How to "Remedy" Skipping Breakfast
Introduction: As the first meal of the day, breakfast is crucial for dietary nutrient intake, maintaining good health, and improving work and study efficiency. However, in today's fast-paced society, many people simply don't have time for breakfast. How can the nutritional value of breakfast be made up for? What are the quick ways to replenish it?
If you really don't have time for breakfast, you can take some remedial measures, such as preparing some convenient foods that can be prepared on the go, like sesame paste, oatmeal, or soy milk powder; carrying easy-to-eat nuts like walnut kernels or peanuts; or buying highly nutritious foods for breakfast on your way to work, such as yogurt, soy milk, tea eggs, roasted sweet potatoes, or seasonal fruits.
The following food combinations can serve as a "remedy":
(1) A few slices of whole wheat bread + a bottle of yogurt + a few cherry tomatoes = a nutritious breakfast
(2) A tea egg + sesame paste + an orange = a nutritious breakfast
(3) Oatmeal + a cup of soy milk + a small handful of walnuts or almonds = a nutritious breakfast
(4) A roasted sweet potato + a small handful of peanuts + a banana = a nutritious breakfast
If you can't even manage a nutritious breakfast, then drinking a glass of honey water, eating a few peanuts, or having a few biscuits and a cup of yogurt, while not nutritionally adequate, is still better than not eating at all.
Editor's Recommendation: Skipping Breakfast May Lead to a Decreased Libido
What are the harms of skipping breakfast?
Research shows that the lack of energy and nutrients from skipping breakfast is difficult to fully compensate for at lunch and dinner. Therefore, one should eat breakfast every day, and it should be a good breakfast, to ensure adequate intake of energy and nutrients.
The energy-supplying nutrients in food are the main source of maintaining blood sugar levels. The energy-supplying ratio of carbohydrates, protein, and fat in breakfast foods should be 5:1:0.7. This allows carbohydrates to effectively raise blood sugar levels quickly after a meal, while also utilizing the function of protein and fat to maintain blood sugar levels two hours after eating. The two complement each other, keeping blood sugar stable throughout the morning to meet the brain's demand for glucose, which is important for ensuring work and learning efficiency in the morning.
Test if your breakfast is nutritious
Breakfast foods should be diverse and well-balanced. You can evaluate the nutritional adequacy of your breakfast based on the variety of foods. If your breakfast includes:
1. Grains;
2. Animal foods (meat, eggs);
3. Milk and dairy products;
4. Vegetables and fruits, then the breakfast is nutritionally adequate. If it includes only 3 of these categories, it is relatively adequate. If it includes 2 or fewer categories, it is nutritionally inadequate.
The energy provided by breakfast should account for 25% to 30% of the total daily energy. For an adult's breakfast, 100 grams of grains can be chosen, such as steamed buns, bean paste buns, oatmeal, bread, noodles, or congee; a moderate amount of protein foods like meat, eggs, milk, or soy products; plus 100 grams of vegetables and 100 grams of fruit. The energy and food amounts needed vary by age and labor intensity, so adjustments should be made according to individual circumstances.
8 Typical Breakfast Mistakes
1. The earlier the breakfast, the better = Typical Mistake
Many early risers have breakfast immediately after getting up at 5 or 6 in the morning, thinking this replenishes the body in time and aids absorption. However, eating breakfast too early is not only unhealthy for the body but can also harm the stomach and intestines.
Suggestion: It's better to drink water first after getting up to replenish the fluids lost during sleep, and then have breakfast after 20 to 30 minutes of activity.
2. Using snacks as breakfast = Typical Mistake
While it's fine to eat snacks like cookies or chocolate when you're hungry, using them as the most important meal of the day is very unscientific. Most snacks are dry foods, which are not easy to digest and absorb for the body in a semi-dehydrated state in the morning. Moreover, snacks like cookies, mainly made from grains, can provide energy for a short time but will soon make you feel hungry again, causing blood sugar levels to drop significantly by noon. Eating snacks for breakfast can easily lead to malnutrition, a decline in physical fitness, and make one susceptible to various diseases.
