Harmful Effects Of Skipping Breakfast 

 

Starting one’s day with a healthy and balanced breakfast is just the key to staying active throughout the day. Breakfast is supposedly one of the most important meals of the day, we have been hearing it throughout the ages. 

While some people enjoy healthy breakfast in the morning, others may tend to skip it. So who is right and who is wrong?

Studies have shown that those who don’t skip their first meal of the day, that is breakfast, tend to be less obese and healthier. They are even at a lower risk of contracting various other chronic diseases. 

Some researchers also suggest that people who don’t have breakfast are supposed to have other unhealthy habits like smoking or alcohol addiction.

 

Here is the breakdown of everything that might happen when one skips their breakfast. In this article, we will explore the harmful effects of skipping breakfast and why it does more harm than good.

 

• Slows Down metabolism:

 Food provides us with the necessary energy to keep us going. Many studies suggest that by having breakfast our body is encouraged to burn more calories throughout the day. This helps in increasing your energy levels throughout the day and helps you perform your physical activities better.

 

• Might Cause Weight Gain:

According to many studies conducted on the harmful effects of skipping breakfast, it was found that people who miss breakfast had higher chances of gaining weight rather than losing it.

This may be due to the fact that those who skip breakfast tend to intake more calories, sugar and saturated fat throughout their day. As skipping breakfast increases your cravings for fatty and sugary foods.

At the same time, the higher your level of hunger is the larger the quantity of your next meal. This may lead you to actually consume more calories than your recommended daily dose.

 

• Drops Blood Sugar Levels:

Eating in the morning helps to stabilize your insulin levels and restore glycogen. By ignoring your sugar levels in the morning you simply end up irritable, fatigued and hungry.

Many studies have also suggested that people who skip breakfast are at increased risk of acquiring type 2 diabetes in comparison to people who don’t skip their breakfast. So if you have a family history of diabetes you might reconsider your decision not to have breakfast.

 

• Affects your Heart:

One of the biggest side effects of not having breakfast is that it leaves a bad effect on your heart. Avoiding breakfast increases your susceptibility to hypertension. People who regularly avoid breakfast are at greater risk of having heart attacks than people who have it regularly.

 

• Causes Migraine:

Skipping breakfasts trigger a massive dip in sugar levels, which in turn prompt the release of hormones that compensate for the low levels of sugar. It also increases blood pressure thereby triggering migraine and headaches.

 

• Increases risk of Cancer:

Skipping your first meal of the day may load you with extra calories throughout the day, constantly consuming calories more than required by our body tends to make us gain weight or makes us obese.

According to researchers, it was found that obese people had a higher risk of developing cancer.

 

• Increase in Levels of Stress Hormone:

Eating breakfast has a positive effect on your cortisol. It is the primary stress hormone released by the adrenal glands. High levels of cortisol tend to make you more jittery or anxious. 

The level of cortisol is found to be highest at around seven in the morning, which is why one should consider having something at that time to bring your hormone levels down.

 

• Leads to Hairfall:

As breakfast is considered one of the most important meals of the day, it also helps in the growth of hair follicles. A meal containing a deficit in protein could affect the level of keratin, which in turn averts hair growth thereby triggering hair loss.

A breakfast rich in proteins could be just the thing for you if you wish to have long, shiny and lustrous hair.

 

• Increases Cognitive functioning:

Including breakfast in your morning regime increase your cognitive functioning. Many types of research prove that people having breakfast daily tenfold have better cognitive functioning compared to those who skip their breakfast.

 

• Irregular Menstrual cycle:

A study conducted on female college students who had the habit of skipping breakfast regularly showed that they had more menstrual irregularities. They were even found to have painful periods along with irregular menstrual bleeds.

 

•  Worsens Hangover:

A nourishing breakfast can help you ward off your hangover. It can kick up your energy levels intact. A breakfast rich in iron, proteins and other necessary vitamins helps compensate your body for the lost nutrients.

 

• Increase in Acidity Levels:

Not having your breakfast can make you acidic. When our body needs fuel or feels hungry, acids are released in our stomach for digestion. If the acid doesn’t get the food required to process it will in turn work upon the surrounding areas like the stomach, food pipe as well as heart, leading to acidity.

To conclude although breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day yet many don’t take it seriously. Some researchers have even made it a debatable topic as to whether one should take breakfast or completely avoid it.  

The truth is as we have seen in the article above, by skipping breakfast we are doing more harm to our body than benefitting from it. 

One of the most common reasons for people skipping breakfast is simply because they don’t feel hungry. If you are one of those people simply consider taking a healthy smoothie or milkshake to kick start your day. This will help you build a healthier routine for yourself in the long run. 

Hope the article has busted many myths relating to whether one should have or shouldn’t have breakfast and at the same time made us realise that our mothers were right all along when they said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.