Why Breakfast Matters: Nutrition You Need To Start Your Day

This is open mind. You probably heard the old adage that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But what does that really mean? Is there truth to it? Or is it more about the specific nutrition you need to kickstart your day? Well, maybe you've heard about about time restricted eating or intermittent fasting where you skip breakfast altogether. Is that better than eating breakfast? In this episode, I'm going to answer your burning questions about breakfast. Should you eat it or should you skip it? What's the ideal time to break your overnight fast? And most importantly, when do you break your fast? And most importantly, when you do break your fast? How can you fuel your body to ensure the best possible start to your day? We're going to explore what the latest research says about the best and the worst foods to start your day with. I'm going to provide simple, actionable tips to help you incorporate these insights into your daily routine. And we're going to all also discuss the role of breakfast in maintaining a healthy weight in preventing belly fat accumulation. Yep, that and lowering your risk of chronic disease. Now, if you've ever wondered about the true impact of breakfast on your health, you're in the right place. So stay tuned. As we set the record straight on the breakfast debate and empower you with the knowledge to make informed decisions around your health. Let's dive in and uncover the truth about the nutrition you need to start your day right. Hi, I'm Dr. Mark Hyman and welcome to Health Hacks Foreign. I'm going to cut right to the chase. Yes, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Breakfast is the first chance you get to feel your body, to energize your brain and to get your protein in for the day. Yep, protein, not what we typically eat for breakfast in America, which is sugar or dessert for breakfast. But contrary to what you may have been told about breakfast, it doesn't have to happen right when you first wake up. You can wait a bit to prolong your overnight fast, which should be about 12 to 14 hours and hence the term break fast or breakfast. In fact, I don't eat breakfast until usually two or three hours after I wake up, after I do my morning meditation and get my workout in for the day. So if my last meal the previous day was 7 o', clock, I wouldn't break my fast until the next mid morning, around 9 or 10 the next day. So it's less about when you break the fast and more about what you eat for breakfast. But you can eat breakfast too late, right? And then it's called lunch. Uh, but you do want to make sure you're eating something mid morning to early afternoon, 11 to 1 at the latest, especially if you're asleep late. You can have a longer fast, but most people shouldn't do more than a 12 to 14 hour fast overnight. Long term, maybe 16 hours if you're, if you're really going for it. The research shows that skipping breakfast is a bad idea. Skipping breakfast, according to the research, is associated with an increased risk of lots of things like type 2 diabetes, obesity and weight gain. In fact, in a systematic review and in Meta analysis of 45 observational studies, researchers reported a 31% higher risk of excess belly fat by not eating breakfast, a 48% greater risk of being overweight, and a 44% greater risk of becoming obese over time. In those who are breakfast skippers, that's pretty significant. So what could be causing the increased risk for metabolic disorders? Well, there's a good chance this could be due to increased late night eating. Right. When we skip meals, we miss out on eating good stuff that's satiating, like protein, healthy fats and fiber. If we're not getting this in, we're more likely to feel hungry at night. And our ability to make healthy choices also isn't so great. Late at night, when our defenses are down, we're more likely to reach for a sleeve of Oreos or a bag of chips in an apple. Another study found a causal link between skipping breakfast and increased risk for adhd, which is a a big problem. Also, an increased risk for major depressive disorder and reduced cognitive performance and increased frailty. So that's a lot of things that happen when you skip breakfast. So you don't want that. Now, why would that happen? Well, what you eat for breakfast sets the tone for the rest of the day. It's really an opportunity to get in the essential nutrients you need to help you better reach your daily protein goals, which most people probably aren't. To balance your hormones, your blood sugar, your mood, your energy, your focus, cognition, all that depends on your breakfast. Now, have you ever heard the saying, eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a popper. Well, research shows that there's actually truth behind this and that it's better to skip dinner than breakfast. So have a bigger breakfast, a lighter dinner. An