Today, I didn’t eat breakfast. I woke up, I went to my 9 a.m. class, I diligently scribbled notes, and I didn’t eat breakfast. I came back to my room to work on a problem set for an hour, and I didn’t eat breakfast. I even went to the gym! Alas, breakfast was not involved. It was almost noon by the time I got back to my room. And then I ate. In the process, my metabolism must have slowed down, right? And I probably felt more and more lethargic, didn’t I? Surely skipping breakfast made my waistline expand. Right? Right?
For many years, the general public has been taught that breakfast was the most important meal of the day. Studies suggest that the consumption of cereal or quick breads in the morning was associated with significantly lower body mass indexes (BMIs). But does this necessarily mean that opting out on breakfast will make you gain weight?
There appears to be a protective association of eating breakfast on obesity development [in children and adolescents],” explains Dr. Randall Stafford, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center. “The data are less clear for adults.”
Those who are well versed in the scientific method have surely been taught to distinguish between correlation and causation. I won’t deny that eating breakfast is correlated with lower BMI, nor will I refute the fact that it is associated with markers of insulin resistance. But to conclude that missing breakfast is the cause of weight gain – now that, my friend, is a stretch. And it’s unfortunately a stretch that RDs and other alleged experts in the health field have embraced a little too tightly. Whether they sincerely misinterpreted the data or wanted to promote their own products (ehhem, cereal companies), the truth is that breakfast skipping is not the end of the world.
I am here to tell you, ladies, that those of you who opt out on your morning munchies and dive straight for lunch have no need to feel guilty. Your friends will tell you otherwise. Heck, even your parents may nag you about it – but I urge you to stand strong. So what explains those studies?
Be aware that those who opt out on breakfast generally do not make the time to read about nutrition, nor do they necessarily make a conscientious effort to optimize their diets. What these studies show is that breakfast consumers tend to have better dietary habits overall. Their lower BMIs, then, must be attributed to their total daily food intake and not the inclusion of breakfast itself.
Another study found no significant differences observed in hunger levels, mean thermic effect of food or body weight between those who eat breakfast and those who don’t. The study acknowledged that the phenomenon of skipping breakfast has become more common in recent decades. The study speculated that this could be due to weight loss efforts—and weight loss efforts tend to be tied with haphazard eating patterns, which have been shown to disturb energy metabolism, induce some level of insulin resistance, and increase fasting lipid profiles. See the connection here?
So if you’re not a morning person and you prefer to have lunch as the first meal of your day, then so be it. But recognize that that groggy, lethargic feeling you get mid-afternoon may have something to do with what you do eat on a day-to-day basis. The bottom line is that we simply don’t have hard evidence of a causal relationship between skipping breakfast and adverse health consequences. If you want to fix up your diet but really prefer not to have breakfast, that’s okay. Shed the guilt. It’s time to stop relying on half-truths anyway.