The Beauty of Breakfast

By Jackie Silver –

Busy schedules affect the way we eat, but here are some statistics to “chew on.” Nearly four in 10 adults usually skip breakfast, what’s been called “the most important meal of the day.”

More than half of the breakfasts eaten by Americans every day are consumed in 10 minutes or less – usually alone – which is kind of surprising, since breakfast was rated the second-favorite meal of the day, after dinner, in a survey.

The National Weight Control Registry is a database of more than 5,000 people who have lost significant amounts of weight and kept it off for long periods of time. Seventy-eight percent of the people in the registry found that eating breakfast daily was an excellent weight-control strategy.

Cold cereal tops the list of most common breakfast foods, cited by 31 percent of those who eat breakfast. Where did the concept of cereal for breakfast originate? John Harvey Kellogg was a doctor in Battle Creek, Michigan, and an advocate of vegetarianism.

He is best known for the invention of Corn Flakes cereal with his brother, Will Keith Kellogg, in 1897. John and his brother did not actually invent the concept of the dry breakfast cereal, though. That honor belongs to Dr. James Caleb Jackson, who created the first dry breakfast cereal in 1863, which he called Granula, probably the predecessor to what we now call granola.

Healthy Breakfast Tips:

1. Start the day in a healthy way. It’s probably been 10 to 12 hours since you last ate, so use the first meal of the day to refuel with healthy food choices. Some studies have shown that having breakfast can actually boost your metabolism.

2. Think outside the (cereal) box. Instead of opting for the usual cold cereal, try having vegetables for breakfast. If the thought of having veggies so early in the day is not appealing, try sautéing them and folding them into an egg-white omelet.

3. Feed your brain. Researchers at the University of Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School did a study that compared three groups of normal weight adults. One group ate no breakfast, one group ate a healthy breakfast and the third group ate what is considered an unhealthy breakfast. Participants were tested for cognitive performance 30 minutes after mealtime, and then two hours and four hours later. Results confirmed that eating breakfast of any kind, even the unhealthy breakfast, was beneficial. Skipping breakfast consistently caused hunger and led to performance difficulties on tasks requiring concentration.

For Healthy Recipe Ideas click here.

Jackie Silver is Aging Backwards and she shares her secrets, tips and shortcuts in her book, Aging Backwards: Secrets to Staying Young, on her Web site , on TV, on radio, in print and in person. She is the anti-aging expert on the syndicated television show, Daytime, one half of The Ageless Sisters radio show, a weekly columnist with The Tampa Tribune, the Aging Backwards expert for http://www.thehollywoodhotspot.com/ and contributor to numerous Web sites. In addition, she is the National Anti-Aging Beauty Examiner, New York Beauty Products Examiner and NY Charity Examiner for http://www.examiner.com/. Silver is a speaker and coach and is sought-after as an anti-aging and beauty expert by the media. Sign up for her free newsletter at: http://agingbackwards.com/ and follow her on Twitter, @AgingBackwards.