interesting study showed that men who initially consumed low calorie breakfast and a high calorie dinner experienced a significant boost in diet induced thermogenesis when they switched to eating the same high calorie Dinner for breakfast. In other words, if you eat a low calorie breakfast versus a high calorie dinner, the high calorie dinner is going to actually stimulate your metabolism. So if you eat a low calorie breakfast or not breakfast at all, you're going to have a slower metabolism, which isn't good. Specifically, their diet induced thermogenesis, which means the heat and the calories that are burned just by the process of metabolizing your food was two and a half times higher when the high calorie meal was consumed in the morning compared to the evening. So you basically burnt two and a half times more energy when you had breakfast compared to eating the same meal at dinner. Now, low calorie breakfast also increased cravings for carbs and sugar throughout the day, which is not what you want to be doing. And it means that diet induced thermogenesis is higher in the morning than the evening. Why? Well, it has to do with our circadian rhythms, which primes our body to be more efficient at digesting, absorbing and metabolizing food early in the day because we haven't eaten all night. So we're just ready to go. We need to get food to fuel the tank for the day. It's like putting gas at the beginning of a, a car trip rather than at the end of the trip, right? Your insulin sensitivity is higher. Your melatonin also reduces insulin res release. You don't get these spikes of insulin which cause belly fat. And it could be really a good strategy for weight loss when you eat the majority of your calories earlier in the day. Now let's get into what not to eat for breakfast. And the following foods are My breakfast don'ts. They really crush your metabolism when you eat them first thing in the morning and they cause you to be hungrier. They, they cause you to crave carbs and sugar the rest of the day and they cause you to overeat all day long. So it's kind of a double whammy. First, is don't drink your breakfast really important if you're having a smoothie, it's fine if it's a protein smoothie, but not made from all these tropical high glycemic fruits like banana, mango and pineapple. Fruit juice or pressed juices. Even green juice is fine, but not if it's got apple or fruit in it. When you drink fruit, it doesn't create the same sensation of fullness you get when eating it. And that's because whole fruits contain fiber. And when you blend or juice the fruit all that's kind of left is fruit sugar and fructose, which is not good for you by itself. So drinking sugar as a liquid sets off a sugar bomb in the body. It causes your blood sugar and your insulin to spike. And high insulin is bad because it stores fat, it blocks fat burning, and it causes you to become more insulin resistant over time. So it's a vicious cycle. And then of course, when your insulin spikes, you get a crash and then you get hungry a few hours later, which is not good. They've done extensive research on the impact of these liquid sugar calories on the brain. What they found was that concentrated sources of fructose in the diet, like high fructose corn syrup, that's in ultra processed food. It's in soda, fruit juice, and high glycemic smoothies. It activates an evolutionary mechanism that makes us want to keep eating, right? So drink sugar, be hungry, keep eating not good, and crave carbs and sugar. It also increases the production of uric acid, which is something our body makes in response to too much sugar, which tells our liver to convert fructose into fat. So basically you're eating sugar, but it's turning into fat. Right. Fat actually doesn't make you fat. It's sugar that makes you fat. And this used to be actually beneficial for survival, but it's kind of backfired. Your gut and brain don't recognize the calories that you drink like it does for those who eat. So you don't feel the sensations of fullness that would signal your brain that you should stop eating. Right. It just makes sense. In one study of 58 adults who consumed one of four preloaded drinks or foods like apple, applesauce, apple juice with or without added fiber, followed by a test meal where they could eat however much they wanted. The whole Apple group consumed 15% less calories compared to the control group, and less energy compared to the applesauce and the apple juice groups. That's pretty amazing. So basically, if you just eat the whole food, you're going to eat less. Cause it's not all processed and you're gonna actually not be hungry. Cause it fills you up. Now, this study shows that solid food affects your feeling of fuller satiety more than pureed or fruit juice. Right? The next big principle, and I said earlier, is so key, do not eat dessert for breakfast. In America, we basically eat dessert for breakfast. Bagels, muffins, sweetened