Is skipping breakfast bad for you?

In the hustle and bustle of daily life, we often tend to overlook the importance of breakfast, but research suggests that skipping meals is more harmful than we think.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day; it gives our body the necessary energy to make it through the day.

Eating breakfast daily is connected to a longer lifespan
Longevity researcher has coined the term “blue zones,” which are the countries and communities that have the highest life expectancy and the oldest people living.

The one thing common in these communities is that they consider breakfast to be a priority and do not skip it, no matter what.

“We have a saying, ‘eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper,'” researcher says.

“In blue zones, they are eating the biggest meal of the day for breakfast and then eating smaller meals as the day progresses, oftentimes eating an early dinner and then not eating until breakfast the next day.”

Breakfast in blue zones also looks different than the typical breakfast in the American diet, he notes.

“People should avoid most of what is marketed to us in America as breakfast foods, such as pop tarts, sugar-laden cereals, yogurts, and granola,” Buettner says. “Instead, people should take a page out of the blue zones and eat a hardy, healthy breakfast.”

He has suggested that you add these foods to your breakfast:

• Beans
• Vegetables
• Rice
• Fruits
• Miso
• Oats

Skipping breakfast can negatively affect your mood and sleep quality.
In 2023, research including 700 college students discovered that skipping breakfast was linked to changes in sleep chronotypes and a rise in depressed feelings, both of which had an adverse influence on the quality of sleep.

A smaller study with 66 healthy adults in their 20s found that the frequency of breakfast consumption was associated with changes in sleep quality, mood, and even eating habits.

According to the study, people who regularly ate breakfast reported “better-perceived sleep quality, mood upon waking, and alertness upon waking compared to those that skipped breakfast.”