health

March 8, 2019

4 min read

Breakfast myth demystified

Breakfast myth demystified

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TSEPANG LEDIA This might come as a shock to most people because we have always been told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But No! Breakfast is actually the worst meal of the day. Latest researches prove that, if you want to live longer, while looking younger, have less body fat and reduce the risk of cancer and many other metabolic diseases. Let me briefly explain what this bold statement means. Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern where you cycle between periods of eating and fasting! Research on intermittent fasting began as early as before the Second World War. Tests were run on rats but were never popularized until quite recently. Through intermittent fasting, the lifespan of the rats utilised increased significantly and they were less likely to develop cancer.

It also found that rats brought up on intermittent fasting had less body fat than others. But why has this discovery never been endorsed to society sooner? One simple reason is that intermittent fasting is bad for business. Big food corporations lose a lot of money when people fast, specifically when they do not eat breakfast. Another interesting research began studying the effects on people during the Islamic Holy Month of Ramadan, where Muslims refrain from eating from sunrise until sunset. Scientists initially believed that this shift from eating throughout the day to restricting the window eating to only a few hours would cause catastrophic health problems. Their hypothesis was that people would get fat and ill from gorging without portion control, however the results proved the opposite. People on intermittent fasting were losing fat, keeping muscle, reducing the risk of high blood pressure, heart diseases and diabetes without any special foods. Think about any other approach that brings this kind of drastic results and is easy to implement? All one has to do is to skip breakfast,simple.

Intermittent fasting is not a diet, unlike the many hyped diets, it does not restrict calories. You will only restrict the time you eat throughout the day, typically to hours. It is really that simple. If you eat your last meal around 8pm and skip breakfast the next
morning to have your first meal around noon, you would have successfully fasted for 16 hours leaving you with an eight-hour eating window. You can if you wish, within this eight-hour eating window eat two to three meals. You may ask, what about six small meals a day, to keep metabolism high and avoid starvation mode? Well, if you eat 2,000 calories six meals compared to eating one huge meal of 2,000 calories, you will still burn the same 2,000 calories. If you keep eating six more meals a day, your chances of burning fat reduces because your body will get its energy from glycogen storage and blood sugar while keeping fat reserves intact and unused. Glycogen and blood sugar will become depleted first after six to eight hours without eating. Once you wake up and have breakfast, you
will restore that depletion and by eating every two to three hours, you will never allow fat storage to be used as energy.

Starvation mode does exist but does not come into play until 72 to 96 hours after your last meal which is three to four days. The reason for this comes back to our ancestors; they had to hunt and gather food in order to survive. This would often take several days for
them to achieve. As humans, we are meant to alternate between fasting and feasting; between going for long periods without food and then to eating huge amounts of food in a short time. It is only very recently in our long history that humans have access to food all hours around the clock. Unfortunately, this is also one of the reasons so many people are sick and obese.

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Intermittent fasting also has an incredible effect on releasing natural Human Growth Hormone (HGH). Human Growth Hormone is also known as “the fitness hormone”, responsible for a number of benefits such as fat loss, muscle growth, longevity, anti-aging, healing and
cell repair amongst others. We have known for eons that when we sleep, that is when we release most of our growth hormone. This is because insulin and human growth hormone are indirectly related and when insulin is elevated you cannot release human growth hormone. Insulin is only released after you have had a meal. So, when you are asleep and you have not consumed food for some time,
insulin drops, compelling the body to release human growth hormone. What is so special and unique about intermittent pathway is that you expand the time of fasting, which will allow significant amounts of HGH to be released. Another huge benefit that comes with intermittent fasting is the effect it has on the brain. Earlier we indicated that when you are in a fasted mode, with no glycogen, the body turns to fat for energy and as this happens, ketone bodies are released into your blood stream, which your brain prefers over other
sources of energy. The release of ketones will increase your focus, concentration, ability to remember while simultaneously reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

Still feel like eating breakfast at this point? I hope I have managed to convince you somehow; at least check out the possibility to skip it. Try it for a few weeks and evaluate how you feel, it will be difficult in the beginning, but once the body gets used to it, you will not see breakfast as the most important meal of the day again. Never! *What is your opinion? We would like to hear your opinion. Write to editor@maserumetro.com

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