It’s six in the morning and all you want is a few more minutes of sleep, instead you find yourself at the breakfast table, head hung over a bowl of cereal, trying your best not to fall into it.
You have a big exam in a few hours, your stomach is in knots and it’s difficult to even keep coffee down, but your mother is hovering around with toast, juice, cereal and insisting that you eat because breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
We were always told to sit down and relax while eating, yet we grab toast or a piece of fruit while rushing out the door because we are also told we cannot miss breakfast.
In the past, when people set off to their jobs as farmers, wood-cutters, fisherman, and iron-smiths at the first light of day, it was logical to consider breakfast the most important meal. All the work was done manually and people would travel days on end through deserts and un-inhabited places with little to no possibility of getting a meal. From farmers to soldiers to tradesmen, everybody tried to get one good meal in the morning to store enough energy for their hard, long day ahead since there were no guarantees of a mid-day meal or dinner for that matter.
Now most of us have desk jobs and our workday takes us from a chair at home to one at the office and even sitting comfortably in cars or other public transportation where restaurants or cafés are every 10 steps; why do we need to stuff ourselves in the morning?
Today everyone, especially the cereal companies, seem to push the belief in the power of breakfast. Some believe that breakfast helps us kick-start our day, which might be true if you wake up hungry. Otherwise, where is the sense in eating without an appetite?
Nutritionists say that breakfast helps us maintain a healthy body weight and assists in losing weight by jump-starting your metabolism.
营养学家表示,早餐能帮助人们保持健康的体重,通过启动身体的新陈代谢功能,还有助于减肥。
A good breakfast can help prevent snacking and eating large portions for lunch, but if you choose to eat healthy snacks and control meal portions, then there seems to be no direct correlation between breakfast and a healthy weight or weight-loss.