Suggestion: Avoid replacing breakfast with snacks, especially not too many dry ones. Breakfast foods should contain sufficient moisture. If your breakfast is too dry, you can add a cucumber.
3. "Fried dough sticks with soy milk" as breakfast = Typical Mistake
Compared to the more Western-style "milk and eggs," the traditional Chinese "fried dough sticks with soy milk" is more popular. However, this combination is also unhealthy. During high-temperature frying, nutrients in the dough sticks are destroyed and carcinogens are produced, which is detrimental to health. Additionally, fried dough sticks, like other fried foods, are high in oil and calories, making them hard to digest in the morning. Soy milk is also a medium-fat food, so this breakfast combination is significantly too high in fat and should not be consumed long-term.
Suggestion: It's best to eat fried dough sticks with soy milk no more than twice a week. On days you eat this, lunch and dinner should be as light as possible, avoiding fried, stir-fried, or sautéed foods, and be sure to eat more vegetables.
4. Using leftover food for breakfast = Typical Mistake
Many families "cook extra for dinner and use the leftovers for the next morning's fried rice or simply reheat the remaining dishes for breakfast. This is convenient and the content is rich, almost like a full meal, and is often considered nutritionally complete. However, vegetables left overnight can produce nitrites, which are harmful to health.
Suggestion: Try not to eat leftover vegetables. If you use other leftover foods for breakfast, be sure to store them properly to prevent spoilage. Food taken from the refrigerator must be thoroughly heated.
5. Having breakfast from a street stall = Typical Mistake
Buying breakfast from a street stall and eating it while walking involves whole-body movement. Office workers are often in a hurry in the morning, especially if they live far from work, and often have breakfast on the road, buying things like buns, tea eggs, "Roujiamo" (Chinese hamburgers), or "Jianbing" (savory crepes) near their residential community or bus stop.
Eating while walking is bad for stomach health and不利于 digestion and absorption. Furthermore, street food often has hygiene issues and can lead to illness.
Suggestion: If you choose to have breakfast from a street stall, pay attention to hygiene. It's best to buy it and take it home or to the office to eat, rather than eating it on the way to work to avoid harming your health.
6. Having an overly nutritious breakfast = Typical Mistake
Many people, realizing the importance of breakfast, try to make their breakfast as rich as possible by consuming large amounts of high-protein, high-calorie, and high-fat foods like cheese, hamburgers, fried chicken wings, and other fried foods. However, an overly nutritious breakfast only加重 the burden on the stomach and intestines and is harmful to the body.
Suggestion: Breakfast should be based on the principle of balanced nutrition, focusing on foods that are easy to digest, high in fiber, and low in fat and sugar, such as congee, milk, soy milk, noodles, or wontons. It is not advisable to eat greasy, fried, hard, or irritating foods, nor to eat too much.
7. Confusing pure milk with "breakfast milk" = Typical Mistake
Milk is a staple for many people's breakfasts: pure milk and breakfast milk. Although both contain milk, their ingredients and nutritional content are different. Pure milk is just fresh milk, while breakfast milk contains ingredients like milk, water, malt extract, peanuts, egg powder, oats, stabilizers, iron fortifiers, and zinc fortifiers. The protein content of breakfast milk is generally above 2.3%, while that of pure milk is usually between 2.9% and 3.1%.
Suggestion: In comparison, breakfast milk is more nutritionally balanced and more suitable for drinking in the morning. Pure milk has a relatively lower proportion of carbohydrates, so it's best to pair it with starchy foods or nuts when consumed.
8. "Milk and eggs" instead of staple foods = Typical Mistake
"Milk and eggs" is the main breakfast for many people, but this combination is not scientific. In the morning, the body urgently needs a breakfast rich in carbohydrates to replenish energy. Although milk and eggs are rich in high-quality protein, they mainly supply protein for the body's structure and cannot provide enough energy. After eating, one will soon feel hungry, which affects the stomach and indirectly impacts work and learning efficiency, with a particularly significant impact on children.
Suggestion: Breakfast must include staple foods. When drinking milk and eating eggs, you should also pair them with staple foods like porridge, bread, or steamed buns to replenish energy. These grain-based foods can provide the body with sufficient carbohydrates and help with the absorption of milk.