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The concept of Nutrivore is very simple: Choose foods such that the total of all the nutrients contained within those foods adds up to meet or exceed our daily requirements for the full complement of essential and nonessential (but still very important) nutrients, while also staying within our caloric requirements. The easiest way to do this is to have the foundation of the diet be a wide variety of nutrient-dense whole and minimally-processed foods including selections from all of the nutritionally distinct food families.
The word breakfast literally means to ‘break fast’ indicating that for most of us it’s our first meal of the day after an overnight fast. In this post I plan to answer everything you want to know about breakfast and more, including the health benefits of eating breakfast, when is the best time to eat breakfast, what to do if you aren’t hungry for breakfast and is cereal considered a healthy breakfast? Let’s take a deep dive into all things related to this morning meal!
Why Is Eating Breakfast Good for Health?
In a nutshell, studies routinely show that eating breakfast is super beneficial for our health. Eating breakfast regularly reduces risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality (a general indicator of health and longevity), no matter what you eat for your first meal of the day!
Studies routinely show that eating breakfast is super beneficial for our health! A 2019 meta-analysis showed that people who never eat breakfast have a 22% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to people who eat breakfast every day, even after accounting for body mass index (BMI). And, the more days of the week you skip breakfast, the higher your risk. Skipping breakfast 4 or 5 times per week increases your risk of type 2 diabetes by a whopping 55%!
Another 2019 meta-analysis showed that people who regularly skip breakfast are 21% more likely to develop cardiovascular disease, or die from it, than people who eat breakfast every day. The authors also calculated that people who regularly skip breakfast have a 32% higher risk of all-cause mortality compared to people who eat breakfast every day. That’s a huge effect!
Why?
Breakfast is an important regulator of our circadian rhythm (how our body knows whether it’s day or night) and of our hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (which controls reactions to stress, like fight or flight). The circadian rhythm and stress axis are linked via the hormone cortisol, which is known as the master stress hormone but is also one of the main circadian rhythm hormones, with the other being melatonin. Cortisol has a natural ebb and flow throughout the day. It peaks a couple of hours before waking up. It’s part of the wakening response, part of how we have energy in the morning, and then it gradually decreases throughout the day, with little spikes after each meal, after exercise, and after stress. Melatonin does the opposite, peaking a couple of hours before going to bed, helping to initiate the sleep response and then slowly decreasing until morning, ideally staying pretty low all day. A 2002 study showed that people who skip breakfast have higher morning cortisol levels that fall off more slowly than people who always eat breakfast, which increases the amount of cortisol in the system, which in turn causes stress. People who skip breakfast also have higher spikes of cortisol after lunch. That means we have a healthier stress response and better-regulated cortisol levels when we routinely eat breakfast. Cortisol impacts insulin sensitivity, digestion efficacy, appetite and cravings, immune function, cardiovascular function, and kidney function. For example, eating breakfast can improve insulin and blood sugar level response to subsequent meals the rest of the day, in addition to influencing food choices, and how much food we eat later in the day, generally making us crave less energy-dense foods and making it easier to choose foods like fresh fruits and veggies. Not only do breakfast eaters regularly have better regulated morning cortisol, they also have lower perceived stress. In fact, a 2016 study found that chronic stress was associated both with breakfast skipping and poor diet quality and a 2015 study showed that women who regularly skipped breakfast had disrupted cortisol rhythm, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis overactivation, and elevated blood pressure, even though they had the same levels of perceived stress as the women who always eat breakfast. Breakfast is a zeitgeber (anything that influences our body’s clock). We have all kinds of biological processes that we prioritize when we are awake or asleep and having a cemented circadian rhythm improves energy levels during the day and sleep quality at night. The most important zeitgeber is light. Others include temperature fluctuations between day and night, social interactions, exercise and meal timing.
What Is the Best Time to Eat Breakfast?
How long after waking up in the morning is it ideal to eat breakfast? The quick answer is within 1 to 2 hours of waking up. For a more nuanced answer let’s take a look at the science.
First off, it’s important to recognize that there seem to be more studies looking at the health impact of breakfast skipping versus looking at what’s ideal in terms of breakfast timing. But, of the studies that do look at breakfast timing, most of them look at actual time of day and not time in relation to when you wake up in the morning. A 2023 intermittent fasting study was designed to look at different feeding windows (portion of the day which includes your daily eating schedule) and to identify the ideal feeding window length. In the study they striated based on whether the first meal of the day was eaten before or after 8:30 in the morning, looking at insulin and blood sugar responses. They showed the feeding window did not matter, what did matter was that breakfast was consumed before 8:30 am – these participants had reduced insulin resistance. Studies that look at meal time will typically direct their study participants to consume breakfast between 7 am and 8:30 am. This window of time is likely selected because 8:30 am is 2 hours after the average time most people who work a 9 to 5 job get up in the morning. Studies that compare an early breakfast versus a late breakfast define an early breakfast as within 30 minutes of waking and late breakfast as anything after 5 hours of waking. For other schedules, we need to extrapolate the data. For example, if you work the night shift think of breakfast as a meal you eat within 2 hours of waking. In the absence of scientific studies examining this question in more detail, that’s all we’ve got to go on right now. Overall, eating within 1.5 to 2 hours of waking is best and it’s ideal to eat breakfast before 8:30 am, assuming that’s 2 hours within getting up in the morning.
