A new study by researchers from Ohio State University reveals that it’s not only kids who are at risk of missing out on vital nutritional input if they eat a crappy breakfast. But many adults are taking even bigger chances if they consider a coffee and a cruller on the way to work an adequate way to start their day. And many home breakfasts are no better…
If this reminds you of yourself at ‘breakfast’, you need to get off
your duff and improve your morning nutritional routine!
For years, doctors and nutritionists have been telling us that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Most of us smile, nod in agreement, then reach for something sweet plus something caffeinated and head out. Others, who sit down to a bowl of ‘healthy’, ‘fortified’ breakfast cereal, pooh-pooh the coffee dashers, thinking ‘I’m doing the right thing’ and looking after themselves. Not necessarily so, says the research team, headed by Christopher Taylor, Professor of Medical Dietetics in the College of Medicine at Ohio State University (OSU).
What they did
According to an abstract of the study report: “The team used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which collects health information on a nationally representative sample of about 5,000 people every year through interviews, laboratory tests and physical exams. […] The sample for this study included 30,889 adults age 19 and older who had participated in the survey between 2005 and 2016. […] In this sample, 15.2% of participants, or 4,924 adults, had reported skipping breakfast.
Data-mining techniques pulled out numbers on subjects’ levels of nutrients from fiber and magnesium to copper and zinc.
“The researchers translated the food data into nutrient estimates using the federal Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies and daily dietary guidelines, and then compared those estimates to recommended nutrient intakes established by the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academies.”
What they found
Breakfast skippers had taken in fewer vitamins and minerals than people who had eaten breakfast. The differences were most pronounced for folate, calcium, iron, and vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, C and D, the abstract says.
“We found those who skipped breakfast were significantly more likely not to meet the bottom threshold of what we hope to see people eat,” grad student Stephanie Fanelli notes.
“What we’re seeing is that if you don’t eat the foods that are commonly consumed at breakfast, you have a tendency not to eat them the rest of the day. So those common breakfast nutrients become a nutritional gap,” Taylor explains.
A quick glance at the nutrition Information charts of most commercially-made breakfast cereals will also confirm that ‘fortified’ on the package usually doesn’t mean that the product contains enough, or a broad enough variety of, added nutrients to make up for the classic breakfast skipper’s deficits. The sad truth is, most commercial breakfast cereals are mainly composed of carbs and sugar.
The takeaway
The study concluded that people who skip breakfast or call coffee and a doughnut ‘breakfast’ consume more added sugars, carbohydrates and total fat over the course of the day – in part because of higher levels of snacking.
“Snacking is basically contributing a meal’s worth of calorie intakes for people who skipped breakfast,” Taylor says. “People who ate breakfast ate more total calories than people who didn’t eat breakfast. But the lunch, dinner and snacks were much larger for people who skipped breakfast, and tended to be of a lower diet quality.”
My take
Nutritional experts keep telling us that a ‘good’ breakfast should include whole grain products and fresh fruit. Most people don’t take the time to make and consume such a breakfast. (That’s probably because most folks don’t manage their time properly – largely a result, I suspect, of not getting up early enough in the morning.) And the world out there is geared to aiding and abetting day-ling snacking habits.
Here we go again! The blame – or responsibility – for eating an adequate breakfast falls on all of us, ourselves. I hate to say it, but, if you experience mid-morning slump and ‘have to’ cram down a sugary snack and an additional dose of caffeine just to keep going until lunch, it’s on you.
How long would it really take to grab a piece of fruit and a couple of slices of whole grain toast in the morning? You’ve got no excuse. And no one to blame but yourself.
~ Maggie J.