Big Breakfast and Weight Loss: Debunking the Myth

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

GoLocalProv Lifestyle Editor Andrea E. McHugh

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” has long been one of the more convincing pieces of advice you’ll find nutritionists driving home with their clients. While most will still agree with the assertion, the size of your breakfast has been under the microscope lately due in part to a new German study that debunks the idea that bigger is better.

When More = More

One might think that starting out the day with a big breakfast would help curtail overeating throughout the day, but researchers at Munich’s Else-Kroner-Fresenius Center of Nutritional Medicine concluded that big breakfasts (defined as being an average of 400 calories greater than a small breakfast) found that people who ate a big breakfast actually consumed more daily calories overall compared with people who ate less or skipped eating in the morning. The research, published in Nutrition Journal, was conducted by following the eating habits of 380 people over the course of two weeks: 280 who were obese, 100 who were of normal weight, and all of whom kept a food diary. People who ate the larger breakfast, interestingly, consumed an additional 400 calories per day.

Keeping Track

Mary Flynn, a research dietitian at The Miriam Hospital and co-author of The Pink Ribbon Diet, warns it can be difficult to get a true conclusion when participants keep their own food records. “People keeping food records are known for not being completely accurate, i.e. under reporting,” says Flynn, adding snacks and less favorable foods are often left off their record. “That said, I do greatly encourage breakfast. I find people who skip it tend to have more trouble with weight control and can overeat once exposed to food,” she says. “As their blood sugar is also typically low due to not eating, they also tend to be less productive.”

Tips From the Expert

Flynn says that in her experience, she finds study participants/patients who eat breakfast say they eat less at night. Nighttime eating can be a slippery slope as people don’t always make the best nutritional choices, and to compound that, there is no time to use the energy from the food and burn calories. Flynn says another tip is to delay eating breakfast until later in the morning as your first meal kicks off your daily eating cycle. Another tip Flynn offers: “I also like a healthy fat in the meal—nuts on cereal, nut butters, eggs in olive oil, which helps delay hunger.”

Mary Flynn Shares this Pumpkin Bread Recipe from her book, The Pink Ribbon Diet

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup loosely brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup canned pumpkin (You will have some leftover. See box this page for suggested uses.)
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 large eggs, beaten
¼ cup water
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup walnut pieces
½ cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 350°F

Measure the flour, salt, brown sugar and baking soda into a mixing bowl and stir with a fork to blend the ingredients together thoroughly. Be sure to break up any lumps in the brown sugar.

In a separate bowl, stir the remaining ingredients together until thoroughly blended. Gently stir the mixed dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture just until combined. A plastic spatula works best. Do not over mix or the bread will not rise.
Pour into a loaf pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the bread cool in the pan slightly, five or ten minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack and cool thoroughly.

Makes 8 slices

Calories: 370 / Starch: 1 (flour) / Vegetables: less than 1 / Fat: 2 (1 each olive oil and nuts)