Breakfast: The Most Important Meal of the Day?

True or false: breakfast is the most important meal of they day? Most important? Well, it is pretty important but, being one of four children that would be like my mother publically admitting that I am her favorite (which is true, however for the sake of my brothers egos, let’s just say that we are all special). Anyways, yes breakfast is an important meal.

Probably one of the better pieces of nutrition advice would be to eat breakfast, however that does not give you free range to just eat anything for the sake of saying that you eat breakfast…

And you of course do not need to do this everyday either…

The key is to eat a good breakfast.

So what constitutes a “good” breakfast?

Breakfast, as for any meal, should incorporate some fruits and/or veggies, whole grains, and protein. Now, this could take on a variety of looks depending on your food preferences. Yes, this could include bacon..

…just don’t make it an everyday thing.

This could also be oatmeal, smoothies, cereal, granola bars, yogurt, trail mix, pb & j, leftover lasagna, turkey sandwich, or whatever your little heart desires. Hey, not all people like breakfast foods so don’t judge.

Why is breakfast important?

The reason why breakfast is important is not because there is something magical about eggs, bacon, or lucky charms (despite what that little leprechaun says)…

…rather it is the timing of breakfast. To help explain this, think of your body as a car. You need to fill up your gas tank (or plug in your car for those of you with hybrids) to give it the energy to run, otherwise you will end up stuck along side of the road in the middle of nowhere. I think you know where I am going with on this, but I am going to continue to ramble on. Your body has to “run” on whenever you last ate, be it dinner or a snick snack, until the morning. If you miss your morning "fill up" you are not going to make it far. Not only can this lead to overeating when you actually do eat, it slows down your metabolism. This will slow you down energy wise and if you are like me, you get hangry and can't focus.

What about juice?

Everybody thinks that juice is healthy and then proceed to fill up an entire glass. Juice, like olive oil, has some good qualities to it, but that doesn't mean you should eat/drink a ton of it. Yes, there are some vitamins and minerals (and fiber if you take pulp in your oj) in juice, however it contains quite a bit of sugar. Juice, like other beverages that contain sugar are best in moderation, and by moderation I mean 1/2 cup a day if at all.

The truth about muffins, pancakes, doughnuts

My thoughts about all of the above can be summed up by the image below…

The same could be said for panCAKEs. I mean just because we put the word pan in front of cake does not make it not a cake.

Case in point, angel food cake. Do all angels eat angel food cake? Well, despite being my mother’s favorite, I am no angel.  However, for the sake of this blog, let’s just say I am an angel. Angel food cake would not be the food of choice and I don't know what is so angelic about it. To really just round out your education today, here is a grammar tip for you. Grammar tip of the day: angel is the thing with wings and angle is found in squares and triangles. Anyways, the same could be said for muffins. To quote Jim Gaffigan again, "muffins are just bald cupcakes."

Breaking it down

EAT BREAKFAST! Even if you aren’t hungry or you don’t typically eat breakfast, just appease me and nibble on at least something! Shoot for something with fruits and/or veggies, whole grains, and protein. Take it easy on the bacon and other breakfast meats because they are high in saturated fat and don’t fall for the whole pancake, muffin, doughnut thing. Now if you will excuse me, I need to see where I can get a pair of those fab dishwashing gloves Lady Gaga wore to the Oscars...

Until next time!

Keep it Fresh,

Keep it Green,

Beth