The breakfast boycott

The breakfast-haters are a tough crowd. They’re few, but they’re proud and stubborn as mules. No granola bar or glass of milk for them between rising straight from bed and dashing off to work.They’ve pushed aside Mom’s morning French toast for years, saying they’re “not hungry.”

But when dinner plans are up in the air (or burnt at the bottom of the casserole dish), who doesn’t love a good breakfast for dinner?

Nothing’s better than channeling your inner-lumberjack with a big plate of pancakes, syrup, sausage, hash browns, bacon, toast and eggs in the evening.

For some tummies, breakfast fare is only enjoyable when the sun is down, but are people healthier for skipping their morning meal? A new study from Technical University of Munich is challenging our long-held belief that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Researchers asked 380 subjects of varying weights to log their food intake for about two weeks. Analyzing this data showed that eating more calories for breakfast didn’t lower the subjects’ calorie count for the rest of the day. And instead of eating a large breakfast and then subsequently smaller meals, they simply ate more food during the day.

In its conclusion, the study suggests that subjects “consider the reduction of breakfast calories as a simple option to improve their daily energy balance.”

The German study calls for limiting breakfast calories, so the lumberjack smorgasbord may not be ideal, but breakfast doesn’t need to be reduced to a vitamin pill and a glass of water either.

People may pass on breakfast in an effort to lose weight, but WebMD’s website says that eating “the same number of calories in smaller, more frequent meals” is a better way to reduce body fat.

Breakfast should be served differently rather than skipped. For example, cereals and white breads are digested too quickly to keep that full feeling from morning until noon.

One nutrition site suggests eating a hard-boiled egg in the morning at home and then an apple or handful of pecans or walnuts a few hours later during a break.

Still, the breakfast-haters may not be willing to try these simple compromises. Anti-breakfast habits are tough to break.

If people don’t like breakfast food in the morning, maybe they ought to flip the tables and promote the dinner-breakfast.

A quick bite for breakfast should be easy. Breakfast is just food to kick start the day. It doesn’t need to be a health-nut routine.

Just do your mom a favor and eat something before you head out the door, OK?


E-mail: paihenry@indiana.edu