Why breakfast is very important ?

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You’ve probably heard that breakfast is important because it gives you energy to start your day, but did you know that it could actually affect your health.

Eating breakfast is important for everyone, but is especially so for children and adolescents. According to the American Dietetic Association, children who eat breakfast perform better in the classroom and on the playground, with better concentration, problem-solving skills, and eye-hand coordination.

Consider a recent study published in the magazine Circulation. Researchers followed over 26,000 initially healthy men for 16 years. After adjusting for age, they found that those skipping breakfast were at 33% greater risk of developing coronary heart disease than those who ate breakfast daily.

Furthermore, the lead author of the study stated that, “Skipping breakfast may lead to one or more risk factors, including obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, which may in turn lead to a heart attack over time,”

Case in point, a recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that skipping breakfast, even once a week, raised women’s risk of developing diabetes by 20 percent. The study also found that overweight or obese women were more likely to develop diabetes than thin women who skipped breakfast.

Ladies there is a simple and delicious solution to this 20% risk—eat breakfast. Dr. Leah E. Cahill, a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health, had this advice. “Incorporating many types of healthy foods into your breakfast is an easy way to ensure your meal provides adequate energy and a healthy balance of nutrients, such as protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. For example, adding nuts and chopped fruit to a bowl of whole grain cereal or steel-cut oatmeal in the morning is a great way to start the day.”

  Breakfast Benefit:

1.       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.

2.        there’s the energy factor. Your brain needs glucose from food – especially good carbs – in order to work well. No breakfast means a brain-energy slump by mid-morning.

3.        Skipping the benefits of breakfast can lead to an increase in LDL (“bad” cholesterol) levels, according to a study by researchers at the University of Nottingham in England.

4.        Going without breakfast means you likely will eat more throughout the day. People who eat breakfast, on the other hand, get their metabolism humming and tend not to consume as many calories during the entire day, so they wind up weighing less than those who don’t get the benefits of eating breakfast.

     5.  Finally, you may be jeopardizing your long-term health. The same University of Nottingham study found that those who skipped breakfast were more resistant to insulin. Insulin resis­tance increases the risk of developing diabetes.