Hi there,

No, I’m not suggesting that you “stop” eating breakfast, and I certainly hope I haven’t unwittingly inferred that.

What I am trying to express is this. There are certain anecdotal adages, which from regular overuse seem to ring true in our collective consciousness even if those “adages” aren’t fully backed by the veracity of scientific evidence. For instance, in these so called studies everyone seems to quote espousing the merits of eating breakfast not only as an ideal way of starting the day, but also as a reliable proof against overindulgence leading to obesity. I find these studies very unscientific and highly flawed, as most such studies inherently are afflicted. For instance, how large was their sample study? Was it enough to lead them and generalize that skipping breakfast leads to obesity? Perhaps, maybe it isn’t skipping breakfast per se, which leads to obesity, but the lifestyle conducive to missing breakfast would be one that makes it a highly probable for obesity. In other words, those people who have both a propensity for overindulgence and lacking enthusiasm for any physical activity are naturally inclined to sleep very late eating a huge amount of food at 1 am before finally drifting off to sleep at 3 am. The latter will routinely miss breakfast since they’ll wake up in the afternoons. So, instead of equating breakfast with a morning meal, perhaps they should simply state the first meal? Kind of like, being fat itself isn’t the health malady we make it out to be, but the lifestyle which leads to obesity shares a common ground for being unhealthy—once again, overeating with no physical activity. On that same token, perhaps in their study, there are already overweight people who are in a desperate effort to cut calories simply skip breakfast towards that end? Obviously, we can see a plethora of rational reasons why such a study can be flawed. I’m always very skeptical about any research not backed by the gold standard of double blind placebo taking place in a fully controlled environment ensuring the variables are identical to each factor compiling the data. This skipping breakfast makes you fat adage is far from that standard propagated more by Kellogg’s and General Mills than anyone else.

My point is simply that if one isn’t hungry in the morning, why eat simply because some innocuous studies based on at best dubious science dictates that you should? I can understand and appreciate making an effort to alter my natural lifestyle if the benefits are rooted on solid science, like lower carb eating appears to be. For most of us living and working in modern western society who isn’t independently wealthy or have yet to win the lottery, time is an extremely limited and valuable commodity. I run for 35 minutes every morning—for the empty stomach cardio benefits—instead of using that time for breakfast. On the contrary to popular belief, the vigorous exercise infuses me with more energy than any amount of “morning” breaking the fast then I could ever eat. Furthermore, in our modern times, most of us make a living sitting in an office where our most strenuous activity is pushing buttons on a ubiquitous matt black telephone with more buttons than we’ll ever know what to do with. How exasperatingly difficult can it be to make it a few hours to lunch without eating breakfast?

To me, these studies are good for only one thing. For those people who insist on eating breakfast, they should continue to do so with confidence, which is a far cry from basing on those studies suggesting people who aren’t inclined to eat breakfast forcibly make an effort to do so. You mentioned not being hungry in the morning, and I’d wager you’d easily make it to lunch if you skipped the morning fare entirely. To what end to you force yourself to drink a morning shake? Just because these logic-perforated studies dictate you should?

Lots of well meaning people in my life, at one time or another, have impressed upon me the values and wisdom of eating breakfast. For the sake of harmony, I think I’ll reciprocate their good intentions with a gift of my own—a stuffed bear with a sign attached to him reading, “just give me some chocolate and no one gets hurt.” LOL

With kindest regards,

Frederick