Rethinking breakfast

By Dr. Hoffman

The traditional wisdom, endlessly purveyed by young, slender dieticians on TV, is that you should eat a hearty breakfast. The mantra is that "breakfast is the most important meal" and that it sets the tone for optimal metabolism throughout the day.

Indeed there is wisdom and science to back this up. Studies show that, if you eat a breakfast of sugary cereal, or refined pastry, or white toast with jam, your blood sugar will skyrocket, generating a compensatory burst of insulin. Within a couple of hours, your blood sugar will crash, and you will be famished. The subsequent ricochets of glucose will send your appetite and mood careening for the rest of the day.

When I tell patients this, many of them agree, saying that a good breakfast "anchors" them for the rest of the day, and prevents indiscriminate eating later on. Others protest that, if they eat breakfast, it kindles their appetites, and they're off to the races on their food cravings. The latter group often says: "I'm fine until I eat, then it's downhill for the rest of the day."

Recently, some counter-think has been introduced into the breakfast controversy. With the popularity of "Intermittent Fasting", some advocate that the longer we go without eating, the better it is for us. During the long period between dinner and a late brunch-sometimes up to 18 hours-the digestive apparatus rests, and ketosis is induced--a metabolic state in which the body cannibalizes its own fat stores. Restricting eating to a narrow "window" of say, eight hours per day is a modified and do-able form of Intermittent Fasting.

Some studies have shown that avoiding late meals (after around 6PM) is a good strategy for losing weight.

Advocates of Intermittent Fasting say it reduces insulin resistance, combats inflammation, and even helps mood and memory because blood sugar is stabilized and the brain fuels itself with ketones.

What about the timing of breakfast around morning exercise?

Ignoring the rules of thermodynamics --"Energy begets energy"--I often rise early, have a glass of water or black decaf, then jump in the pool or the bay for a 1500 yard swim or hop on the bike for a 25 mile bike ride-without eating food or consuming "power-drinks". This may seem counter-intuitive, because where's the fuel coming from which powers the hour or so exertion that I undertake?

For one, it's stored in glycogen that binds to muscles (most of the glycogen that's stored in liver has been expended during the overnight fast). For another, it's derived from fat oxidation.

There's a lot of misinformation out there. Some seemingly authoritative sports web sites claim, with little substantiation, that it's important to consume some carbohydrates before morning exercise "to allow the body to burn fat more readily". But when this proposition was recently put to the test in a Belgian study, it came up short.

Researchers recruited 28 healthy active men, and divided them into three groups: One group got a special high-octane breakfast without exercise; another consumed breakfast before exercising; and a third group ate after completing their exercise.

As might be expected, after several weeks, the first group gained a lot of weight-six pounds, on average. The group that ate breakfast before exercising also gained weight, but only half as much. By contrast, the group that consumed a meal after their workout didn't gain weight, and showed none of the signs of insulin resistance that the other hearty breakfast-eaters exhibited.

The conclusion: When it comes to exercise, a calorie is not a calorie is not a calorie, and meal-timing is crucial.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule of "no food before exercise". Rarely, if I'm going to do a mega-workout of two hours or more, or if I'm about to compete in an Olympic triathlon (~3 hrs of swimming, biking and running), I'm going to have some calorie-dense, gluten-free hot-cereal or toast and a banana or two to glom glycogen into my muscles. If I don't eat, after about a couple of hours of continuous exertion, I "bonk" when my starved muscles exhaust their glycogen stores.

The ability to retain glycogen at muscles sites with long periods of exertion is a training effect; untrained, sedentary individuals can't go long without tiring if they don't eat. Gradually, the ability to exercise without pre-fueling can be acquired with repetitive bouts of progressively longer fasted exercise. Additionally, the more muscle mass you acquire, the more sites there are for glycogen to be stored.

