A collection of breakfast foods including bananas, a bowl of oatmeal, orange juice, and more.

Is Breakfast Really the Most Important Meal of the Day?

By: Esther Garcia, Healthy Aggies Intern

Social media has idolized the idea of having breakfast on a balcony with a table filled with fruits, eggs, oatmeal, and orange juice. We can all agree that with 8 am classes, we don’t have the time and energy to make and sit down for breakfast. There seems to be some uncertainty about ‘breakfast’ including:

  • Can we call our first meal of the day “breakfast”, even if it is 1pm?
  • Does breakfast have to be oatmeal, eggs, and orange juice?
  • Should we eat breakfast in the morning even though we are not hungry?

Before getting into more depth about our first meal of the day, let’s define the word “breakfast”.  Breakfast is the first meal that we consume. We are ‘breaking the fast’ that occurred during our hours of sleep. Traditionally in America, we classify a breakfast as a meal that is consumed before the afternoon. A minute after noon, we would classify that meal as lunch. Moreover, we are encouraged to have breakfast before we begin our tasks in order to “boost” metabolism, yet studies have proven that it is not the time we consume our first meal, but the quality and quantity of food we consume during the day. We must trust our hunger cues because not everyone wakes up with a growling stomach in the morning.

Here are some tips to keep in mind for your first meal of the day/breakfast:

  1. Listen to your body.

Keep in mind that all bodies are different. There are influencers on social media who advocate for breakfast at 7am, in order to “wake up” your metabolism. However, our metabolisms do not need to be woken. Our bodies are able to adapt and function properly, even if our meal frequencies are not fixed. Having or skipping breakfast does not make one more healthy. However, it is not healthy if you force yourself to eat in the morning because social media advocates for it nor is it healthy to force yourself to skip breakfast to cut weight.  Think about it this way: food helps you increase your energy levels, it is up to you and your hunger cues to determine when you will have your first meal.

  1. Eat at the time that works best for your daily schedule.                     

Our first meal may vary between a granola bar one day and an omelet another day. Personally, the time I have my first meal is determined by my morning workout. If I workout at 6:30 am, I will most likely not have a meal before, but will have a meal afterwards that contains mostly carbohydrates and protein. On the other hand if I workout at noon, then I will have a granola bar around 11:00 am. Nonetheless, it will all vary because as a student my schedule is not fixed. Eating late at night might determine whether you are hungry early in the morning or not. There are a lot of environmental factors that dictate the time and the quality of our first meal of the day.

  1.  Keep a balanced meal for your first meal.                                      

If you do feel hungry in the morning, but don’t have time to make breakfast, then try grab and go breakfast. Here are some Grab and Go Breakfast Ideas for your busy mornings. If you do have the time to make your first meal, create your plate with nutrient dense food items or substitute certain food items for healthier alternatives. For instance, at the COHO you can opt-out of a flour tortilla burrito to select corn tortilla egg tacos. The meal will look similar to the image below (COHO does not serve beans for breakfast). Any substitutions you make should be appealing to you! Overall, it is OK to not want to have your first meal at 8 am, but keep in mind that the quality and frequency of meals matter more for a healthy lifestyle.

A comparison picture of a breakfast burrito and breakfast tacos. Breakfast burrito: 629 calories, 14g Saturated fat, 1178mg Sodium, 1g added sugar. Tacos: 356 calories, 4g saturated fat, 921mg Sodium, 0g added sugar.

 

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