Is it healthier for your body to skip breakfast than eat a fast food breakfast?
And I mean something like a sausage McMuffin or McGriddle, or sausage & pancakes, etc.
You can also get a simple whole wheat toast and scrambled egg breakfast at a fast food place, but my comparison of skipping breakfast is to the richer, fattier, more processed fast food breakfasts.
It keeps getting pounded into us:
Eat breakfast, don’t skip breakfast, don’t miss breakfast, you can increase your risk of heart attack, gain fat, this and that …
What Does a Doctor Say? Fast Food or Skip Breakfast?
“Skipping breakfast and just drinking water … maybe with some lemon in it and some magnesium citrate powder, would be healthier!” says Carolyn Dean, MD, ND – Medical Advisory Board Member of the non-profit Nutritional Magnesium Association at nutritionalmagnesium.org.
White Death in Fast Food Breakfasts
“When you eat white flour (toast), jam (sugar) and coffee (with lots of sugar), you give yourself a strong shot of sugar and caffeine that raises your blood sugar,” explains Dr. Dean. Blood sugar is called glucose.
“At any one time there are only two teaspoons of sugar in the bloodstream,” she continues.
“If you put two teaspoons in your coffee, another two teaspoons in your jam, you’ve overloaded your blood with sugar, and you have to produce extra insulin to deal with the load.”
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Most foods that are promoted as breakfast-type are high in white sugar, high fructose corn syrup or white flour — all simple carbohydrates that, ultimately, get broken down into sugar molecules by the body.
Lots of sugar molecules. This is bad for the heart. But that’s not all.
Dr. Dean continues, “With no fats or proteins underneath the sugar high, when the sugar dumps into your cells or the liver, with the help of insulin, you crash and feel like you need another jolt of coffee or a can of soda that has 10 teaspoons of sugar.”
In addition, the typical American breakfast, with all its very processed carbohydrates, can make you feel quite hungry a few hours later.
The pancreas overreacts to the sugar assault and pumps out so much insulin to lower glucose levels, that you end up with low glucose.
Your body reads low blood sugar as a signal for more food! This is why you can get very hungry not long after eating foods full of simple synthetic carbohydrates (versus natural sugars found in whole fruit or whole grains like steel cut oats).
Another reason you’re better off skipping breakfast than eating the typical fast food morning meal is because, as mentioned, many breakfast foods contain preservatives and trans fats, along with artificial ingredients like “flavorings.”
Don’t forget the excessive sodium and saturated fats.
But you have a choice: Choose to eat a health-giving, all-natural breakfast based on complex carbohydrates, natural simple carbs (from whole fruit which also provides fiber) and natural or minimally processed sources of protein, rather than skipping breakfast.
If you’re at a fast food place, try just some scrambled eggs, fruit and whole wheat toast.
