Posted on 04/03/2019 5:55:41 AM PDT by Kaslin
I skipped breakfast again this morning. I won't worry about it.
Yes, I've heard the advice. "It's the most important meal of the day." It balances blood sugar levels, kick-starts your metabolism, stimulates the brain, etc.
A Harvard University study said men who regularly skip breakfast have a 27 percent higher risk of suffering a heart attack. 27 percent!
But I'm not worried, because I now know there's no proof that skipping breakfast causes heart attacks or any other problem.
In my latest video, nutritionist Dr. Ruth Kava points out that just about all the claims about breakfast being especially important are unproven.
Those Harvard researchers actually say it "remains unknown whether specific eating habits ... influence ... heart disease risk."
Strokes and heart attack news persists in part because people who skip breakfast tend to have other bad habits, like smoking.
But the breakfast bunk keeps coming.
Several years ago, the government announced that skipping breakfast may make you fat. Of course, the media jumped on that one. "Missing breakfast tricks your brain into thinking you want higher-calorie foods," says WebMD.
"Far from making you fat, breakfast actually helps activate your metabolism so you start burning fat," says StepToHealth.com.
But it's not true, shows a new analysis by the British Medical Journal.
"They looked on a number of different studies, and they did not find that eating breakfast ... helped people lose weight," says Kava.
The government has backed away from its claim.
Why did researchers and the government get it so wrong?
Partly because eating habits are hard to study. You can't follow test subjects for years, continuously controlling what they eat.
So, many studies are based on what people say they ate. Some people forget. Or lie.
Many of us have been suckered by studies funded by cereal makers. Five of 15 studies mentioned by the government in its breakfast push were funded by General Mills or Kellogg.
"Yeah, well, they're the ones that are interested in having their products sold," says Kava.
On its cereal boxes, Kellogg touted that study that found people who didn't eat breakfast could lose weight by starting to eat cereal or breads for breakfast instead of skipping breakfast altogether or eating meat and eggs.
"Don't get your nutrition education from cereal boxes," says Kava.
In fairness, cereal companies don't always try to spin the results. One study funded by Quaker Oats found skipping breakfast was associated with weight loss in people who were overweight. Instead of ignoring the result, Quaker Oats actively pushed the researchers to publish the data.
Even cereal boxes might be better sources of information than television, though.
"Sesame Street" is more reliable than most shows, but even there, Michelle Obama told Grover he was probably tired because he hadn't had a "healthy breakfast!"
While it's true that a hungry child may not do well in school, Obama tells Grover, "Everybody should have a healthy breakfast."
Not true. You need nourishment, but there's no good evidence it has to come at a specific time of day.
"Eat breakfast if you're hungry. If not, eat a little later," advises Kava.
Of course, the key to good health isn't just to do whatever you feel like doing. Our appetites can lead us astray. Smoking kills. Some tempting foods are unhealthy.
But years of consumer reporting have taught me that moderation and common sense are better guides than the hyped warnings from government and the media.
I went LCHF two years ago and have lost 1/3 of my bodyweight just from that. Then I plateaued so started the 5:2 and the fasting seems to have broken through the plateau as I am losing weight again.
To me, it is just common sense. If you’re hungry first thing in the morning, eat breakfast. If you’re not hungry, don’t eat until you are. Listen to your body. It knows you better than these researchers do. When you need food, the body will provide the signal.
When was breakfast (comes from “break the fast”) a big deal?
When people were settlers, farmers, folks who traveled a long distance to work every day, and folks who like all the aforementioned started their day BEFORE the sun came up.
By the time they came in for breakfast, they had already been up and busy, sometimes for hours.
Their day had already been “kick started” by a high amount of activity.
When I quick skipping breakfast before school as a kid was when I started having early morning paper routes and we usually up and out between four and five every morning, regardless of the weather. After that breakfast had become a sort of habit. I think that - the habit - is what it has become socially.
I think usually your body tells you your energy store is low and you should eat.
Your breakfast is remarkably similar to mine. Unless I make whole wheat pancakes from scratch, with sliced strawberries and a bit of maple syrup, served with iced coffee with skim milk and 0 cal syrup. Once in a while, I go for an omelet with sauteed fresh mushrooms and a bit of shredded cheese, mmm. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day.
