Chances are, you were taught by your parents to eat a huge breakfast every morning. My parents were very conscientious about it because I was a small child. “You need the energy,” my mother would say as she made me gulp down a tall glass of milk, pieces of toast w/ butter and a poached egg, as soon as I got out of bed.
The idea that “breakfast is the most important meal” is a part of almost every American’s daily life – if not in practise, at least in mentality. When I was in college, half of my friends did not eat breakfast at all because we were all too busy. We felt mostly fine, but we knew we weren’t being “healthy” by skipping out on breakfast. Big breakfasts are such a part of our culture that McDonalds adopted the name and turned it into a money-making menu item. (Haven’t we all had at least one “Deluxe Big Breakfast” in our lifetime?)
What people don’t realize is that big, heavy meals are a strain on your digestive system, which in turn drains your energy reserves. (Ever wondered why you feel exhausted after a big dinner and dessert?) Ironically, people eat because they need energy, but the process of digestion itself is anything but energizing to your body.
When you sleep at night, you’re giving your digestive system a break, and food from the day is getting a chance to move through your system to be eliminated the next morning. If you insist on having a big greasy breakfast of sausage, bacon, eggs, pancakes and hashbrowns as soon as you hop out of bed, you’re guaranteeing that you’re going to be needing an afternoon siesta. These common breakfast items are all difficult for your body to digest, and they will sit in your system for hours, using up all that energy you needed for other things, to break down those foods.
The word “breakfast” is no mistake. We all know that fasting helps the body to cleanse and detox itself. Most of us do not fast enough. We eat until late hours of the night, give our system a mere 6-8 hour break, then tax it again first thing in the morning by breaking our fast with a big heavy meal. We would be healthier if we learned to give our bodies more rest, and to truly fast from evening til late the next morning.
I have two suggestions to this end.
1. First, I suggest that you eat only fruit until noon. Fruit is easily and quickly digested (melons are digested in about 30 minutes!) so this will ensure that you have enough energy to get through your morning. Watery fruits are great for the morning—things like watermelon, cantaloupe. You could also do fruit smoothies. My kids’ favorite smoothie is strawberry-banana.
2. Second, I suggest that you don’t eat at all in the morning (except for drinking water), until you feel hungry. Keep in mind that people who are active and/or work out in the mornings will need to eat sooner than those who are sedentary. When you do this, you will be more in tune with your body functions and you will probably see that you have more energy to keep you going. You may even experience true hunger (which is a rarity today) at some point.
With that, I’m off to eat some breakfast! After all, it’s almost noon. :)
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{ 8 comments }
Hello Alll!!
While I can definitely agree with you about the heavy meal, but I was wondering what would the suggestion for someone who is diagnosed with Diabetes. Considering that it is wiser to split our meal into 5-6 meals a day, where do one start and end their meal plan? For a busy student who also have two jobs, sometime I feel like I have to eat a huge meal at breakfast time because during the day I seem not to have the time to eat. In regards to letting you system have time to digest, is it true that you should consume more fiberous things like fruits and vegetable as recommended by the new food guide pyramid which they have added excercise recommendation as well which should help you to digest better?
Hi Suan,
Thank you for your comment! My sister is a college student and she never has time to eat, either. My suggestion would be to pack fresh whole fruit, cut-up veggies and other healthy food so you can have always have food wherever you go. Things like apples, bananas, cut up celery sticks with nut butters, trail mix.
Certainly, if it feels good doing so – you should start out with a big breakfast – as long as it is a healthy breakfast of fruit. :) If you continue to improve your diet by including more fruits and veggies, your body will start telling you what it needs and when.
Yes, it is certainly true that we should consume A LOT more fiberous food like fruits and veggies. Not only for the fiber, but for the precious nutrients they provide, among other things. I am a raw foodist — so I eat only raw, ripe fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds. :)
Exercise should definitely be a part of every person’s health plan. It will certainly help with your digestion!
