Skipping breakfast – Good or bad for health?
Not eating lunch is not ideal because lunch is an essential meal. It allows us to recharge the batteries and prepares us for an active afternoon. When we skip lunch, we lose our ability to concentrate and our energy. In addition, it exposes us to snacking later in the day. And there is a good chance that we will then choose foods that are less healthy than those that we would eat during lunch.
Calories are better metabolized in the first part of the day, during breakfast and lunch. Our bodies function optimally when we align our food intake with our circadian rhythms, those 24-hour cycles that tell our bodies when to wake up, eat and go to sleep.
Lunch time corresponds to a peak of activity in our body. Our digestive system is prepared to receive food. The pancreas increases its production of insulin which regulates blood sugar. On the other hand, in the evening, we digest food less efficiently.
Skipping breakfast does not help you lose weight
Skipping lunch can lead to snacking on fatty and sugary foods later. Studies suggest that it is by eating more in the first part of the day that you can lose more weight. This means having a good breakfast if you are hungry, a normal lunch and a light dinner, not too late in the evening. By eating late, we go against our biological rhythms. Studies have shown that this puts you at risk for metabolic disorders such as diabetes and weight gain.
If the schedule counts, the regularity of meals also plays a role in health and weight.
Have snacks if you have to skip lunch
If you can’t eat at lunchtime, you can structure your food intake at other times of the day. If you are hungry in the morning, you reinforce your breakfast. We can take sourdough bread, muesli without added sugar, or oatmeal which provides slow carbohydrates, a fruit, a dairy product, and we do not forget the animal or vegetable proteins found in eggs, ham, salmon, or nuts and seeds, such as almonds and pumpkin seeds.
Otherwise, you can provide snacks to take in the late morning or early afternoon and around 5 p.m.. This can be, for example, wholemeal bread with ham, boiled eggs and cherry tomatoes, or a Skyr or fromage blanc, with a handful of almonds and a banana. And around 5 p.m., a handful of almonds with dried fruit or 1 or 2 squares of chocolate.
At dinner, we adjust by eating vegetables, in the form of soup or raw vegetables, and as an accompaniment to a little meat, fish, or legumes and cereals. And depending on the foods you have already eaten during the day, you can take a plain dairy product or a fruit. Finally, during the day, we think of hydrating regularly.
