Eating breakfast can give you healthy benefits all day long as long as you make smart choices for your first meal of the day. The best breakfasts consist of a mix of carboydrates, protein and fat, like cereal and milk with a glass of juice or peanut butter toast with fruit, according to Meals Matter, a non-commercial website dedicated to helping families eat healthier meals. If you have children, eating breakfast together is a great way to help them develop healthy eating habits.
Improves Your Overall Diet
Eating breakfast makes it more likely that you'll eat more minerals and vitamins and less fat and cholesterol every day, according to the Mayo Clinic. Eating three or more meals a day increases your chances of getting the recommended nutrients and variety of foods needed for a healthy diet. Low cholesterol levels reduce your risk for cardiovascular health problems, including heart disease.
Helps with Weight Management
When you eat a healthy breakfast, you reduce the risk that you'll be famished by lunch time--meaning you're less likely to turn to unhealthy snacks or overeat because you're too hungry to think straight, explains Meals Matter. Maintaining a healthy weight also reduces your risk for serious health problems associated with obesity, including diabetes and heart disease.
Lets You Be More Productive
Adults who eat breakfast are more likely to be productive before lunchtime, according to the Mayo Clinic. Eating breakfast seems to have even bigger benefits for kids--according to the Mayo Clinic, children who eat their morning meal concentrate better, are more alert, have better hand-eye coordination and solve problems better than kids who skip breakfast. According to the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, children who eat breakfast may also do better in math and reading and on standardized tests than their counterparts who don't have breakfast.
Keeps You Going
If you skip breakfast, your blood sugar can drop, leaving you tired and sluggish or causing headaches and stomachaches, explains Meals Matter. These discomforts can keep you home from school or work or make it hard for you to concentrate when you're there. Eating breakfast prevents you from missing work because of hunger-related discomfort.
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