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Breakfast: Why and What? |Monica’s Archives


The first meal of the day is commonly known as breakfast. If you divide this compound word into two parts, you will see it is made up of ‘break’ and ‘fast’. To fast means to go without food. So “breakfast” means to break the fast you have been observing since you went to sleep the night before.



The body’s energy source is glucose, which is broken down and absorbed from the food you eat. Most of the energy is stored as fat in the body but is also stored in the form of glycogen in the liver and muscles. During times of fasting, like, overnight, the liver breaks down the glycogen and releases it into your bloodstream as glucose to keep your blood sugar levels stable. This is also important for the brain, which relies on glucose for energy. In the morning, after you have gone without food for as long as 8-12 hours, your glycogen levels are low. Eating breakfast boosts your energy levels and restores your glycogen levels ready to keep your metabolism up for the day. So, breakfast provides the body and brain with fuel after an overnight fast. Without breakfast, you are running on empty, like trying to start the car with no petrol.



According to nutritionists:
·         Breakfast should be eaten within two hours of waking
·         A healthy breakfast should provide calories in the range of 20-35% of your guideline daily allowance (GDA).
“Eating breakfast has long term health benefits. It can reduce obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes”.
Establishing good breakfast habits in childhood and maintaining them throughout adolescence may be an important factor in reducing the common habit of skipping breakfast and developing good eating habits that last a lifetime.
So, breakfast really is the most important meal of the day!
Now, comes the big question of what to take in breakfast?
Breakfast should be balanced protein-based. We can understand this through the following diagram:

Note: The sugar-/insulin-response curves are schematic illustrations of a known physiological reaction. The exact science behind it is complex and varies for different people.
Source: http://www.chillilogic.com/projects/MattGratton/metabolism-healthy-breakfast/
I have already written a detailed article on Proteins, you can go through it at https://monicasarchives.blogspot.com/2019/09/proteins.html
If you are in a habit of skipping breakfast, then get up 10 minutes early or plan ‘on-the-go’ nutritious breakfast, but never skip your breakfast.
                                                           Happy Living!


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Comments

  1. Poonam PrakashMarch 16, 2020 at 5:26 AM

    Very informative. I liked it more than the other articles you have written as you have cited the information making it more authentic to me.

    ReplyDelete

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