What is the best time to eat breakfast? ——Some simple and nutritious breakfast methods

Author: Xue Qingxin, registered dietitian

Reviewer: Zhang Yu, researcher at Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

A good breakfast can make people full of energy for the whole day. However, most people struggle between staying in bed and having breakfast every day, and most of them end up giving up breakfast and continuing to stay in bed.

Figure 1 Copyright image, no permission to reprint

The White Paper on Breakfast Behavior of Chinese Residents released by the Institute of Nutrition and Health of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention mentioned that 53.9% of Chinese residents have no time to eat breakfast, and even 2.0% never eat breakfast. Even on weekends, only 70.3% of people eat breakfast every day, and the number of people who never eat breakfast on weekends increases to 11.3%.

Although some people eat breakfast every day, they may just buy some ham sausage, fried dough sticks, millet porridge, soy milk on the way to work... The quality of breakfast is not high. In this article, let's talk about the importance of breakfast and how to eat breakfast, especially for office workers who are short on time.

1.Why is it recommended that you eat breakfast?

Eating breakfast is not only to fill your stomach and maintain physical strength, but more importantly to stay healthy!

There are many benefits of eating breakfast. Let me tell you one by one:

(1) It can improve work efficiency: Eating foods rich in carbohydrates for breakfast can make people more positive and energetic. If you don’t eat, you will often feel listless and have difficulty concentrating in the morning, which will reduce your learning and work efficiency. Therefore, eating a good breakfast can make you more efficient at work and have better learning results.

(2) It can prevent obesity: Many people believe that skipping breakfast can reduce the calorie intake throughout the day, thereby achieving the effect of weight loss. But the reality is: skipping breakfast is more likely to make you gain weight! This may be because if you do not eat in the morning, you will feel particularly hungry before lunch, and will be more inclined to choose high-calorie, high-sugar and high-fat foods; plus, if you are hungry and eat too fast, you are more likely to eat too much, which is naturally not conducive to weight control.

Figure 2 Copyright image, no permission to reprint

Studies have found that people who eat breakfast regularly have better diet quality and are more likely to control their weight. Compared with people who skip breakfast, eating breakfast regularly is a protective factor for maintaining a healthy weight, and those who skip breakfast have a 23% higher risk of gaining 5 kg in 10 years than those who eat breakfast.

In addition, eating more for breakfast can also help control appetite, reduce hunger during the day, and prevent you from "wanting to eat everything you see."

(3) It can prevent gallstones: Bile is a liquid secreted by the liver and stored in the gallbladder. Eating can stimulate the contraction of the gallbladder and discharge some bile from the gallbladder to aid digestion.

When you are fasting for a long time, bile cannot be discharged from the gallbladder. The long-term accumulation of bile will easily lead to crystallization, increasing the risk of gallstones. This risk is even higher, especially after fasting for 15 hours.

(4) It helps control blood sugar: In addition to the hypoglycemia caused by starving in the morning, overeating at noon may also cause blood sugar to soar, which is not conducive to blood sugar control. Eating breakfast regularly helps regulate appetite, stabilize blood sugar response, and increase the body's insulin sensitivity to the next meal, which is more beneficial to blood sugar control.

2. What is the best time to have breakfast?

Since eating breakfast has many health benefits, what time should we eat breakfast?

A large prospective cohort study covering more than 100,000 people showed that people who eat breakfast after 9 a.m. have a 59% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared with those who habitually eat breakfast before 8 a.m.!

In fact, even for office workers who are pressed for time, it is not too difficult to finish breakfast before 8 o'clock. You can choose to make some simpler and quicker meals.

3.What are some quick and nutritious breakfasts?

A balanced and convenient breakfast is what today's office workers want. Although it is convenient to buy fried dough sticks, millet porridge, soy milk, bread, ham sausage or instant noodles directly from roadside stalls, they are not the best choice from a health perspective.

Here are some recommendations for healthy and quick breakfasts. The ingredients needed can be prepared the night before, cleaned, sealed and stored in the refrigerator. It only takes about 10 minutes to make breakfast the next morning, saving time.

(1) 1 bowl of oatmeal soaked in milk, 1 kiwi, and 8 cashews: This is a super simple breakfast combination. Pour milk into a bowl and add 4-5 spoons of oatmeal. Warm it in the microwave. It will not only fill your stomach, but also provide nutrients such as dietary fiber, β-glucan, calcium, and protein. Kiwis are rich in vitamin C, and cashews are rich in unsaturated fatty acids. Balanced nutrition!

(2) 1 slice of whole wheat bread, 1 slice of cheese, 1 leaf of lettuce, and 2 walnuts: Whole wheat bread has a rough texture, and many people don’t like it. However, if you put a slice of cheese and a leaf of lettuce on it, it not only improves the taste, but also provides nutrients such as protein, calcium, and dietary fiber. When paired with walnuts rich in unsaturated fatty acids, it is also a very nutritious meal.

(3) 1 banana, 1 pack of milk, 1 boiled egg, 5 cherry tomatoes: Bananas are high in carbohydrates among fruits, about 22 grams per 100 grams, which is comparable to the carbohydrate content of fresh corn. It is also a good carbohydrate source for breakfast occasionally. Paired with calcium-supplementing milk, protein-rich eggs, and sweet and sour cherry tomatoes rich in vitamins, it is simple and nutritious. Even if you don’t have time, you can just stuff it in your bag and eat it on the road.

(4) Shredded carrot fried rice, cold spinach: If there is leftover rice from the previous night, you can seal it and put it in the refrigerator. The next morning, cut some shredded carrots and beat an egg to make a plate of fragrant fried rice. Spinach can be blanched the night before, drained and sealed in the refrigerator. In the morning, add some soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil and other seasonings to make cold spinach. It is easy to cook, even a kitchen novice can easily do it. Carrots and spinach are rich in β-carotene, which is very beneficial to the eye health of office workers.

In fact, it is not difficult to make a balanced breakfast. First of all, you need to plan well. Think about the breakfast plan for the next day at night and prepare the corresponding ingredients. In terms of matching, at least 4 kinds of food should be included, and staple food, vegetables and protein foods should be included. Diversified food every day, balanced nutrition, good for health!

References:

[1] Bai Ruixue, Zhao Yong. Research progress on the effect of breakfast on overweight and obesity in adults[J]. Health Care Medicine Research and Practice, 2017, 14(2): 8-12.

[2] Bloch HM, Thornton JR, Heaton K W. Effects of fasting on the composition of gallbladder bile. Gut, 1980, 21(12):1087-1089.

[3]Palomar-Cros A, Srour B, Andreeva VA. "Associations of meal timing, number of eating occasions and night-time fasting duration with incidence of type 2 diabetes in the NutriNet-Santé cohort."[J]. Int J Epidemiol, 2023, Jun 16;dyad081.

[4] Yang Yuexin. Chinese Food Composition Table 6th Edition Volume 1[M]. Peking University Medical Press, 2018.