So is it a good idea to go-for-broke and skip eating until dinnertime? Maybe, if you're an Intermittent Faster taking the day off from working out, but certainly not for morning exercisers. It's been demonstrated that proper intake of food within an hour of completing exercise--especially of protein and healthy fats, along with some quality low-glycemic index carbs--facilitates muscle repair and strength consolidation.

So what are you? Are you a breakfast person? Comment on this article on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/DrRonaldHoffman) and tell us what works for you!

Have a comment on this article? Send it.


 

Back to...

Health conditions and concerns

More in this group...

Vitamin c / atherosclerosis scare

Functional food science

Is your diet making you sick?

Drugs that steal

Iron: deficiency and toxicity

12 drugs you should never take (part 2 of 3)

12 supplements you should NEVER take

"Death by food pyramid": a review

"Don't take your vitamins"? So not!

"Fed Up": A movie review

Intelligent Medicine Bone Health Protocol available now!

Intelligent Medicine Health News Review

10 "Duh!" health and nutrition stories

10 simple hacks to improve your diet

10 ways the foods you eat can affect your sex life

11 reasons why you should be using extra virgin olive oil

11 things worth trying if you suffer from tinnitus

12 drugs you should never take (part 1 of 3)

12 drugs you should never take (part 3 of 3)

12 supplements you should NEVER take

13 tips for surviving the holidays (part one)

13 tips for surviving the holidays (part two)

16 reasons to go nuts for nuts

5 easy Paleo diet hacks

6 new products that I'm excited about in 2015

A nerd in the kitchen: My review of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science by J. Kenji Lo

American Heart Association doubles down on outmoded saturated fat recommendations

Are "paleo snacks" an oxymoron?

Are fruit and veggie pills really as effective as they claim?

Are fruit and veggie pills really as effective as they claim?

Are vegetarians healthier than meat-eaters? So NOT, according to shocking new studies

Can a low-salt diet actually be BAD for you?

Can what you eat really damage your thyroid?

Clinical Focus: Nicotinamide Riboside

Confessions of an EX-vegan

Could a vegetarian diet undermine your mental health?

Could a vegetarian diet undermine your mental health?

Could Big Sugar become the next Big Tobacco?

Death by Food Pyramid? by Denise Minger: A Review

Defensive Eating: Taming your addiction to food

Detox in a box

Dispatches from the front lines of nutrition-what you need to know about the latest health headlines

Do you have SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth)?

Do you really need to eat breakfast?

Frontline gets it wrong about supplements

GMO non-browning apples: A risky solution to a non-problem

Happy one millionth podcast! Let's review the best of 2015 so far

How a raw foods diet can make you sick

ICYMI: Dr. Hoffman's Store now available through Fullscript!

Iron: Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?

Is fructose really that bad for you?

Is the "pandemic" of vitamin D deficiency exaggerated?

Is the way to a (wo)man's heart through his(her) stomach?

Is the Whole30 diet right for you? (part one)

Is the Whole30 diet right for you? (part two)

Is your grill killing you? Your personal anti-AGEing program

More good news about olive leaf extract

Organic produce trumps conventional: Here's why!

Paleo pitfalls

Paleo Pitfalls

Pro-vegan website outs apostate meat-eaters

Repeat after me: "Hunger is my friend!"

Rethinking Super Size Me: Is it a Big Whopper?

Rethinking breakfast

Revisiting salt intake - are you eating too much or too little?

Sorry vegans, but humans were designed to eat (some) meat

Supplements that I take

The artificial sweetener controversy: who should you believe?

The Whole30: A review

The WORST health and nutrition stories of 2015

There's no "one-size-fits-all" diet, according to new research

To juice or not to juice?

Top 10 "duh!" health and nutrition stories of 2016

Vitamins can cause cancer-REALLY??

What do Bill Gates, eggs, and soylent green have in common?

What week is it, kiddies? Why, it's National Folic Acid Week!

Why I liberally indulge in high-test chocolate

Why you don't have to feel guilty about those Valentine's Day chocolates

Why you should keep taking your supplements

Will the "real" China study please stand up

Yet more reasons to go gluten-free