teas and coffees, pancakes, cereal. I hate cereal. I'll tell you all about that in a minute. French toast, oatmeal, all of that is basically dessert for breakfast. Now, when you start your with sugar, you're gonna kick off a really bad cycle, an addictive cycle of sugar and carb cravings that are gonna last all day long. Now, many foods that we consider breakfast foods are actually desserts, right? Pancakes, waffles, muffins, granola cereal. My joke is I'm a cereal killer. Cause I don't want people to eat cereal. Why? Well, Sugar is the second most common ingredient in 75% of cereals. And the first ingredient is just processed flour, which acts just like sugar anyway, so it's like a double sugar. They're also low in protein and low in fiber. It's filled with bad ingredients. I did a podcast recently with Jason Karp, who has been working to get Kellogg's to make cleaner versions of Froot loops in the U.S. because they export those versions to Canada. They just sell the crappier versions to American children that have bht, which is butylated hydroxytoluene. It's a preservative controversial, being linked to tumors and cancer. It's got artificial dyes like Red 40, Blue 1, Yellow 5 and 6, which is made from petroleum. And it's been linked to ADHD symptoms. So wonder kids are bouncing off the walls after they eat Froot loops. It's got yellow, five, six, red dye 40, all of which which require a warning label in Europe that states may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children. So literally in Europe they've looked at the data, the equivalent of the FDA there has put a warning label on foods that contain these compounds saying that they cause adhd. Artificial flavor is another big one in these foods. The FDA doesn't require companies to tell you what's in their flavor, just a complete mystery ingredient. Artificial flavors. What is that? Who knows, right? The FDA recognizes as grass or generally recognizes safe. They've done that to many other foods like trans fats, for years, which is definitely not safe and has been removed from that list. And you know, in America we follow the, you know, insim prove a guilty, which is fine for, for criminal cases in, in, in law, but it's not for things that go in our body. The companies that make these compounds should prove that they're safe because before they're ingested, not let's put them out in the population and see what happens for 10, 20, 30, 50 years. And who many, how many people die? We've killed literally millions of people because of these things. The average person who Eats an ultra processed Diet has about 22 pounds of food additives a year in their diet. You're never going to eat ice cream for breakfast. Well, I did in college though, but, but many cereals including toaster concoctions like muffins, pop tarts, toaster strudels and lots of other things that passes breakfast. Even healthy choices like English muffins, gluten free waffles, bran flakes, fruit flavored yogurts contain as much if not more sugar than dessert. Now consuming this much sugar first thing in the morning is going to put you on a blood sugar roller coaster for the rest of the day. And those blood sugar crashes then lead to hunger and intense cravings for more carbs and sugar throughout the day that lead to overeating. So it's a vicious cycle. In one study that was done on kids where they did a study on oatmeal compared to steel cut oats compared to eggs in kids, they gave me exact 10 calories of each breakfast. And the kids who ate the oatmeal compared to the eggs had a much more hunger. They ate 81% more food over the day. They were allowed to eat as much as they want and they ate 80% more food. That's insane, right? Just by eating oatmeal in the breakfast. Now, the American Diabetes association, the American Heart association approve of oatmeal as a healthy breakfast choice because it's high in soluble fiber. Plus the Quaker oats and Pepsi pays millions and millions of dollars to put heart healthy stamps on their products even though they're not heart healthy. Right. They have for sure have fiber beta glucan, which is great, that reduces cholesterol, blood sugar. But you know, what do they say? You put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig. If you put a little fiber in a highly processed grain, it's still a highly processed grain. And this is where the government doesn't really protect you. Right? The truth is being being dubbed a whole grain doesn't mean anything. You know, it can have whole grain flakes sprinkled in a highly processed cereal full of colors, additives, dyes, sugars, it doesn't matter. You know, it's really crazy. So I think, I think it's important to understand that just because it has a healthy whole grain on the label doesn't mean it's good for you. In fact, the truth is most of the things with health claims and labels are bad for you. Now, most oats on the market are instant