Skipping breakfast may seem like a minor inconvenience, but over time, it could lead to a range of health consequences. Small, daily breakfast-related food choices can be seen as a way to fight back against a sedentary lifestyle, chaotic hours, and stress beyond the usual
It is time to stop considering breakfast a luxury; instead, it should be recognised as a health-promoting practice that boosts mood and enhances productivity throughout the day.
Breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day. This is particularly true, because it is a meal that can help begin the day with a nutritious, balanced meal, enhancing energy levels and productivity. Breakfast, however, is increasingly being neglected, especially in large cities in India, where millennials think it is unnecessary or that there is no time to have it, due to fast-paced lifestyles, desire for more time in the mornings, and late nights. Missing breakfast or avoiding it frequently however, can lead to serious health consequences.
Physical health impacts
Every individual has an biological clock ticking in synchrony with breakfast. If breakfast is skipped, the body produces more cortisol, as it assumes the lack of food is stressful. This leads to elevated cortisol levels, resulting in a hormonal imbalance. What is more, the body’s glucose levels may remain high even after eating the second meal (lunch), and this insulin resistance could herald the beginning of type 2 diabetes. Moreover, skipping breakfast can also reduce one’s metabolism rate: this means that the body gets used to consuming less and so, it does not need to work hard to burn calories, potentially leading to weight issues.
Why does this happen? The body’s circadian rhythm is disrupted by skipping breakfast. Not having a meal in the morning deprives the good microbes of their food and creates an imbalance in the body that leads to a weaker gut lining, increased systemic inflammation, and the replacement of good bacteria by bad bacteria, and the aggravation of digestive problems such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
When the immune system is weakened due to the reduced activity of white blood cells, this may lead to chronic inflammation, infections, vitamin D deficiency, renal dysregulation, and so on.
Besides all of these concerns, calcium metabolism is also affected, leading to poor bone health, which manifests as decreased bone mineral density. The athletic potential of individuals is also diminished because muscles have low glycogen levels during workouts.
Cognitive health impacts
Omitting breakfast has also been associated with various neurological effects such as oxidative stress, neuron signalling impairment, and decline in cognitive capacity. The brain gets a steady supply of adrenaline from glucose. Consequently, when breakfast is not eaten, it takes the brain longer to get this essential hormone, and it therefore does not operate at its optimum level. The ability to focus attention is impaired due to increased hunger. People who skip breakfast may also have a higher chance of developing psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety and depression, resulting from the dysregulation of cortisol and the imbalance of serotonin and dopamine pathways.
Overall health
Skipping breakfast may seem like a minor inconvenience, but over time, it could lead to a range of health consequences. The body gradually gets accustomed to hunger, and the stress this induces spreads over to the rest of the day, negatively affecting functioning. The issue of stress, and the body’s capacity to recover from it, can thereby keep getting worse, affecting mental and physical health.
Overall, this can cause: problems with immunity, cancers, psychiatric disorders, sleep cycle problems, issues with athletic performance, bone health and cognitive function issues, metabolic dysregulation, increased cardiovascular risk, impaired glucose regulation, alterations in gut microbiome composition, and cognitive dysfunction. Systemic inflammation, reduced immunity, circadian rhythm disturbances, and hormonal imbalances may serve as mediators of these diseases.
Mindful morning eating
It is time to stop considering breakfast a luxury; instead, it should be recognised as a health-promoting practice that boosts mood and enhances productivity throughout the day. Small, daily breakfast-related food choices can be seen as a way to fight back against a sedentary lifestyle, chaotic hours, and stress beyond the usual. We must reconsider establishing a mindful morning-eating habit as a practical and impactful step towards overall health and wellness.
(Twincy Ann Sunil is a clinical nutritionist and dietician at Apollo Spectra Hospital, Bengaluru. dietician.krm@apollospectra.com)
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