skipping breakfast

Skip Breakfast or Not? 4 Reasons it’s a Bad Idea

August 4, 2014 by James Bogash

There has been some confusion in the media lately when it comes to eating breakfast, suggesting that maybe we don’t really need to eat breakfast.

But rarely does the press report all aspects of a study, leading to confusion of the part of the public about what they should do. “First they tell us one thing, then they tell us another thing.” Not eating fish due to pesticides and avoiding fat are just two examples of messages that confuse the public.

That being said, this particular study looked at the effects of breakfast on a group of people ages 21-60 on several markers of health, including:

Resting metabolic rate
The amount of calories burned during physical activity
Caloric intake
Blood sugar responses to food

This group of participants were given either a daily breakfast (of at least 700 calories) before 11 AM or refrained from eating before noon for 6 weeks. The idea was to see if the common notion that breakfast “revs up” your metabolism was true or not. Here’s what they found:

Contrary to popular belief, there was change in the metabolic rate of those who ate breakfast.
There was actually a small increase in the amount of calories eaten in the breakfast group (539 calories per day).
There was no difference in body mass, fat mass or any markers of cardiovascular health.
However, the calories burned with exercise was quite a bit higher in the breakfast group (442 calories per day).
The breakfast group also had a slightly more stable blood glucose in the afternoon and evening by the final week of the study.

At first glance, it would seem that the breakfast group did not have much of an advantage over the group that skipped breakfast. While you may be surprised, I do have a few comments on this…

First of all, breakfast supplies your brain with the energy needed to function. If you do not feed your brain, it will use the hormone cortisol to break down muscle to provide glucose for the brain. This study was done over the course of 6 weeks. This is not long enough to follow the long-term damage caused by consistent, daily breakdown of muscle to replace the skipped breakfast.

Second, there was no mention at all about what types of foods were eaten for breakfast. Frosted Flakes for breakfast is going to have a much different effect on the body than whole grain bread with real peanut butter spread on top of it. I always steer patients towards a high fiber (6-7 grams or more) or protein-based breakfast (eggs, peanut butter, etc…). Processed junk for breakfast is likely not any better for you than skipping breakfast.

Third, creating a more stable afternoon blood sugar is going to prevent cravings in the afternoon and help you make wiser food choices for dinner.

Lastly, while the breakfast group did take in more calories for the day, this was almost offset by the better calorie-burning response to exercise. I would again point out that this was only a 6 week study and this is not enough time for patterns to fully change. It would be reasonable to surmise that eating breakfast would preserve more muscle mass which would, in turn, lead to more calorie burning during exercise. Given that it could take months to balance out the muscle-preserving effects of breakfast versus the muscle-destroying effects of skipping breakfast, it is likely that the effect on calories consumed and burning would favor the breakfast group over the course of months and years. But this cannot be shown from this study and is merely my educated opinion on the process.

Overall, I would never consider skipping breakfast for myself on a regular basis. In addition, ANY good parent would never let his or her child leave for school without eating a good quality breakfast. Shouldn’t that say it all?

Skipping Breakfast? Combine with This to Make it a Worse Decision

August 29, 2013 by James Bogash

Regular readers of the Rantings know that breakfast is not an option. Skip it to increase your risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

But some of you, despite this knowledge, seem to think that your physiology is different. Just because they create Sumo wrestlers with the “skip breakfast and lunch” diet plan does not mean it will happen to you.

And let’s face it. If I haven’t convinced you already of the need for breakfast you’re not going to change now. Of course, we’re not talking about refined carbohydrate, junk breakfasts like Quaker oatmeal or Cheerios or even a bagel. If covered good breakfast options in a recent blog post that can be read by clicking here.

Just in case you’re STILL not convinced, let me throw in another little nugget.

If you have children and breakfast is not a priority in your house, guess how important breakfast will be to them over the course of his or her lifetime? You guessed it. And just how important is it to you that little Johnny eats breakfast before heading off to school? It’s funny how many moms would never dream of sending her child off to school without eating, and yet is perfectly ok skipping it for herself.

Ok, I’m off my soapbox and we can get back to this particular study. Researchers looked at breakfast eating patterns in women (either infrequent at 0-6 times / week—basically NOT every day, or daily) and subsequent eating frequency over the rest of the day and how much it influenced diabetes risk. Here’s what they found:

Not eating daily breakfast increased risk of diabetes 28%.
Compared to eating 3 times/d, those who ate 1–2 times/d had a 9% elevated risk, 13% risk at 4–5 times/d and no elevated risk for women who ate more than 6 times/d.
However, among the irregular breakfast consumers, if they ate more than 4 times/d, their risk for diabetes jumped an impressive 47%.

So basically, if you’re going to continue to make the bad choice of skipping breakfast, if you decide to eat more times during the rest of the day, you’re pretty much giving yourself diabetes.

