Monday 28 March 2011

IMPORTANCE OF HAVING BREAKFAST


A lot of people skip breakfast for various reasons. Offices start early in Kuwait, so those who cannot wake up early to prepare breakfast, skip it. Some people are of the wrong notion that skipping breakfast helps you lose weight. “ I am trying to lose weight, so I don’t have breakfast’ is a common sentence you hear.

After dinner, you are off to sleep and the body is devoid of food for hours (say from 10pm at night to 8am next day, that’s like 10 hours). Breakfast means breaking the fast your body was on throughout the night and fueling it with food for energy.  Your body stores up glucose or sugar in your blood. This sugar ends up in your liver and then your liver releases it as energy in bursts throughout the day in the form of glycogen. If you skip breakfast your body will run out of glycogen by mid morning which means no more energy bursts. When this happens your body is like a car that runs out of gas. So if you skip breakfast, chances are you'll feel tired and lacking energy by the time you are at office or school in the morning. You'll have a hard time concentrating and your thinking will be clouded. You'll probably be nervous and irritable as well.

Skipping breakfast is a common strategy for losing weight, but not a smart one. Many people believe that they will lose weight if they skip meals, but that just isn't true; the body expects to be refueled a few times each day, starting with breakfast. By eating breakfast, you wake up your metabolism and get your engine running, burning those calories you need to burn to lose weight, your body gets all the nourishment it requires, your mood is uplifted, your concentration is in its full power, and your productivity is much higher as you have gained the required energy from the breakfast you had. 


Just make sure you don’t have breakfast with fried things or laden with fat and sugar. Here are some healthy breakfast ideas.

1. Brown bread spread with low fat cheese like cottage cheese or low fat-low salt feta with salad leaves, tomatoes, half a glass of orange juice.

2. Cereal like porridge (cooked oats with milk), with few nuts and dates in it or even chopped fresh fruits added to it.

3. Spanish omlette or fried egg with a teaspoon of olive oil (add chopped onions, chopped spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms and season with salt and pepper), with or without a slice of brown toast.

4. Yoghurt and chopped fresh fruit and a slice of brown toast.


5. A glass of orange juice, boiled egg and a slice of brown bread (toasted if you wish)

6. Yoghurt and fresh fruit smoothie with chopped nuts (and half a brown toast if you wish)

7. Any traditional breakfast of your country (be sure to check the calories on the internet for the quantity you wish to have in this case and adjust accordingly). Keep a tab on the fat or sugar content and have your traditional breakfast in moderation if it’s on the higher calorie side.


8. Look into your fridge. Be creative and have fun! Make your very own breakfast that includes proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.

Remember that eating a healthy breakfast is the best way to start off your day, Notice how much better you feel through the morning and the rest of the day when you don't skip breakfast. Those of you with toddlers or even school going children must instill in them,  the importance of having breakfast and  get them to have breakfast everday. Breakfast can be between 250 to 300 calories for those on a weight loss diet.



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