Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” We have all heard this saying at least once in our lives. This saying was originally used as a marketing tactic by James Caleb Jackson and John Harvey Kellogg to sell their newly invented breakfast cereal. This infamous saying began putting breakfast into so many people’s minds.
In the 16th century, Europeans first introduced the idea of breakfast being important, which to this day, still holds truth. The term breakfast came from “breaking the fast,” which is what people did in the morning after sleeping the previous night. Your body depends on food as an energy source, specifically carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates are the body’s number one source of energy. There are countless benefits to eating a balanced breakfast in the morning. A balanced breakfast is packed full of carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats. Breakfast offers bone maintenance, improved digestion, regulates your glycemic control, and can help you keep a strong immune system. However, breakfast is still one of the meals most skipped by people.
College students are infamous for skipping breakfast. Their schedules, social life, financial situation, and work life are some of the biggest contributors to this. Breakfast contributes to a well-rounded diet. There have been studies that show that regularly eating a balanced breakfast can improve college student’s happiness. Keeping your diet consistent is key!
Your body will recognize the fuel it’s being given and know how to respond. This doesn’t mean you can’t go out with friends and have a treat to celebrate. A consistent diet just means that you can improve and upkeep your mental, physical, and emotional health. Regularly eating breakfast can also improve cognitive function. Food in the body can help to regulate metabolism. Continually skipping breakfast can impair daily task functions and can cause fatigue.
Don’t let the word ‘diet’ scare you. In today’s world it has become so stigmatized. According to the Oxford Dictionary, a diet means the kinds of food that a person habitually eats. In today’s western world, there is so much of a push around diets,you might be familiar with “Keto,” “Paleo Diet,” “Whole 30,” and so on. Marketing pushes you to see only the positives in these diets. These diets are made for short term solutions if you usually keep a regular diet. Your typical diet, however, should be comprised of the foods you eat and like to eat. Your diet can look vastly different from someone else’s and that is more than okay. Focus on what makes you feel good. Honor your hunger.
So, what should a breakfast plate look like? Of course, everyone’s answers will be different, but macronutrients will be the same. You want a plate with carbohydrates, protein, and fats on it. For breakfast, pick out an option that gives you two to three servings of carbohydrates, two servings of protein, and two servings of fruits and veggies. One serving of carbohydrates is equivalent to 15 grams, so one piece of toast in the morning would be one serving. Also, try to get a serving of dairy in. That could be milk in your cereal, chocolate milk, or cheese on your eggs. All these components combined get you fueled up to start your day.With this in mind, we can truly say, “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”