It is said that leaving home without having breakfast is just like leaving your running shoes before the race. A healthy breakfast not only helps us to fuel our body’s energy supply, it also increases our tendencies to eat healthier throughout the rest of the day. And if you think skipping breakfast would help you lose weight, then it’s time for you to wake up. You might end up overeating during the other meals of the day. Here are 10 benefits of having the first meal of the day.
1 Helps in Losing Weight
It has been proven that those who eat in the morning eat much less at lunch. Since the metabolism is boosted it prevents the body from storing more fat and thus helps in losing weight. Nutritionists strongly recommend one to not skip breakfast.
2. Builds Your Immunity
If you want to have a better immunity then it’s important to have the first meal of your day as the immune system works much better. Researchers at Cardiff University showed that people who regularly ate breakfast were less likely to suffer colds, flu and other respiratory tract illnesses than breakfast-skippers.
3. Cuts the Risk of Many Ailments
Eating a healthy breakfast can reduce the risk of things like heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes. That’s probably because it reduces the risk of gaining excessive weight, which is among the causes of all these problems. According to a study by the Harvard Medical School breakfast eaters are half as likely to have a blood-sugar problem, which increases your risk of suffering from diabetes
4. Lowers Your Cholesterol Level
Breakfast prevents the body from starving, increases metabolism and thus the chances of overeating reduces. All these help in reducing the cholesterol level.
5. Revs Up Your Energy
Breakfast is a true source of energy. Many of us feel tired in the morning and throughout the day just because we have skipped breakfast. Eating a breakfast that's high in fiber and carbohydrates could help you feel less tired throughout the day, according to a 1999 study in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition
6. Boosts Brain Power
After a night of fasting, eating first thing in the morning provides a fresh supply of glucose to fuel the brain. Breakfast can increase focus, awareness and ability to withstand a day of work. A study in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that eating high-energy foods for breakfast could help boost short-term memory.
7. Meets Your Nutritional Needs
Many breakfast foods (such as eggs, dairy, fortified cereals and whole grains) are very good sources of essential nutrients like folate, calcium, iron, B vitamins and fibre. Eating these helps you meet nutritional recommendations, which many people can find difficult to get elsewhere if they are just having two meals a day.
8. Improves Your Mood
Regular breakfast eaters are less likely to be emotionally distressed or depressed, according to a study by the University of Bristol. You're also less likely to be grouchy when you aren't distracted by hunger pangs.
9. Prevents Overeating
After waking up, everyone feels a bit hungry. Some might think that they are not hungry enough to eat and skip breakfast this can cause them to feel hungrier than they should and overeat at lunch. Having a bite in the morning will keep hunger away and help avoid overeating.
10. May Increase Your Lifespan
Studies showed that people who lived to be 100 years old consume breakfast more regularly than those who don't. Since we know that breakfast is associated with a whole host of health benefits, this shouldn't come as a surprise.