Matt Dionne | Sports and Health Editor
Featured illustration: Finding time to fit breakfast into your routine might just save, or at least extend, your life. | Jasmine Wiradharma
Breakfast may be the most important meal of the day, but how many people actually take this saying to heart? According to a recent study, only six out of 10 Canadians eat breakfast every morning.
Of the breakfast skippers, 42 per cent say they don’t eat breakfast because they aren’t hungry, 38 per cent say they are extremely rushed in the morning and skip breakfast as a way to save time, 26 per cent say they skip it occasionally and 21 per cent say they eat breakfast on the go.
According to the same study, Canadians, on average, eat breakfast five days per week, while seven per cent don’t eat breakfast at all.
Skipping breakfast might seem harmless, but according to the American Heart Association, it has been linked to several serious health conditions, including heart disease and obesity.
Researchers from Columbia University found that how often we eat throughout the day, along with our eating schedules, directly links to the risk factors of a plethora of diseases, including heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, blood glucose levels and reduced insulin sensitivity.
Additionally, people who eat breakfast regularly tend to have lower cholesterol and blood pressure, while people who skip breakfast and have a tendency to snack throughout the day have a higher risk of obesity and developing diabetes.
Other studies have found that people who skip breakfast are 27 per cent more likely to experience a heart attack and are 18 per cent more likely to have a stroke than those who eat breakfast in the mornings.
“Meal timing may affect health due to its impact on the body’s internal clock,” said Professor Marie-Pierre St-Onge, the study’s lead author.
St-Onge compares this to studies of animals that experience a change in their metabolism when given food during periods of inactivity, like sleep, which can result in weight gain, insulin resistance and inflammation, but she feels more research on humans is required.
However, not everyone in the scientific community believes in the benefits of eating breakfast. A 2016 study indicated that the notion of breakfast as the most important meal of the day stems from marketing campaigns and has little scientific evidence to back it up.
Dr. James Betts, a senior lecturer in nutrition at the University of Bath, believes it’s a fallacy concocted by companies that produce foods like cereals, eggs and bacon as a way to manipulate consumers into buying their products.
“The problem is that these benefits, although logical-sounding, are largely assumptions based on observational studies and had never actually been tested,” he said.
The one thing all researchers can agree on is that the effects of meal timing on human health need further study.
Breakfast just means break-fast. When you break your fast from the previous day or when you last consumed calories. Your first meal of the day is your breakfast. The likely issue in these studies is that people skip an early morning meal made at home that is probably a better option and end up snacking on junk food or coffee with sugar and cream, etc.
I would recommend Dr Jason Fung’s books or videos on youtube. Eating a healthy diet low in processed sugar, animal products and processed food between maybe noon and 6-8 PM is fine. There is now so much growing research (see doctor Fung’s research) showing daily and long term fasting helps extent life and control weight, prevent diabetes, etc… The most important thing is what you are eating, then eating times and exercise.