In the morning, you may find that you are playing a continual game of “catch up.” You’re rushing to the shower, rushing through traffic, rushing to work. You may feel as if you don’t have time for breakfast, let alone a nutritious breakfast. You may find that you’re just not hungry at that time of day, or you believe that you need to lose weight, so you skip breakfast altogether. What you may not realize is that, by eliminating breakfast from your morning routine, you’re jeopardizing your health—and your waistline.

There are a number of good reasons to eat breakfast, particularly if you are a dieter. To begin with, the very act of eating breakfast can speed up your metabolism, which is critical to weight loss. Think about it. You may eat dinner around 6 p.m. If you wait until lunch to eat again, as many as 18 hours might have passed. Breakfast is therefore critical to your overall health and well-being.

Another problem with skipping breakfast is that it tends to make you overeat at lunch. Studies have shown that the vast majority of successful dieters do eat breakfast. This may seem counter-intuitive, the idea that you must eat food in order to lose weight. But the research shows clearly that that in fact is the case. Breakfast can also aid your concentration. A number of studies demonstrate that breakfast improves one’s focus, helping him or her at work or at school.

(more…)