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Look younger, live longer, be healthier – eat breakfast

Focus on Health with Dr. Janie Unruh, PhD
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Breakfast provides the needed fuel for our body to work at peak efficiency and helps us to maintain our weight. Some people think that by skipping breakfast this would help them to intake fewer calories thus helping them lose weight. This is a myth. The truth is that breakfast should be part of any weight loss program. It wakes up our system to get it going for the day. Breakfast may also help reduce risks of heart attacks. Most heart attacks happen between 7 a.m. to noon. During the night our platelets become sticky and eating breakfast helps the platelets to become less sticky thus decreasing the risk for heart attacks. Breakfast also stabilizes blood sugars, stops the urge to snack, prevents irritability and fatigue, supplies energy when you need it the most, improves memory, efficiency and safety, and promotes better attitudes and scholastic achievement for both kids and adults.

Despite the advice we grew up with regarding the importance of breakfast some people still give many reasons for not eating this meal. One common reason I hear often is that people just are not hungry. This is most commonly a two-fold problem. People either eat too late at night and too heavy of a supper, which should be the lightest meal of the day, and do not drink enough plain water in between meals to assist food to digest completely. Often increasing water intake with a light meal in the evening, eaten no later than 5:00 pm will solve this problem. Or, you can try skipping your evening meal a few nights in a row. Within a few days your body will be ready for a good breakfast and you may even notice that you are sleeping more sound.

Most people are hunting for ways to look younger longer and to live longer, healthier. Eating breakfast is one of the seven health factors for longevity and is a factor in having a younger health age than your biological age.

All meals should be simple and as natural as possible including breakfast. Breakfast can either be vegetable based or fruit based and should constitute most of the meal, but should not be mixed together as it can create digestion upset for many.

Fruit smoothies, fruit bowl, fruit soup, chia cereal, oatmeal, raw nuts, and non-gluten grains such as buckwheat, quinoa and millet are wholesome, healing breakfast ideas.

With a little planning and creativity and mixing and matching foods breakfast can be fun.