I’ve actually read of a family who cured their son of “incurable” juvenile diabetes by putting him on a raw food diet of fruit, veggies, nuts and seeds. They wrote a book about it. If you are interested, feel free to email me.
Oops, forgot to leave you my email — sarahparker @ gmail.com
Hi Sarah!
Thanks for you response!!! Now I have heard of all those suggestions before, but I just feel like it is so hard to carry those things around and keep it fresh. I am constantly driving from one place to another. It is either school to work or work to school. So drive-thru seems to be a “convinent” option. Usually it is one hand holding the food and the other one is manuvering the steering wheel. I think that is why I try to have a huge breakfast so then I do not have to eat during the day, but I know that is a huge mistake.I am very interested in that book as well. I have heard of many who try to cure themselves with disease, the the main thing about this is that it is controllable by you diet and excercise. have you heard of the napolita drink. It is a hispanic vegetable that they I think boil with water or something like that but there were a lot of claims that it help lower their blood sugar.
I was also wondering how much of a difference do you see in your grocery bill by eating more of organic Food and buying healthier meals like let say Banquet dinners vs. Lean Cuisine. This is a really tough decision and hard on the budget if a family is low income. What suggestions are there for families like this?
Hi Suan,
I’m a big believer that a healthy lifestyle (esp diet) helps your body to heal itself. :)
I’ve never heard of napolita drink… it sounds interesting!
As far as difference in grocery bill — we eat mostly raw fruits and veggies, and we buy organic from a co-op, so it is not too bad.
Before, when we were eating a lot of “healthy” vegetarian processed foods, shopping at Whole Foods and Wild Oats, our bill actually was higher than when we used to eat cheap boxed mac’n'cheese and Hamburger Helper. :)
However, to us, the cost is worth it because none of us have been to a doctor in a few years. :) And now, that we’ve cut out most processed food, it is even cheaper. Buying through the co-op really helps!
And by the way, we’ve always been on a tight budget, and we feel that the food choices we made have been good in spite of the price.
Thats rediculous, your telling people to not eat breakfast till approx noon, most people are up for work round 6-7 am, this means five hours without eating or eating only fruit, first of all, there metabolism will not kick start after waking up and so when they do eat, it will be so low that the body takes only a portion of the meal and stores the rest for later- FAT! Second by only eating fruit in the morning there not getting there RDI for carbs and other foods for the day- still need carbs for better, more effecient energy. this means they will be eating the carbs in the afternoon, most prob for dinner when they should be reducing there total carb intake. With all the fruit in the morning will get there fibre right, fibre makes you feel full, playing tricks on your mind so, then they do not eat enough for the morning, come luchtime they feel really hunngrey and cant help but binge eat, not everybody has total disclpline to handle hunger pains. please reply to this comment i would love to here your thoughts.
Hello Mark,
Thanks for your comment.
I think we’re coming at this from two very different health philosophies. :) I believe in a high carb (mainly from fruit) diet. I eat a mostly raw food diet, and I should probably have specified that in my post. I do believe generically that just fruit makes an excellent and healthy meal for anybody.
Let me clarify – I am not telling people not to eat breakfast til noon. I am suggesting that they only eat fruit til noon, and that they wait to eat until they feel an appetite for breakfast.
Second, the simple sugars in fruit are carbs – and carbs that are very easily digested by the body to provide fuel.
I do agree that with the fiber (and water) in fruit, it is difficult to take in enough calories to carry you through to the next meal. I do suggest that you eat a VERY large meal of fruit. For example, think 6 or more bananas rather than 1 or 2. Or a fruit smoothie – you can squeeze a lot of fruit into a smoothie.
I am not recommending that one should have the discipline to handle true hunger pains – I think if you are hungry you should eat. Though, of course one could argue what hunger really is. If I skip a meal one day, I might feel what I think is hunger pangs – but is it really hunger or have I trained my stomach too well to expect food intake at certain times?
I have personally found that I naturally do not feel like eating when I first wake up and it generally takes me about 3 hours before I feel the need for any food.
Hope this helps clarify some of my thoughts. Thanks for your comment!
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