Is breakfast really the most important meal of the day?

Breakfast has been considered to be the most important meal of the day for decades. Many previous studies have shown that having breakfast is important to people’s health conditions. Some people also think that breakfast is related to weight loss. However, some recent research suggested that breakfast is not really the most important meal of the day. People may not lose weight by having breakfast every day.

Source: Pressmaster/Shutterstock

The previous studies which suggested that having breakfast is associated with weight loss are mostly the observational study. However, people conclude that breakfast is the most important meal based on these observational studies instead of some professional experiments. These observational studies cannot give us a causal relationship, and they can only be used to suggest a correlation.

Some people have an idea that skipping breakfast will make people eat more. However, the research showed that people who skip breakfast may have a lower total energy intake over the day. There is no big difference in daily energy intake between skipping the breakfast and not skipping the breakfast. A study with 300 participants analyze the effects of breakfast on weight loss. They split the participants into two groups, one group ate the breakfast and one group did not. The results showed that there is no significant association between having breakfast and weight loss. Having breakfast for weight loss is only effective when participants are changing their breakfast eating habits. There are also some particular benefits of skipping breakfast. Patients with Type 2 diabetes were found to have better performance if they skip the breakfast.

In conclusion, breakfast is optional. Having breakfast or not really depends on people’s opinion. There is no strong evidence that suggests breakfast is the most important meal of a day. If you like eating breakfast, then you can insist it. If you do not like eating breakfast, then there is no reason to force yourself to change it.

By Junchao Bai