oats or quickening oats. And their outer husk is removed. They're flattened, they're pre cooked, they're toasted dry. They cook quickly. That's the only thing that's good about them. But they're also milled to a smaller size, they cook faster. And that damages the beta glucan fibers. It increases their glycemic impact of the oatmeal. So basically it, it has a glycemic index of 80, which is like terrible. That's about the same as table sugar. Right now, carbohydrates and oats are rapidly converted to glucose. They're quickly absorbed in the blood and that leads to this spike in sugar. Now steel coat oats are a little better. Whole rolled oats are a little better. They have a glycemic index of 50 to 60, which is medium glycemic index. But it's better, but still not the best way to start the day. If you gotta have oats better overnight, oats are better. They have a 33% lower glucose and insulin spike. So you can soak your oats for. So, so put your oats in almond milk overnight. I would do steel coat oats, not actually instant oat at all. I'd never eat that. And that leads to, when you soak them overnight, it leads to something called resistant starch, which slows glucose digestion. So it's actually a way to mitigate the effect. Plus if you put nuts and seeds, you put a little fat in there, you can put some ghee or grass fed butter, you can put some nuts, you can put some berries in there, that's going to help to reduce the glycemic load of the food. So the glycemic load is a total composition of the meal. Right. So if you just have bread by itself it's one thing, but if you put in a lot of fiber or nuts or seeds or protein, it's going to have a different effect. Right. What should you eat for breakfast to get the best start to the day? Protein. Protein. Protein. Protein. Let me say it again, protein. And you can add fat in there too. But protein and fat are basically the foods you should be eating for breakfast. Why? Well, high protein breakfast leads to making you feel full, it controls your appetite, it makes overeating less likely at your next meal. It helps balance your blood sugar, it keeps your insulin levels low, it cuts your cravings and it reduces snacking. And there is something magical called the thermogenic effect of protein, which means you actually burn more calories when you consume protein. So about 30% of the calories get used in actually just metabolizing the protein. Now one study compared the effects of savory breakfast eggs, cheese and sausage with 30 or 39 grams of protein. That's matched for fat for fiber versus a low protein sweet breakfast of eggo mini pancakes with 3 grams of protein with pancake syrup and butter or no breakfast in 34 healthy women aged 18 to 55. Now what did that study show? Well, it showed an increased port of satiety or feeling full for the protein versus the low protein and the no breakfast. I mean obviously protein, you're not gonna feel hungry post meal. Glucose and insulin levels were significantly lower in the savory breakfast group than in sweet breakfast. Also makes sense you don't have sugar for breakfast, you're not gonna spike your sugar and insulin. Right? Insulin levels in the low protein group, the pancake group, peaked after 30 minutes of eating, followed by a sharp decline 30 to 90 minutes after eating. And that's gonna cause this, this roller coaster of blood sugar and insulin. Then your energy intake at lunch. People who got no studied how much they ate at lunch was significantly less in the highest protein group. So the more protein you eat for breakfast, the less likely you're to overeat at lunch or to eat too much. Now, the total energy intake for the day, for the whole day, if you ate protein for breakfast, was the lowest in the high protein group and the highest in the low protein group. In other words, you have low protein for breakfast, you're going to eat more food throughout the day and more calories and gain weight. And if you eat high protein for breakfast, you're going to feel full and not eat over overeat calories during the day and you're going to be good. And this really suggests that high sugar breakfasts are just going to make you increase your total calorie intake through the day. And that's why eating protein for breakfast versus grains has been shown to help with weight loss. So it's really, really important, I think people understand that, that the, the protein is such a key factor in helping with metabolism and weight. And, and you cannot control your calories by counting them. You, if you're off 100 calories a day, it's like a 14 pound weight gain in a year. So nobody can measure exactly to 100 calories. So your body naturally regulates all of its metabolic functions through hormones, neurotransmitters, your microbiome, and lots of regulated by the quality and the type of calories you eat. So when you eat protein for breakfast. It has a very different set of messages to your body