey.
Also, if one doesn’t eat breakfast, they are more likely to have some cravings during the afternoon or the evening. Often, cravings are difficult to control. So someone might eat more than they should and, thus, gain weight quickly.
Higher Stress Levels
Along with weight, one thing that many people also gained because of the pandemic is stress. This is normal since the pandemic created a lot of uncertainty and changed people’s lifestyles drastically. High levels of stress can affect one’s physical health. It can result in headaches, body pain, inability to sleep, and many others.
A person is at a higher risk of getting stressed when they skip breakfast. One study on females found that breakfast skippers have higher levels of cortisol than those who ate breakfast.
Higher Risk of Heart Disease
Skipping breakfast is also linked to heart problems. In one study, people who didn’t eat breakfast were at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease-related death than people who ate breakfast regularly.
As mentioned earlier, people who skip breakfast are more likely to gain excess weight. This eventually leads to obesity, which then leads to heart-related problems such as diabetes, hypertension, and high blood pressure.
Certainly, skipping breakfast in itself can’t be the only reason for heart disease. Many factors can contribute to it. For example, people who don’t visit their dental clinic regularly for dental cleaning and consultation may develop chronic oral infections that affect heart health. A bad diet also greatly contributes to heart disease. Nonetheless, the link between skipping breakfast and heart disease can’t be ignored.
Tricks to Avoid Skipping Breakfast
Given the risk of not eating breakfast, one should make an effort to ensure that they can eat the first meal of the day diligently.
- Prepare Meal Beforehand. Since most people say they’re too busy to eat breakfast, they can instead prepare it beforehand. They can prepare their breakfast the night before. Or they can do a meal prep on weekends. This way, even if a person is rushing off to work, they can just grab their meal and eat on their way to the office or eat as soon as they arrive.
- Don’t Limit the Menu. Many think that they should only eat conventional breakfast food in the morning. So when they don’t have the ingredients available, they choose to skip the meal entirely. But one’s breakfast doesn’t always have to be eggs, bacon, and bread. They can try light snacks that can be a breakfast meal, such as yogurt or a granola bar.
- Exercise in the Morning. Another trick to ensure that one eats their breakfast is by working out in the morning. Not only does this practice keep a person healthy. It can also help the person work up an appetite and be more excited for breakfast, rather than ignoring it.
Skipping meals is never a good idea. But skipping breakfast might be even more dangerous than skipping other meals. Someone who’s used to not eating in the morning may have difficulty changing their habit. But if they understand the health risks that come with skipping breakfast, they may become more motivated to train themselves to eat in the morning.