Studies on breakfast have generated opposing conclusions. One, for example, suggests you can skip breakfast, while another states that a high-energy breakfast can promote weight loss.
Your early morning habit could have an effect not only on your health but also on your lifespan. Eat This, Not That rounded up several ways you might be sabotaging yourself when it comes to breakfast.
Skipping breakfast
Dietitians “all believe that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and you should NOT skip it,” said Juliana Nagy, registered dietitian nutritionist and owner of Nourishing Life LLC in Sandy Springs.
“After a night of fasting, this is the best way to wake up your metabolism and get it going.”
Eat This, Not That reported that a February 2020 study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism found that eating a large meal at the beginning of the day instead of the end burned nearly twice as many calories throughout the day. Those who ate breakfast also reported lower levels of blood sugar and insulin.
Having too much fat around your midsection could increase your risk of early death from any cause, a 2020 analysis found.
Eating bacon
Eating even a moderate amount of red or processed meat increases your risk of having colon cancer, a 2019 study concluded.
The scientists followed participants for nearly six years and found those who ate an average of 76 grams (almost 3 ounces) of red or processed meat (salted, cured, fermented, smoked, or otherwise treated to “enhance flavor or improve preservation”) a day had a 20% higher risk of colon cancer than those who had 21 grams a day.
According to the American Cancer Society, 37% of patients with colorectal cancer have a lower five-year survival rate than those who don’t have cancer.
Drinking 100% fruit juice
In 2019, researchers from health institutions in France conducted a study, published in the British Medical Journal, to determine the association between cancer risk and sugary drinks, such as 100% fruit juice, and artificially sweetened ones, like diet beverages.
In the study, the team said: “100% fruit juices were also positively associated with the risk of overall cancer. These results need replication in other large scale prospective studies. They suggest that sugary drinks, which are widely consumed in Western countries, might represent a modifiable risk factor for cancer prevention.”
Eat This, Not That noted that a September 2019 study published in the journal Diabetes Care found that increasing your intake of 100% fruit juices by ½ cup or more per day increased the risk of diabetes, which is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S., by 16%. The research team suggests swapping juice with a whole piece of fruit, which contains more fiber than juice.
Drinking coffee before eating
Studies have found that coffee consumption “may help prevent several chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes mellitus, Parkinson’s disease and liver disease.” There is little evidence that drinking moderate amounts of coffee — three to four cups a day — poses any health risk.
Last November, however, researchers wrote that a single night of bad sleep has a limited influence on metabolism and consuming coffee to jolt into alertness can have a poor effect on blood sugar control.
“We know that nearly half of us will wake in the morning and, before doing anything else, drink coffee — intuitively the more tired we feel, the stronger the coffee,” said professor James Betts, co-director of the Centre for Nutrition, Exercise and Metabolism at the University of Bath who oversaw the study. “This study is important and has far-reaching health implications as up until now we have had limited knowledge about what this is doing to our bodies, in particular for our metabolic and blood sugar control.
“Put simply, our blood sugar control is impaired when the first thing our bodies come into contact with is coffee especially after a night of disrupted sleep,” he added. “We might improve this by eating first and then drinking coffee later if we feel we still feel need it. Knowing this can have important health benefits for us all.”
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