Never quit your breakfast
Teacher has been watching Anil for a few days. A feeling of tiredness in his eyes, not active in the school classes too. At first, she thought he may be suffering from some sort of illness. But when she noticed the same thing the next days also, she can’t stop herself from asking him. When Anil replied that he has no illness, she called his mother to ask the matter. Mother complaint that Anil is not having breakfast for the past few days and that he fills his stomach by just a cup of tea or coffee. That’s the problem. Is breakfast that much important?
Let us stop fasting
In modern world man has everything he wants, except time! So, to save a little time, assuming breakfast to be the least important thing of a day’s activity, he carelessly avoids it. But he is unaware of the fact that, the whole energy needed for a day’s a day’s activity is given by this ‘special meals’, he always tend to quit. No doubt, breakfast is the most important meals of the day. Yet surprisingly, only a few people know its importance!
After supper, it takes almost 12 hours to have next meals. In reality, we are fasting for 12 long hours. That’s why this morning food is known as breakfast, meaning ‘breaking the fast’. So dieticians say, we should have a royal breakfast like a king. i.e. We should have the best and heavy meals in the morning, giving sufficient energy to our body parts to carry on its activities without any break. We should have light lunch in the noon and lighter supper at night. Also, give more importance to nutritional factors than taste. If so, energy provided by that food will be enough to keep you fresh the whole day.
If you avoid breakfast
Breakfast is also known as ‘break fast for brain’, in scientific terms. Since after supper, it takes at least 8 hours for next meal, glucose level of blood is low during early mornings. Its consequence is deficiency of nutrients of brain resulting in slowing down of brain functions. It reduces concentration of brain resulting in body tiredness so easily.
Taking breakfast is not sufficient enough. It should be taken at the right time too. If food is taken late, it’s not getting enough time to fully utilize the energy released by it. This excess energy will be stored in the body as fat resulting in obesity. So, to keep body functions going on and to avoid unnecessary fat deposits, eat your meals with a fixed time table. Why can’t you make it a habit?
In the case of students, breakfast is more important. It’s during his early age when his brain development takes place. If brain is not getting sufficient food, can it grow? Kids who neglect breakfast are usually seen as sleepy, careless and with less concentration in their class rooms. Since their brain is not getting sufficient energy, such kids soon lose their concentration and interest in studies. Also, it can affect their brain development in the reverse direction. Studies have already proved that those kids who regularly have breakfast have more grasping power and concentration comparing to those who don’t have it regularly. So, make it a habit to have breakfast everyday. Ten minutes spending for a healthy diet in the morning can give you many things in return, including solutions to your acidity problems caused due to your irregular food habits.
What to eat?
Since breakfast supplies energy for a whole day, prefer carbohydrate rich food for the first meals of the day. Idli-sambar is an idol breakfast. Idli contains less calorie food. Also, since it’s steam cooked, it retains all its nutrient factors and hence a good energy supplier. Sambar is a mixture of vegetables of different types and hence this combination is said to be a complete diet.
A few other combinations include dosa-sambar, dosa-chutney, appam-vegetable stoo, appam-egg curry, steam cake- Bengal gram curry, steam cake-banana, idiyappam-egg curry etc. Steam cake-Bengal gram curry combination can give you 1/4th of the nutrients you need a whole day. Hence it can also be called as the superstar among breakfast. Also, since steam cake is steam cooked, it retains all its nutrient factors and a great supplier of carbohydrates. It can also be taken along with cooked green peas and pappad or any type of banana. Also, chicken or egg curry with steam cake is an amazing combination. Same is the case of appam – another steam cooked food which is an abundant content of carbohydrates. It tastes best with both vegetarian and non-vegetarian curries, even a simple chutney. Also, fermentation using yeast or coconut milk can increase its nutrient factors too. Main content of eggs is protein which helps brain development a lot. So, you can include eggs in kids’ breakfast everyday. Instead of tea, fruit juice is best for their breakfast which can keep them energetic the whole day supplying power to brain cells and helping effective digestion. A cup of milk is also nice. Mixed upma made by adding broken wheat, carrot, beans, onion etc is healthier than sooji upma. Broken wheat contains fiber a lot, which takes a lot of time to digest and also, by reducing cholesterol absorption it keeps blood sugar under control. Another steam cooked breakfast item is idiyappam which kids like a lot. While north Indians prefer dishes prepared from wheat for breakfast, south Indians give importance to rice added dishes. Both are equally good, provided excess oils and sweets are avoided in the early mornings. Avoid fried items as well. Give your body simple and healthy breakfast which includes almost all nutrient contents – a complete diet!
When to eat
It’s advisable to have breakfast within two hours you wake up. Persons who get up at 6am should compulsorily have breakfast before 8am. Those persons who take a cup of tea or fruit juice just before morning exercise should never consider it as breakfast. Also, keep tea and coffee within limits because both of them can suppress your hunger. Though they provide you with quick energy or refreshment, you can’t depend on them as a whole.
Some persons though take breakfast, use to have it late. They may take some juice, bread or snacks till 11 o’clock or noon. Then they may combine their breakfast and lunch, together known as ‘brunch’ which is not at all advisable. Also, controlling food the whole day by having just light food, snacks or tea in the mornings and having heavy food in the later evening can harm your health than helping you. If you have a good and healthy breakfast in the mornings, you won’t feel the need of eating something light frequently or at intervals. But the habit of having some fruits or fruit juice at a short break is fine.
Now people are leaving their traditional breakfast items and are running behind fast food like pizza, burger etc. Such people are not only spending more money for ordering such items, but also inviting many diseases associated with them free. It’s true, more than 90% of our diseases are due to our wrong food habits including fast food and no fixed timetable for meals. They are running in super fast speed along with time, to catch something they feel precious. There is nothing wrong in it, to move with time. But, not giving correct attention to their body is not at all advisable at any cost. When we are quitting one meal, we are losing deficiency power and immunity of our body a little bit which can gradually lead to many harmful diseases and health loss in the future and an early old age. If health is lost, something is lost. So, give a little importance to your body, to keep it healthy, live and energetic to fight against diseases and malnutrition.
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