The right breakfast foods can help you concentrate, give you strength – even help you maintain a healthy weight.
Your mother was right: breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. Not only does it give you energy to start a new day, but breakfast is linked to many health benefits, including weight control and improved performance.
Studies show that eating a healthy breakfast (as opposed to the kind containing doughnuts) can help give you:
- A more nutritionally complete diet, higher in nutrients, vitamins and minerals
- Improved concentration and performance in the classroom or the boardroom
- More strength and endurance to engage in physical activity
- Lower cholesterol levels
Breakfast Benefit: Weight Control
Many studies, in both adults and children, have shown that breakfast eaters tend to weigh less than breakfast skippers.
Why? One theory suggests that eating a healthy breakfast can reduce hunger
throughout the day, and help people make better food choices at other
meals. While it might seem you could save calories by skipping
breakfast, this is not an effective strategy. Typically, hunger gets the best of breakfast-skippers, and they eat more at lunch and throughout the day.
Another theory behind the breakfast-weight control
link implies that eating breakfast is part of a healthy lifestyle that
includes making wise food choices and balancing calories with exercise.
For example, consider the successful losers followed by the National
Weight Control Registry, all of whom have lost at least 30 pounds and
kept it off at least one year. Some 80% of the people in the Registry
regularly eat breakfast (and also follow a calorie-controlled, low-fat
diet).
It's worth noting that most studies linking breakfast to weight
control loss looked at a healthy breakfast containing protein and/or
whole grains -- not meals loaded with fat and calories.
Make Lean Protein Part of Your Breakfast
Adding a little lean protein to your breakfast may be just the boost you need to help keep you feeling full until lunchtime.
"Protein blunts your hunger the most, and is the most satiating," Purdue University researcher Wayne Campbell, PhD, tells WebMD.
And a traditional breakfast of eggs may be one of the best ways
to get your morning protein. While eggs are not always associated with
weight loss, they contain some of the highest-quality protein.
In a study presented at the 2007 Experimental Biology meeting,
researchers at Pennington Biomedical Research Center compared weight
loss in women who ate either two eggs or a bagel for breakfast. The two
breakfast meals were identical in calories and volume.
"Compared to the bagel eaters, overweight
women who ate two eggs for breakfast five times a week for eight weeks
as part of a low-fat, reduced-calorie diet, lost 65% more weight, reduced waist circumference by 83%, reported higher energy levels, and had no significant difference in their … bloodcholesterol or triglyceride levels," reports researcher Nikhil V. Dhurandhar, PhD.
Another study, reported in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, also substantiates eggs' ability to satisfy hunger.
"Both these studies show that when people eat eggs at
breakfast, they felt more satisfied and consumed fewer calories
throughout the day, compared to those who ate a primarily carbohydrate
meal like a bagel," explains Dhurandhar.
But what about the cholesterol in eggs? A large egg contains 75 calories, 6 grams of protein, and 212 mg cholesterol. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), healthy people can eat an egg a day.
"It should be noted in our study that none of the women had increases in blood lipids, confirming that healthy adults on a low-fat diet can enjoy eggs without significantly impacting their risk of heart disease," says Dhundar.
Another study, reported in Obesity Research,
found that women who added a little lean protein to their breakfast (in
the form of a slice of Canadian bacon added to an egg sandwich made
with an English muffin) felt less hunger during the next four hours than
those who ate a breakfast without protein.
All the participants lost about 18 pounds over the course of
the study, but the group eating more protein – about 30% of total
calories – kept more lean muscle than the group who ate the same number
of calories but less protein.
Experts note that lean muscle mass is more metabolically active, and thus helps with weight management.
Breakfast Cereal and Weight Control
Many studies have also shown that when breakfast cereal is consumed as part of an overall healthful lifestyle, it can play a role in maintaining a healthy body weight.
A Harvard study of more than 17,000 men found that those who frequently ate breakfast cereal -- both refined grain and whole-grain types -- consistently weighed less than those who rarely or never ate breakfast cereal.Another study, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, evaluated the diets of adults and found that breakfasts of ready-to-eat cereal were associated with lower BMIs in women than other, higher-fat breakfast meals.
Choosing the Right Breakfast Foods
This just goes to show how important it is to choose the right
foods for breakfast. A healthy breakfast meal should contain a variety
of foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low- or non-fat
dairy, and lean protein.
Even if you think you don’t have time to eat breakfast, there
are grab-and-go options that fill the bill. Some quick and healthy
choices include:
- A veggie omelet and a piece of whole-wheat toast
- A whole-wheat English muffin with low-fat cheese, a scrambled egg, and slice of tomato or lean ham
- Smoothie made with fruit and low-fat yogurt
- Salmon on 1/2 whole-grain bagel with light cream cheese
- Whole-grain cereal with fresh fruit and low-fat milk
- Oatmeal made with skim milk, raisins and nuts, with 4 ounces of orange juice
- Low-fat yogurt and a piece of fresh fruit
- Yogurt smoothie and breakfast bar
- Hard-boiled egg and a banana
This makes a great breakfast for kids. I usually replace it with nutella as my kids don't prefer peanut butter.
BalasHapushealthy breakfast ideas for weight loss