It wasn’t until 1589 that breakfast was awarded this prestigious title. Prior to that it was considered an equal to the other meals. According to experts if you skip breakfast you are going to be less energetic, less productive, and develop health problems such as obesity. Before you panic and go to grab a bowel of your favourite cereal lets just consider that last point. You can increase your chance of obesisty if you skip breakfast? It’s a tenous link at best. When I was doing science at university I would always fall back on a great quote.
Correlation does not imply causation
There is a fantastic website detailing spurious correlations. Most nutrition experts will explain that if you skip breakfast you will most likely snack later in the day, on unhealthy food. This then results in you gaining weight and makes it difficult for your weight management. In that paper we previously discussed the scientists studied all these individual papers and concluded that the link was ‘only presumed true’. Upon reading the literature they found that the researchers offered a biased interpretation of their own results. They also found that the researchers incorrectly cited others results. They blatantly ignored any research which disagreed with their own opinions and misrepresented their results.
So can I skip breakfast?
We can’t ignore all of the literature just because of bias. The real answer to this questions depends on what you stand to lose if you decide to skip breakfast. If you aren’t going to make up those calories somewhere else in your day then you will probably end up snacking. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as long as you make a healthy choice. When you decide to skip breakfast it depends on you. A study has shown that people with type 2 diabetes actually did better by skipping breakfast. There is also a growing movement across the internet of people who skip breakfast and explain their reasoning. All things considered, the science behind the reason to skip breakfast seems to be mostly incorrect. If you function better without eating anything in the morning then that’s perfectly fine, and you don’t have to feel guilty about it.
Benefits of skipping breakfast
Of course just disproving the bad things that we thought would happen if you skip breakfast isn’t good enough for some people. They want to know the benefits if you actually skip breakfast. Firstly let’s talk about productivity. Our office is designed to ensure that our staff aren’t stressed, are happy and enjoy work. By creating this positive atmosphere our staff are much more productive. Productivity is unique for each person. Some can work for hours on end where as others need regular breaks. When I heard that skipping breakfast could decrease productivity I had to look at the science. What I found was that there is no real link between skipping breakfast and being more productive. In general there is no link between productivity at work and diet. Of course this doesn’t mean you can eat what you like but If you had a choice of getting an hour extra in bed or waking up to cook a full English breakfast, I know what I’d do.
Breakfast is almost always made from a form of carbohydrates. If you decide to skip breakfast then you are deciding to skip carbohydrates. We are often told carbohydrates are bad. Unfortunately carbohydrates is a broad category and this is similar to saying that drinks are bad. Some drinks are shown to do damage to your body but water is quite healthy. If you are interested in learning more you can read this fantastic article by the NHS. The short story is that as humans we eat too many carbohydrates. If you decide to replace your cereal with a larger lunch then you could cut your carbohydrate intake and actually have a healthier diet.