Developing Myself

I don’t necessarily blame my first solid breakfast in months for it, but I’ve been feeling kind of nauseated since morning. The reason I don’t blame it is that, unlike, say, yesterday, when I woke up before the alarm clock and felt full of energy during the entire day, today I was woken up by the alarm, and I was still quite sleepy.

However, having that breakfast made me feel “bloated” during the entire morning, and I ate very little at lunch. Sadly, the “bloated” sensation hasn’t vanished yet, I’m still sleepy, and simply don’t feel well.

Well, a trial is a trial, so I will keep my promise and have a breakfast every day until Sunday. I’ll try something different tomorrow, perhaps. And, of course, I intend to eat very little at dinner (at my father’s) today.

As a very good friend of mine commented on the previous post, I usually don’t have breakfast. I used to, when I was a child or a teen living with my grandmother, who prepared it for me (usually cereal), but I haven’t had that habit for years. In fact, I don’t understand how other people can even eat solid food just after getting out of bed; not only am I absolutely not hungry (until a few hours later), but the very idea of swallowing something solid feels… almost, but not quite, painful.

And yet, since childhood, I’ve been hearing and reading: “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” My question is: why?

The idea I had, and still have, is that most people here would reply with one or more of the following:

1. because you need energy / nutrients for the morning
2. because otherwise you’ll be starving an hour or two later, and will probably snack on far less healthy food
3. because otherwise you’ll be starving at lunch, and will then eat too much
4. because not eating for so long a time is “bad” for you (why? how?)
5. “I couldn’t do anything in the morning without it”
6. because “the body needs it” (without any justification)
7. “just because”
8. “duh, everyone knows it”

Number 6 is circular logic, numbers 7 and 8 are childish, and 5 is a personal experience which doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone. 4 is unexplained, so it doesn’t really say anything. So what about the first three? Well, I can say that 2 and 3 really don’t apply to me; I never eat snacks in mid-morning, nor do I spend the entire morning craving food, nor am I starving at lunchtime. In fact, I think that the few times I did eat breakfast, I was actually more hungry at midday.

Energy… well, my current job is not very demanding, so maybe things would be different if it were, but I’m really not like many people I know, the “I can’t think or do anything until I’ve had breakfast and coffee” kind. This morning, without a real breakfast, I’ve exercised (while being completely out of shape), went to work, came back home for lunch, had a nice (not huge) green salad with bits of ham, and here I am at work again, not starving or feeling depleted.

Anyway, I googled for “why breakfast is important”, and read through the first five results. The justifications were always the first three on the list above, nothing more. Nope, that’s really not me.

Now, admittedly, I’m weird.

But, well, here’s a challenge to you: please tell me, in a comment, why having breakfast is important. The challenge is this: don’t use a variant of the above 8 answers. (Exception: if you can justify answer 4, it’s acceptable.) If you know of another good reason, please let me know. Links to nutritional / medical information are welcome.

Note that I’m not doubting accepted medical wisdom; I simply find the explanations I’ve found so far to be either non-explanatory, or not applying to me, as far as I can see. Which is why I’m asking  for a better explanation. I’m like this: I need to understand things, instead of accepting them on faith.

More about breakfast in the next post…