No More Breakfast: Debunking One Of The Most Prevalent Food Myths

Breakfast is not the most important meal of the day. If you missed to read the word NOT or feel that it is a typo, don't worry you are not alone. 

Breakfast is made up of 2 words break and fast because it basically breaks our fast being the first meal of our day. And there won't be a single person out there, regardless of whether on a diet regimen or not, who won't be familiar with the significance of breakfast as a meal in our dietary plans. 

In fact there is a very popular adage that goes "Eat Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince and Dinner like a Pauper" which clearly emphasizes that breakfast, unlike other meals, should never be compromised.

What is less commonly known about the origin of this belief, that is by and large ingrained in our lives across cultures and borders, is that it started as a marketing strategy by a flourishing food company known as General Foods. During its marketing campaign (Eat a Good Breakfast - Do a Better Job) which was designed strategically and executed in perfection, grocery stores distributed pamphlets that highlighted the importance of breakfast while radio advertisements resonated “Nutrition experts claim that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” And that's how the scandal of the century began.                                                    

The marketers of the company wanted people to entrench this belief in their minds for posterity and given current circumstances, they have been pretty darn successful! Ads like these were key for the rise of a diet model in which breakfast was the Holy Grail and which eventually led men like John Harvey Kellogg to launch breakfast cereals that still dominate the breakfast industry. We were maliciously led to believe that skipping breakfast would lead to weight gain, health issues and performance shortcomings.

                                        

On the contrary, the reality is when we wake up our body already has an excess of stored energy. Ideally, one should not eat anything for the first 3-4 hours of the day. So if you're stuffing yourself with pancakes and eggs the first thing in the morning after waking up, Stop! Wait! Think! Breakfast is a meal that should be skipped in its entirety especially if weight loss is your prime target.

Additionally, an Australian research by Monash University, confirms that breakfast is no longer the most important meal of the day to impede weight gain or the onset of hunger. All meals are equal and it depends on an individual's total calorie intake that further determines the weight gain or loss of the body. Also, if you skip your breakfast, there is no evidence that suggests that you will get "Hangry" as millennials might say. Staying hungry doesn't necessarily mean staying foolish.

                                                    

This is the reason why so many fasting techniques, the most popular and widely accepted one being Intermittent fasting, are being adopted by many people now a days. It is not just because fasting helps in shedding those extra pounds but also because there are numerous inevitable health benefits that people have now come to realize. One of most enticing one being, the release of growth hormones in our body, that typically starts at the 12th hour of fasting. Growth hormones are popularly known as the anti-ageing hormones and I am sure you must heard celebrities injecting shots of it trying to retain their youth. 

Evidently, some of us have started travelling backwards when it comes to our food habits and diet patterns which is, in fact, a very good thing. If we compare ourselves to our ancestors, we have been eating way too abundantly and unnecessarily. This in turn, has not only made us prisoners of our own bodies, but has also given rise to new diseases such as cancer. Our ancestors, who now seem wiser than ever, used to eat very less and were much healthier and sturdier in comparison. This is because they did not have kitchen shelves stacked with corn flakes and oats and refrigerators filled with bread and milk. They used to hunt or pluck their food which kept them aware of their food content and dietary needs.

We have long been prey to a devious and clearly stretched marketing strategy, but no more. The food industries have already made a fortune out of out naivete.  It's time we break out of this spell and start treating our body like a temple and start nourishing our soul. So the next time, you skip your breakfast, there's absolutely no need to feel guilty, rather bask in the amusement of your body working its magic. 

Stay Hungry, Slay Myths.