Is breakfast still the most important meal of the day?
"Practically speaking, with skipping breakfast what we definitely know is breakfast being a meal in itself is an opportunity for nutrition.”
Possibly the most debated nutrition topic ever - to eat breakfast or not to eat breakfast. To get the real scoop, we spoke to dietitian and Aquahub and Aquanation personal trainer Byron Manning about why you should think twice before skipping breaky.
Opportunity
That’s right, breakfast is an opportunity. For what exactly? As Manning puts it, “practically speaking, with skipping breakfast what we definitely know is breakfast being a meal in itself is an opportunity for nutrition.”
The dietitian admits there is research to support both sides of the breaky debate. However, he is remindful that skipping breakfast means you’re skipping out on quite a lot of nutrition. “In terms of meeting our requirements of not just your macronutrients but also your micronutrients and vitamins and minerals - in skipping breakfast you’re skipping an opportunity to get those into your body and hopefully meet those targets in a day.”
Manning is also an advocate for using this particular meal to fuel your day. “By having nutrition food in the morning, that will give us a bit more energy which might be used to help us perform a little better physically depending on what you’re doing,” he says. The dietitian and personal trainer adds that to perform optimally during a heavy training session, breakfast is a very good idea for giving you that nutrition boost.
FOMO
Sure, some people aren’t breakfast people. That’s okay, however, as Manning points out “it’s a lost opportunity for nutrition, that’s for certain.”
And of course, it all depends on your lifestyle and we’re certainly not trying to convince you that you absolutely have to change your whole routine around. Still, if you have a fear of missing out on progress consider incorporating breaky into your healthy diet.
Make the most of it
Manning stresses that it’s not a matter of getting any food you can get your mitts on. “What you eat always matters,” he says. The dietitian reckons breakfast is a dynamite time to load up on heaps of nutritional goodies. “Breakfast is the perfect time to get in your serves of fruit, dairy and vegetarian alternatives so a great example would be smoothies.”
Manning says smoothies are his go-to when you’re short on time and don’t like a heavy feed early in the day. “With smoothies you can pack a lot of things in: fruit, nuts, dairy, if you struggle with getting in your serves of veggies throw in a frozen zucchini to thicken it, spinach.”
Oooft, sounds pretty yum to us!
