Starting tomorrow, please adjust your breakfast habits!

I believe everyone has heard the saying "eat a good breakfast, eat a full lunch, and eat less dinner". The importance of breakfast is self-evident. After a whole night of digestion, the food in our stomach has been completely digested. The stomach will secrete a lot of gastric acid when sleeping at night. Eating breakfast can neutralize the gastric acid and protect our digestive tract. Moreover, when we just get up in the morning, our blood sugar is low. Eating breakfast can provide glucose for the heart and brain cells. A delicious breakfast can help us start a day full of energy. However, many people often just eat something casually because they don't have enough time in the morning or don't pay attention to breakfast. They think that filling their stomachs is enough. In fact, these breakfast combinations that everyone is accustomed to are more harmful to the body!

Eating breakfast like this will accelerate aging

A study published in the June 2024 issue of Food & Function showed that people who eat breakfast late show a greater biological age and a higher incidence of accelerated aging. Among them, compared with people who eat breakfast at 6:14 in the morning, people who start their first meal at 10:26 show a greater biological age and a 25% higher incidence of accelerated aging.

Skipping breakfast for a long time is harmful

In May 2024, researchers from Shenzhen Shekou People's Hospital published a paper in the journal Food and Function. The researchers analyzed 9 cohort studies, including a total of 242,095 participants, and summarized the association between skipping breakfast and all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease mortality, and cancer mortality. The study found that compared with regular breakfast, skipping breakfast was associated with a 27% increased risk of all-cause mortality, a 28% increased risk of cardiovascular mortality, and a 34% increased risk of cancer mortality.

1. Damage to the stomach

Irregular breakfast may cause gastric acid secretion disorder, which can easily damage the gastric mucosa in the long run, causing gastritis or gastric ulcer.

2. Fatty liver

If you skip breakfast, your body will mobilize subcutaneous fat or form fat metabolites, which will accumulate in the liver for a long time and easily induce fatty liver! Moreover, skipping breakfast will make you more likely to overeat at noon, which will increase the risk of fatty liver.

3. Cholecystitis or gallstones

If you often skip breakfast, the bile stored overnight will not be able to be excreted to help digestion, which will easily cause cholesterol crystals to form in the gallbladder, and easily induce cholecystitis or gallstones.

Common breakfast is not necessarily healthy

The following common breakfast combinations in life are actually not healthy and need some improvements.

1. Soy milk fried dough sticks

Fried dough sticks + soy milk, this is one of the traditional breakfast combinations of our Chinese people. Fried foods such as fried dough sticks and fried cakes are mainly composed of saturated fatty acids and starch, and are very high in calories. Eating them frequently can easily lead to excessive fat intake, which not only makes you fat, but may also cause an increase in triglycerides, cholesterol, etc., increase the metabolic pressure of the liver and kidneys, and increase the risk of heart and brain diseases.

Suggestion: A cup of soy milk and half a fried dough stick are enough, and a light vegetable salad with an egg is much better. In addition to leafy vegetables, you can also add corn kernels and red kidney beans to the salad. You can also drink a cup of yogurt or milk as a snack.

2. Bread and coffee

This combination is a "regular" breakfast for many young people today, and it also has the problem of nutritional imbalance. The nutrition is very single and there is a serious lack of vitamins, dietary fiber and protein.

Recommendation: It is best to choose bread without sugar and low in fat, such as black bread, multi-grain bread, whole wheat bread, etc., and avoid fancy breads such as butter bread, croissants, meat floss bread, etc. Choose coffee without sugar. In addition to bread, you can also pair it with an egg, a portion of nuts, and a portion of green vegetables. Coffee can be made into milk coffee by adding some milk.

3. Steamed Bun Porridge

High-carb foods consume energy quickly and make blood sugar unstable. They are also incomplete in nutrition and lack protein and vegetables. Recommendation: It is best to have whole grain porridge, for example, add quinoa, oatmeal, red beans, peas and other whole grains and beans to rice or millet. Steamed buns can be a combination of meat and vegetables. Then add a cheese salad and an egg to greatly improve the nutritional balance.

What does a good breakfast look like?

According to the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)", the energy provided by breakfast should account for 25% to 30% of the total energy for the whole day, and protein, vitamins and minerals should reach 25% of the recommended daily dietary nutrient supply. Therefore, a qualified breakfast should at least include the following three parts: high-quality carbohydrates, high-quality protein and fruits and vegetables. Generally, the variety of breakfast food should be as rich as possible. For example, starch and cereal foods can quickly replenish carbohydrates and stabilize blood sugar, but they digest quickly and are prone to hunger after 2 to 3 hours, so they need to be matched with protein and fat in moderation to enhance satiety.

High-quality carbohydrates

Such as low-oil and low-sugar bread, multi-grain porridge, noodles, buns, low-oil pancakes, oats, corn, pumpkin, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc., mainly to meet energy needs.

High-quality protein

Fish, poultry, meat and eggs: such as marine fish, river fish, beef, pork, eggs, etc., can supplement high-quality protein. Milk and beans: such as milk, tofu, soy milk, etc. Sufficient protein intake helps maintain human immunity.

Vegetables and fruits

For example, spinach, carrots, greens, apples, bananas, etc. are rich in vitamins, dietary fiber, and minerals. Especially for middle-aged and elderly people who are prone to constipation, sufficient vegetables can help improve constipation problems and help control blood sugar.

If you can eat three types of food for breakfast every day, it can be considered a qualified breakfast; if it includes all four types of food, it can be considered excellent; if you only eat two or even one type, the nutrition will be very simple.