I think in general, it’s probably a good idea to eat something sometime before noon. Whatever that is, it’s breakfast. I honestly can’t see eating first thing in the morning, though. My tummy isn’t awake yet. I need to do a couple things, get squared away with the pets, and then I can make a beautiful omelette or peanut butter toast with berries on top.
I was surprised pork belly didn’t taste at all like bacon, but more like pork chops.
Since going keto a year ago, I find I can eat a lot of fat on meat.
Was 233, down 41 pounds today. Pretty much OMAD carnivore.
I still have the tell tale bulge of visceral fat. I understand it could take another year to get rid of it, and that’s if I do many extended fasts. OMAD doesn’t cut it.
I have three meals a day, but I also work out 6-7 days a week (treadmill and sitting leg presses). I don’t eat sugar and have very little starch. I can’t fast. It makes me light-headed and nauseated.
I can go without it but eventually I develop a sick headache which lasts a couple of hours. I rarely drink caffeine so it is not a caffeine headache. My Mom is the same way if she doesn’t eat breakfast. If I can tough out the headache I really don’t get hungry up until 1:00pm or so.
I went on a low carb diet last winter and avoided carbs religiously except for a piece of cake for my wife’s birthday. I had a doctors check up and despite two months of low carbs, I lost no weight. He did blood work and my ketones were off the scale and he called me back in to recheck those they were so high, still now weight loss after three and a half months. I had been on a low carb diet when I was younger and lost 75 lbs and kept it off for fifteen years. This one has me baffled.
Bkmk 4 l8r.
Bkmk 4 l8r.
Bkmk 4 l8r.
Breakfast is 4 egg omelet. First slice up a piece of bacon, Fry it with green pepper and jalapeno pepper pieces. Add 4 eggs, when done top with 3 slices of cheese.
Fresh eggs of course, right out of the nesting box.
Same here - if I eat at 5am, I am hungry by 10am. If I don't eat anything, I am hungry by 10am. So my first meal is 10am, usually something light. After that I'm good until 5 or 6pm. If I'm hungry I eat. If not, I don't. People eat way too much in this country. Then the body expects to fed that much. You can train your body to live on far less food, especially as we get older.
You know, that makes a LOT of sense.
Seems like no sugar/carbs in the system for 16 hrs would mean that the pancreas would get a long rest from making insulin. Thus, no insulin resistance?
Great read ... thanks for posting. Wish me luck. I’m stuck on losing those last 15 lbs and will give it a try.
Good luck!
Do you just pour the eggs directly over the fried pepper/onion/bacon so they get incorporated into the eggs?
You don't mention exercise. If there is none, start slow and work up to a moderate level. That may kick start your metabolism and be the missing key. Just a guess.
Check your sugar count. You may be a diabetic and haven’t been diagnosed yet. Type 2 can sneak up on you. The headache is a symptom. Any weakness, dizziness, exhaustion, increased urination...and a few others to go along with your headaches? Ask the doc.
When you went on your low carb diet, did you substitute the carbs with protein intake? Most low carb diets do and it can be a mistake. If you compare your body to an auto, the protein would be considered like oil and the carbs like gasoline. Your engine can burn oil mixed with gas for a short time until it breaks down on the road. And depending on how fast you are going will determine how much gas you need. When you run out of gas, your engine stops.
Lot of variables to work with in dieting. I am a firm believer in a natural diet. Some animals like tigers, eat very little “veggies” but are incredibly strong and fast. However, apes, a little more like us, are vegetarians eating very little meat for protein intake opposite of the big cats. And unless there is a medical reason for lack of weight loss, either disease or artificially induces like steroids or other weight inducing drugs, balancing calories and exercise depending on what you do, will work. If you burn more than you intake, it will cause your body to secrete lactic acid and break down the fat tissue surrounding your muscles and use it. And even the most stringent low carb diets at some point introduce carbs back into the mix. You can’t run on straight oil forever without the engine going through gas starvation and stopping.
And be aware that your body will not compromise with you. In your DNA is the road map to making the body work. It will go into a starvation protection mode and you will stop losing weight until it gives up and you will have to recompromise with it down the road. Such is the pattern of change. Good luck
rwood
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