This week, we brought in our Nutrition Coach again to talk about breakfast! Our nutrition coach is Pn1 certified with Precision Nutrition.
Over and over again we hear that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You can find thousands of recipe ideas online from around the world. Every culture has their breakfast staples. Then, intermittent fasting became a big thing and people suddenly stopped eating breakfast. These people swear that they don’t need breakfast and that they feel better not eating the acclaimed meal. But, is there an importance with breakfast and are there any negatives with skipping it?
Yes and no.
It’s all in the name. Breakfast. Literally broken down into ‘breaking fast’. That is the original idea with the first meal of the day. It is meant to break your long fast from sleeping and starts your metabolism up again in the morning. Traditionally, we have a natural fast of about 10-12 hours because normally we are not eating right up until we go to sleep and most people don’t have their first meal right when they get up. However, this has changed drastically with the increased food availability and people traditionally sleeping less. The last time I asked a room how much they slept on average every night, it was not the recommended 8-10 hours. The majority of the group said 4-5 hours which means that they are probably only fasting for about 7-8 hours because they need more fuel because they are up longer. These shorter natural fasting times lead to people eating when they may not actually be that hungry but because of the notion that breakfast it super important, they eat when they get up when they could have waited for a few more hours.
How does intermittent fasting fit into all this? Intermittent fasting is the concept of playing with the natural fast in some form. It has nothing to do with what you are eating, it only involved your eating patterns. The most common is breaking up your eating and fasting times to 8 and 16 hours respectively. The second most common method is to eat how you normally do but then fast for 24 hours twice a week. These methods play with the human body’s natural evolution of being able to function for extended periods of time, like many apex hunters are. For example, wild lions are only successful about 22% of the time, that’s just over a 1 in 5. So, intermittent fasting fits in because you are still eating breakfast, you are just eating it at a later point in the day.
So far it sounds like breakfast isn’t really all that important. But, it is quite the opposite. The first meal you have, whether it’s at 6 am or 12 pm or 2pm, is very important. Since it is waking up your metabolism from your fast, nutritional value should be the priority. So the coffee and doughnut breakfast won’t cut it. You need a balanced meal that has healthy fats, carbs, and protein and is satisfying. You’re not eating just to tie you over for your commute to work or school before you eat something again. And you don’t need to make your meal complicated and take you a long time to make. Simple meals usually end up being the most nutritious because you aren’t over thinking it.
At the end of the day, it is about conscious and mindful eating. Are you really hungry or are you bored? Have a been drinking water? Is your meal balanced? Can you make it a little better?