Breakfast: to skip or not to skip?

Chances are that you've heard the old adage "breakfast is the most important meal of the day", but how much truth lays behind this old saying?

There's strong evidence that intermittent fasting has positive health outcomes however most people following this life style don't start their window for eating until later in the day. If weight loss is your goal and you wake up without an appetite, should you be forcing yourself to eat? What about shift workers? When even is breakfast when you wake up at 5pm? Not to mention those bizarre days in between night shift and day shift... Or jet lag... Or new parents who don't know what a normal sleep schedule looks like...

Like most things when discussing people and health the answer often is dependant on the individual! One size does not fit all.

For instance, a study conducted in Spain (1) found that eating a low quality breakfast (high sugar, low nutrient content, etc) was worse for overall health that skipping the meal altogether. However, those consuming a well balanced breakfast had an improved quality of life that breakfast-skippers.

(1) Ferrer-Cascales R, Sánchez-SanSegundo M, Ruiz-Robledillo N, Albaladejo-Blázquez N, Laguna-Pérez A, Zaragoza-Martí A. Eat or Skip Breakfast? The Important Role of Breakfast Quality for Health-Related Quality of Life, Stress and Depression in Spanish Adolescents. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2018; 15(8):1781. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15081781