Thursday, April 23, 2015

to breakfast or not to breakfast....

There has been an active twitterfest of civil disagreement about the virtues of breakfasting EARLY.  Bill Lagakos has been adamant that the old chestnut "breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dine like a peasant" is the way to go.  Wooo (among many others) holds the opinion that eating when you're not hungry is not only a bad habit, but it is probably biologically-strategic for some reason we don't know yet to not want to eat soon after arising.

Driving our individual opinions is most likely our individual EXPERIENCES.  If we LIKE to eat an early breakfast we'll probably side with Bill, and if we don't we'll probably find his arguments weak or inapplicable.

"He said" we're more insulin-sensitive in the AM so that's when we should eat more, or eat any carbs we intend to take in.  That people who eat earlier are leaner, cuz circadian science.  That people who aren't hungry early can increase their appetites by under-eating the night before.

"She said" the studies he cites involve people eating crap at midnight, not real-foodists getting nutrition at a reasonable dinner-hour.  That Nature dictates behavior for a reason, even if we don't know what it is.  That the sedating nature of carbohydrate foods implies that eating them when you want to get sleepy makes more sense.  That "breakfast" has been studied and hyped-up for the purpose of promoting "breakfast foods."

Needless to say, I adhere to the late-breakfast hypothesis.  Since childhood, I've been disinterested in taking in food for hours after waking.  There are only a few situations where this is not the case:  when for some reason I have been fasting (illness, usually) and am in significant need of nutrition, or when i've slipped into a glucose-burning pattern.  I have to conclude that it's either under-nutrition, or excess-carb-eating which drives early-breakfasting behavior ... at least in me.

The two sides of this discussion differ on how long (and effective) the fasting period will be.  I believe it will be clear how effective the fast has been and how long it needs to continue, by observing the waking state of blood-glucose and/or ketosis.  And THAT will be a function of how well your liver handles gluconeogenesis, and how well FFA/keto-adapted your brain is.

People who are dining or snacking at midnight are seriously shorting themselves on sleep, if they're holding down a 9-5 job.  WE ALREADY KNOW that sleep-deprived people not only eat more, they've got messed-up hormonal responses to "normal" intake.  Should we be focusing on "do eat breakfast" or more to the point IMHO, "do NOT eat at midnight"?

In the Atkins message "don't go hungry -- eat something approved," I fear we have diluted the more important point, "DO NOT SNACK."  Snacking is an artificial relic of advertising as well as the "need" to eat often because one is not eating nutritiously.  The CICO-based religion of controlling one's meal-size is functionally faulty -- we need to eat hearty-enough MEALS so that we have no desire to snack ... particularly between supper and when our bodies tell us to break our fasts ... at least 12 hours later!

8 comments:

  1. I do not eat anything after dinner (at 7:30 pm). Ever. I get up at 5:30 am. By the time I get to work, I'm ready to eat, and eat about 350-400 calories of protein/fat. (egg, nuts, cheese 6 days a week.) It works for me. I agree that this is a highly individualized issue. I'm okay with that. The longer I stay in a healthy nutritious mindset, the more mindful I am of the zealots that, as an OCD Virgo, I have to be very cautious NOT to become. (that's another reason my blog has branched out beyond that topic.) I love your blog because you investigate much, and I generally agree with your findings. :)

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    1. thank you, Gwen! :-) this place IS more about lifestyle hacks that work for ME -- it has helped me learn, too, that there's a huge range of "what works" for other people.

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  2. We all have to do what best suits us.

    What suits me and my lifestyle is having a cooked breakfast i.e. egg and bacon, egg and ham, perhaps a frittata. Whatever time of day breakfast is I do enjoy a cooked breakfast, and on the days where an earlier start is on the cards I allow those few minutes to ensure what is for me an important meal of the day.

    The key point is eating real food and not processed, obviously taking any allergies etc into account. Also regular exercise and good sleeping patterns help too, not always easy to do - especially for those working shifts.

    If we each do our best to achieve a healthy lifestyle that's the least we can do. Respect our bodies, treat them well and just maybe we will be around to enjoy life for a good long time.

    Enjoyed your post Tess, thanks.

    All the best Jan

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    1. thank YOU too, Jan!

      you've brought up a point that i missed -- actually, allergy season can affect how eager one is to eat in the morning.... there for awhile, J was having morning sinus drainage issues that severely affected his stomach; he's had some curious allergy issues through the decades! a couple of times he had anaphylactic problems that were downright scary.

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  3. I eat if I can stomach it...ha ha. typically soft boiled eggs. Iced tea...coffee black..I eat when it occurs to me to do it. After forced regimes for most of my life, this suits me the best. Cheers!

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    1. for some peculiar reason, two songs are trying to play in my head right now.... :-D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqzrFHfCnyg and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzG-BP6RYko ... does that make me bipolar?

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  4. Speaking only for myself (of course) - I am virtually NEVER hungry until a couple of hrs after arising in the AM, so I've quit trying to force myself to eat even a peasant's BF these days... It is working out MUCH better for me.

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    1. :-) another vote for "delaying the fast-breaking".... I wonder how many of "us" just cave in and eat anyway?

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