than if you eat sugar for breakfast. And that's why you don't overeat and you will eat less calories. There was a study in, in, in, in China. It was 156 obese Chinese adolescents. It was a randomized controlled trial. They were told to eat either breakfast of eggs or steamed bread for three months. Now, energy intake was significantly less for lunch in the egg breakfast group, meaning they ate less food at lunch. So this was, this was correlated with weight loss and lower levels of the hunger hormones and higher levels of the feel full hormones after three hours. So basically your hormones are set by what you're eating. And when you eat the right foods, you naturally regulate your hormones, particularly hormones that regulate appetite or peptides like PYY and ghrelin and all these other important regulatory factors for your appetite which are built in and they're hard to control with willpower. When they looked at what happened, they also saw they had dramatically higher weight loss in the egg breakfast than in the steamed bread breakfast. About 3.9% versus about 2.2%. That's like a, you know, I don't know, 20 fold difference. That's huge, right? The PYY, which is the appetite suppressing hormone, increased by 66% on those who eat eggs versus just 18% in the bread group. Now GLP1, which is, you know, zempic, which is your body naturally makes it. Those levels were lower and more stable in those who ate eggs, whereas in the bread group the GLP1 level surged and then dropped. So you got these spikes and then dropped so you're going to be hungry. So front loading your day with protein really helps you better reach your protein goals and sets you up for optimizing your metabolism. It makes you eat less during the day. It supplies your body with great amino acids for making hormones, enzyme neurotransmitters for muscle. It helps with muscle protein synthesis, which is really key. And I think I'm just gonna sort of point this out. When you eat breakfast, it's the most important meal because you're eating on a fasted state and you know, fasting is good overnight fast is great. But it's key what you eat when you refeed. And the refeeding with protein has unique properties that increases stem cells, activates all these longevity pathways and is an incredible way to build muscle. So make sure you have protein for breakfast. I think you probably got the point by now. Now protein also has a lot of other stuff it has essential amino acids and micronutrients. It helps your hormones, metabolism and so how much protein should you eat? Well, I would have 30 to 40 grams of protein for breakfast and then you probably need another 30, 40 grams at each meal. Now that's a palm sized portion. So have a savory breakfast instead of a sweet one. Have eggs, have Greek yogurt with nuts and fat in there. Not low fat, that's worse. Cottage cheese. But don't have the weird ones with gums. Make a tofu scramble with veggies. Tempeh, I love tempeh. Or protein shake. That's my go to. It's easy, it's quick, delicious. I use goat way. You can have dinner leftovers for breakfast. Some people do that. There's no, no rule that says you can have chicken or steak for breakfast. Some people do some steak and egg. So what else do you need to eat for breakfast? Well, healthy fats, they're really important because they help you promote satiety or feeling full. They slow your digestion. They increase a couple of peptides, digestive molecules and hormones and regulatory molecules that actually regulate your appetite like CCK and peptide YY or pyy. It balances your blood sugar and it fuels your brain and it doesn't spike insulin. So what could you eat? Well, half an avocado with your four eggs or two eggs with the yolks. No yolk free eggs. Please make sure you have pasture raised eggs. If you can cook them in olive oil, you can just cook at a lower temperature an extra virgin olive oil. Otherwise it gets oxidized if you took too high temperature. Lots of other fats are great for breakfast. Almonds, cashews, Brazil nuts, pecans, seeds like pumpkin, chia flax seeds. You can throw those in your smoothies too. Nut butters. You can have coconut oil, lots of fiber. Really important. You can have frozen berries or high in fiber, for example. I put that in my smoothie. Uh, when you do that, that fiber also helps, right? Fiber helps to support you feeling full. Why? Because it actually increases GLP1, right? Increases the very hormone that is the hormone that we think of as ozempic or it's, it's a peptide hormone, we call it peptide. So is insulin by the way. It's a peptide hormone. And, and this supports you in terms of digestion, stabilizing your blood sugar and helps your gut be healthy. Now what could you eat? Well, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, kiwi citrus fruit, grapefruit, oranges, chia seeds, flaxseeds spinach, leafy greens, kale, bell peppers. Also you could put a lot of veggies in