If you've been skipping breakfast, despite all the health benefits it offers, here's yet another reason that you may want to get up ten minutes earlier to enjoy breakfast each morning.
New research [1] has found that eating breakfast reduces your risk for heart attack, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and heart failure. Compared with having your first morsel of food later in the day, eating something in the morning creates smaller rises in blood sugar and insulin after all the meals you eat for the rest of that day. This does not mean you should start the day with a high-fat or high sugar meal — you should really focus on a breakfast that is heavy in whole grains, fruits, and healthy protein sources. For a list of breakfast ideas that fit into the requirements just .
- A bowl of steel-cut oatmeal [2] topped with fruit and walnuts
- A bowl of high-fiber, whole-grain cereal such as Fiber One, Kashi Autumn Wheat [3], or Cheerios with milk and sliced banana, strawberries, blueberries, or other fruit
- 6 or 8 ounces of 1% yogurt with blueberries and sunflower seeds
- A whole-grain English muffin with peanut butter
- an omelet made with one egg and one egg white, or egg substitute, served with whole-grain toast and orange slices
- A smoothie made with milk, yogurt, orange or pineapple juice, strawberries or blueberries, and banana, plus some oat bran, ground flax seeds, or wheat germ for extra fiber and healthful oils
I'm feeling happy that my morning bowl of Cheerios with a banana is protecting my heart. I always knew it was doing some good, but I like having research to back it up. Do you usually eat a breakfast that falls into the suggested requirements?
Source [4]