Want My Advice on Healthy Eating? This is the 1st Question I Ask

August 28, 2013 by James Bogash

Somewhere along the lines, people trying to lose weight decided that skipping meals was a good idea. Maybe it was the idea that fewer calories were better, but the advice is ill-founded.

Whenever I have a patient who needs or wants dietary advice (unfortunately, those two categories do not always go hand in hand) there is one question I ask that gives me the most information about where this patient is at on the healthy living continuum.

“What is a typical breakfast for you?”

It’s only on a rare occasion that I get an answer that is ideal. It usually ranges from nothing to oatmeal to an Egg McMuffin. Breakfast is something that many people think they are doing right, but most likely is a decision based on poor information from their doctor or excellent marketing. Some less-than-ideal examples include:

Skipping breakfast altogether will increase your risk of developing diabetes.
Skipping breakfast will lead to higher calories being eaten at the next meal, again leading towards diabetes.
High glycemic foods like bagels for breakfast throw off digestive and satiety signals and send you towards diabetes.
Higher glycemic meals trigger addiction like reactions in the brain.

Here’s the rub–most oatmeal and certainly most junk breakfast cereals like Cheerios would fall under the category of “high glycemic” index foods. Unless you’re eating the real heavy-duty steel cut oatmeal that takes forever to cook, you should be avoiding oatmeal. Or, your breakfast cereal needs to have 8 grams of naturally occurring fiber or more. Fiber One, for example, adds corn bran to get the fiber content up. That’s cheating and doesn’t count. (Even worse–ALL the Fiber One products have artificial sweeteners in them, so they’re off the list anyway).

The other option is a protein based breakfast. Eggs, chicken, hummus, peanut butter (my particular favorite, on whole grain bread and a banana sliced on top) are good options. There have been times when, due to time constraints, I have recommended that a patient just eat a small handful of nuts for breakfast. It is not unusual for these patients to actually lose weight in the first month from actually adding food.

All of this brings us to this particular study. Researchers looked at the eating habits of 26,900 health professionals over the course of some 16 years. Here’s what they found:

Men who skipped breakfast had a 27% higher risk of heart disease.
Men who ate late at night had a 55% higher risk.
Mostly, this association was due to BMI, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and diabetes mellitus.
No association was observed between eating frequency (times per day) and risk.

As I sit here writing this blog post at 11 PM eating a bowl of air-popped popcorn sprayed with basil olive oil and sprinkled with garlic spices drinking unsweetened Teavana tea, #2 has me a wee bit concerned. However, I’m pretty sure that the average late night snack is probably not quite the same as mine, so that makes me feel a little better.

Clearly eating patterns had a strong role. The proverbial midnight snack was almost literally a killer. Overall, though, knowing existing relationships between skipping breakfast and diabetes risk, the results of this study should be nothing more than a reminder of why you are already eating breakfast.

And, if you don’t eat breakfast, just make sure your life insurance premiums are paid up.

WHY YOU SHOULD AVOID CHEERIOS, OATMEAL FOR BREAKFAST…

July 9, 2011 by James Bogash

I hope we can skip the discussion about needing breakfast here. It does still amaze me how many people skip breakfast. Not enough time. Not hungry. Trying to cut calories. However, with new patients coming into my office, I can say that few actually were eating an appropriate breakfast if they were even eating it. Most are under the mistaken impression that something like Cheerios, Special K or oatmeal constitutes a good breakfast.

First, before we cover what a good breakfast consists of, let’s again stress just how darn important it is. This particular study takes an interesting look at what happens to our physiology when we skip breakfast. Researchers had participants divided into a breakfast (B) and no-breakfast (NB) group, then, 2.5 hours later, gave them a liquid drink. Those in the NB group had all around worse response in their blood to the drink than those who did eat breakfast (higher sugar, higher insulin, higher fats, lower GLP, more calories at lunch).

Basically, skipping breakfast sent the participants physiology into a tailspin towards diabetes. Pretty darn impressive for a single meal, huh? Imagine when it is a pattern of lifestyle.

Now, on to the “what” portion of breakfast. It should come as no surprise that dairy, refined carbs and artificial colors/flavors are off the list. So this rules out the Special K cereals and pretty much 98% of what the big confectionery companies (Kellogg’s, Quaker, Nabisco, Kraft) produce.

I always steer patients towards a very high fiber (8+ grams) or protein based breakfast. That means real peanut butter on true whole grain bread. Omega 3 eggs cooked in olive oil. A handful of nuts. There are some very high quality cereals made by Kashi, Amy’s, Nature’s Path, etc, that meet the high fiber qualification. Just add one of the many nut milks available (soy, hazelnut, almond, rice, hemp, etc…) instead of dairy.

You should note that this rules out all but the highest quality oatmeals. Your typical “instant” oatmeals are not going to provide this high of a level of fiber and likely contain lots of added sugars. You could, however, do a plain oatmeal and add in your own cinnamon, nuts and / or granola to improve the value.

Either way, careful attention to breakfast is absolutely critical towards a lifetime of diabetes avoidance and maintaining ideal body composition.