Mom always said it was the most important meal of the day. And, she was right! Your body is a well-designed machine that needs fuel to operate efficiently. But, you can’t just fill up your body with fuel on occasion and expect optimal performance, like you can with other machines. Your body needs fuel on a consistent, regulated basis.
When you wake up, your body has been without nourishment for several hours, and it’s hungry. Unfortunately, too many people tend to skip breakfast for different reasons.
Here are a few things to think about the next time you are tempted to skip breakfast.
It gives you energy
Your blood sugar level is one of your main energy sources, and the glucose that you eat during the day is a big part of maintaining your blood sugar level. Your body will naturally keep its glycogen levels even throughout the day and while you sleep. But, when you wake up, your body needs some glucose to get you going.
When you sleep, your body goes into a dormant, almost hibernating, mode for a few hours. As you eat throughout the day, your body is using all of the vitamins and minerals to fuel itself. And, it stores some of them for later use, like when you are sleeping.
If you sometimes find yourself dragging by noon, and you skipped breakfast, this is one reason why.
Eating breakfast will wake your brain up
Yes, your brain needs food as well. It’s been waiting all night for you to wake up and feed it. It’s kind of like the way your morning coffee wakes you up.
When you eat, your body distributes all of those vitamins and minerals to the various parts of your body, enabling them to function correctly. If you skip breakfast, you’re not even giving your body a fair chance to be at its best.
Eating a healthy breakfast will fuel both your body and your brain, making you function on an overall higher, more efficient level.
Skipping breakfast can cause overeating later in the day
You may think that you are tough enough to weather through a hungry morning. But, your body has other things in mind. It wants food, and it will tell you that continuously with a rumbling stomach, headaches, or even nausea until you feed it. By the time you eat, your body is starving.
That’s when overeating becomes a problem. Gary Preacher from HCGDiet.com explains that eating high protein meals earlier in the day will help you avoid overindulging later in the day. He stresses that skipping breakfast will not help you lose weight and offers dietary solutions to keep your eating habits healthy. By not feeding your body in the morning, your cravings for other, sometimes unhealthy foods, will be greater, causing you to overeat.
Over time, not eating breakfast can affect your health
Any unhealthy habits will, over time, have negative effects on your body. Here are a few of the ways that not eating breakfast is bad for you.
Obesity
- If you skip breakfast and overindulge later in the day, you may think it’s okay, since the overall calories balance out. Unfortunately, your body doesn’t agree with you. If you feed your body on a regular schedule, it will use all of those nutrients for what it needs. But, if you condition your body by not feeding it when it needs food, it will overcompensate by storing nutrients like glucose, forming fat cells. Although your body can use those fat cells for energy when you are starving it, the fatty tissue, which leads to obesity, will still be there.
Diabetes
- As we mentioned earlier, your glucose levels are directly related to your blood sugar levels. Disrupting this delicate process continuously can lead to diabetes.
High blood pressure
- Not eating breakfast also affects your blood pressure. By not feeding your body when it needs food, you are making it work harder to find the nutritional resources that it needs, increasing your blood pressure.
Heart disease
- Heart disease and high blood pressure is directly related to heart disease.
Your entire body is a delicate balance. All you have to do to take care of it is to feed it healthy, nutrient-rich foods at regular intervals. At least give it a chance for success by eating breakfast. Not only will you not be starving by the time lunch rolls around, but your body will thank you by staying healthier, enabling you to enjoy all that life has to offer.
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