Why is breakfast so important?

[Gillian]

Exactly why is breakfast so important? I prefer to eat something at 11 ish rather than at 7.30 when I get up. I find I'm simply not hungry as soon as I wake up. So if I'm not hungry what is the point of force feeding myself?

[phillips-fit]

Breakfast is so important for several reasons, the main one being that your body has gone for 9 or more hours without any nutrient intake. It's important to break this "fast" (hence breakfast) to kickstart your body with the nutrients it needs to keep your metabolism from slowing down.

You should ideally eat within the first 30mins of waking up to avoid these catabolic affects. A slowing down of the metabolism can result in lean tissue (muscle) loss and an increase in body fat, this coupled with the natural loss of lean tissue and increase in body fat as we age (approx 1/2lb muscle lost and 1-2lb of fat gained each year causing a 3-5% reduction in basal metabolic rate) over a prolonged period of time your body fat percentage increases leading to an unhealthy level.

Not many people feel like eating as soon as they wake up, you don't need to sit down to a huge fry up. :eek: If you can manage an apple with a small handful of sunflower seeds and a few walnuts that would do the trick! A veggie omelette would be ideal.

If you are concerned about maintaining a healthy body composition please avoid the "high carb camp" of breakfast cereals, jam on toast and instant porridge as these will create rapid raises in blood sugar causing huge insulin release which will lead to overeating throughout the day, mid afternoon fatigue and fat gain. See research on this at: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/103/3/e26