an omelette. Omelet's great for breakfast. Why? Because it has protein, it has healthy fats. When you throw veggies in there, you got the fiber. It's a triple, triple header. What are examples of breakfast? Well, you can have omega 3 eggs or pasture raised eggs sauteed with dark leafy greens and berries on the side. Now one egg has only six to seven grams of protein, so you need at least three to four eggs to reach your morning protein goal. You can also try two eggs and egg whites if you're worried about the saturated fat. But you really don't need to be if the rest of your diet is dialed in and you're not eating ultra processed food. Now if you think eggs are boring, you can try the breakfast scramble which is two or three eggs, pasture raised chicken or turkey sausage, spinach, tomatoes, feta, goat cheese. You know, one of my favorite thing is make a frittata. I basically take all the leftover veggies in the fridge, onions, garlic, olive oil, stir fry them up, took out all the extra veggies, put them in there. Then I pour the eggs on about six, seven eggs and then I salt and pepper it. Maybe at the end I'll throw a little bit of goat cheese on there and. And it comes out fluffy and nice and amazing. Delicious. You can create mini egg bites. You know, basically take a whatever you put in a quiche and cut it up, cook it and then put in a muffin tin and put the eggs on it and it's like a little muffin egg, egg muffin but without the mick. You can make it on a Sunday. You can, you know, it's great to have in your fridge. It's great for meal preps. You can eat throughout the week. Also tofu scrambles are yummy. I love those. You can chop some extra firm tofu, cook in an extra virgin olive oil with turmeric greens, cherry tomatoes makes it look like actually scrambled eggs with the yellow from the turmeric. Plus it's super anti inflammatory. Now if you're on the go and you're busy, you can make chia seed pudding. At night you just put some chia seeds in a cup or bowl, pour some almond milk on it. You can throw some berries, nuts in there and it'll basically prepare itself overnight. It's low glycemic, it's high in protein and you can make a, also a smoothie but a High protein, low glycemic smoothie. I used frozen berries. I use unsweetened nut milk like macadamia milk. I do protein powder like goat whey basically probably 30, 40 grams at least. Sometimes I do 50 if I'm working out. You can throw in some chia seeds or flax seeds. You know you can, that's a great smoothie. You can also have hard boiled eggs are easy to do. You can have, you can also have hard boiled eggs and you can have them with sliced apples or berries, a handful of almonds. Really simple, easy, portable, not, not something you have to worry about preparing. You can make them the night before if you really want to go for it. You can have last night's dinner for breakfast. So you can put whatever you had for dinner for breakfast. If it's protein and veggies, you can make a yogurt parfait bowl. I like sheep, coconut or goat yogurt. Unsweetened Greek yogurt that's plain, hopefully grass fed. Put in berries, almonds, pecans, little drizzle of honey, that's fine. Or you can try plain unsweetened goat kefir. So a lot of options out there, right? If you need breakfast inspiration, I would check out my recipes that are featured weekly in my newsletter, Mark's Kitchen. So my favorite go to recipes are Kimchi wild rice breakfast bowl, Cabbage pancakes with poached eggs, my 15 minute turmeric fried eggs, everything but the bagel egg bites. Something sweet might be okay that doesn't spike your blood sugar like a high protein chocolate muffin. I have a recipe for that. Check out my brand new Young Forever cookbook. They'll be sure to make your mouth water. They certainly do mine. So thanks for joining me for another episode. I hope you now feel more equipped to plan your first meal of the day. Whether it's at 8am or 11am Whatever works best for you. Starting your day with a high quality nutrition, rich in protein, healthy fats and fiber is going to set you up for success. It's going to give you lots of energy, it's going to improve your focus, it'll help you lose weight and it's just better for your overall health. Now remember, the choices you make for your first meal are going to have a profound impact on how you feel throughout the day. So by prioritizing nutrient dense foods, you're not only fueling your body but you're also supporting your long term well being. So stay tuned for future episodes where we're going to continue to explore more ways to optimize your health and tackle various aspects of wellness. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to share it with your friends and family who might benefit with this information. Until next time, stay healthy, stay informed, keep making choices, and support your best self. And we'll see you next week for another exciting episode of Health Facts.