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What if You Aren’t Hungry for Breakfast?
So, now you know eating breakfast is really good for you and you know when you should eat it, but what if you just aren’t hungry in the morning?
This is a conundrum! High stress can suppress morning appetite and then dramatically increase appetite later in the day, so eating breakfast can help regulate the stress response but the stress response makes it so you don’t want to eat.
So, what can you do about it?
Work on reducing stress to help regulate morning appetite. The best ways are to get enough sleep on a consistent basis and to get some activity during the day. In addition, social connection is really important for lowering stress, as are resilience activities like meditation and time in nature, and there’s some important nutrients that can help regulate the stress response – most importantly vitamin C, but also magnesium and long chain omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3 fats can be found in seafood, magnesium from green vegetables and vitamin C from fruits and vegetables in general.
Eating breakfast can help reduce morning cortisol (and stress!) so work on making breakfast a habit. For instance, start off with something small and easy to digest such as a piece of toast or banana, and then build on that towards a more balanced and nutrient-dense breakfast.
Personally, it took me a couple of months really committing to breakfast as a habit, not wanting to eat, but doing it anyway. Eventually everything clicked, I had more appetite for breakfast, and it led to more regulated appetite throughout the day with fewer cravings later in the day.
It’s hard work to create this habit but it will be worth it as there are so many health benefits associated with eating breakfast!
What About Breakfast Cereal?
Breakfast cereal, one of Americans most popular breakfast foods, often gets a bad rep when it comes to healthy eating but is it warranted? Nope! A 2022 meta-analysis showed that while other ultra-processed foods, like sugar sweetened beverages, artificially sweetened beverages, and processed meats increase risk of all-cause mortality, eating breakfast cereals reduced all-cause mortality, specifically people who consumed the most breakfast cereals (including everything from oatmeal and All-Bran to Fruity Pebbles and Lucky Charms) had a 15% lower mortality risk than the people who consumed the least breakfast cereal; and those who mainly consumed whole grain breakfast cereals had a 23% lower mortality risk. Interestingly, those who only consumed sugary cereals had no change in mortality risk, ie it’s health neutral. This may reflect the fortification of breakfast cereals, meaning they have more to offer nutritionally than, for example, a can of cola, in addition to the fiber content of whole grain breakfast cereals.
That’s not to say that cereal is the most balanced breakfast option, you could definitely add to it to make it a more complete breakfast, but if cereal is what you like, have access to, and can afford, there’s no reason to feel bad about having it for breakfast. Given the studies that routinely show that eating breakfast is super beneficial for our health period, eating breakfast cereal is vastly superior to skipping breakfast altogether. Remember, studies show that eating breakfast regularly reduces risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Given the benefits of eating breakfast as a daily health habit and the benefits of eating cereal, especially whole-grain cereal, we shouldn’t be demonizing one of the most affordable, accessible, breakfast options. However, if you want to have a more complete and balanced breakfast, let me make a few suggestions. Instead of pouring milk over your cereal, which is pretty light on protein, try adding more protein such as using a protein-enriched milk instead of regular milk, or blending a scoop of protein powder into your milk before adding it to your cereal, or having another protein food on the side such as eggs. The other thing a breakfast of cereal alone is missing out on is the health benefits of fruits and vegetables. In other words, you can make your breakfast cereal more balanced by adding in some fruit – for instance, sliced banana or berries or have fruit on the side. If you are having eggs on the side you could also add veggies to your eggs or turn them into an omelet. Those are some simple steps on how to make an already beneficial breakfast even better but there is nothing wrong with just a bowl of cereal if that’s what you like. Let’s cut out the judgmental attitude towards breakfast cereal – the science is not on your side.
Bottom line, whether you enjoy whole-grain toast, granola, Greek yogurt with fresh fruit, bacon and eggs, or cereal, breakfast consumption matters more than what you eat!
And if you want to know my thoughts on intermittent fasting check out my FAQ post – “Breakfast or Intermittent Fasting?”.
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Expand to see all scientific references for this article.
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