How Many Breakfasts Should You Eat?
April Daniels Hussar,SELF magazine
What's for breakfasts? No, that's not a typo -- if you're like a growing number of Americans, your most important "meal" of the day is actually a series of smaller meals over the course of a couple of hours, new research shows. But is starting off with, say, a piece of fruit or some yogurt at home, then grabbing a breakfast sandwich and coffee from Starbucks an hour later a good idea?
According to Sloan Trends, a food industry consulting group, "Breakfast is a multi-meal, multi-location occasion for 27 percent of adults; they may nibble at home, stop at a drive-through/coffeehouse, and then take a mid-morning break at work."
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And a new report from the USDA Agriculture Research Service suggests this "grazing" behavior is part of a bigger trend: snacking. Over 90 percent of Americans snack between meals, and we eat double the amount of daily snacks we ate 30 years ago, the report says.
SELF contributing editors Stephanie Clarke and Willow Jarosh, registered dietitians and co-founders of C&J Nutrition, say it's fine to split breakfast into parts. But it's important that those smaller bites add up to a breakfast that is not only balanced in terms of protein, carbohydrates and fat, but consists of the right calorie level for you.
"For instance, if you were to eat a larger breakfast of an egg on a whole-grain English muffin with a slice of tomato and low-fat cheese and a piece of fruit, you'd be getting a combination of protein from the egg, fat from the cheese and egg and fiber from the whole-grain muffin and fruit," say Clarke and Jarosh. This breakfast would be about 350 calories, which is an appropriate count if you're both moderately active and looking to lose weight. (350-400 calories is what you should be aiming for if you're maintaining your weight; 450-500 if you're very active.)
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If you're more of a "grazer," Clarke and Jarosh don't recommend breaking up your breakfast into more than three parts. "It's good to have some time in between meals when you're NOT eating, and eating breakfast in more than three parts would mean that you might be eating right up until lunch," they say. "It could be harder to hone in on hunger and fullness cues at this point -- it's OK to be a little hungry sometimes." To get your day (and metabolism) off to the right start, SELF recommends eating within an hour of waking up.
In the end, eating a balanced breakfast is the most important thing to focus on; whether that breakfast is split up into parts or eaten at once is a matter of your schedule and appetite, Clarke and Jarosh say. "There's no one way that works best for everyone when it comes to meal and snack timings -- some people might find it easier to make balanced choices if they break up breakfast into several parts, while others might find this throws their eating completely off track for the day," they explain. "Stick with what works for you."
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If you're the kind of person who grabs a "breakfast bar" on the go, assume it will make up about half of your total breakfast calories, and look for one that has about 150-200 calories, contains at least three grams of fiber (preferably from whole grains and/or fruit, rather than added fiber) and doesn't contain partially hydrogenated oils, Clarke and Jarosh say. Also, watch out for lots of added sugar, which you can find in the ingredients list. "If the first ingredient of the bar is some type of sweetener, like brown rice syrup, cane juice, fruit juice concentrate or anything ending in 'ose,' put it back on the shelf," they recommend. Some bars that contain fruit will have more sugar naturally, but that's OK -- in that case, keep sugar to a max of five grams per 100 calories (for example, 7.5 grams total for a 150-calorie bar).
"Be sure to combine your bar with a latte, a 6-ounce container of nonfat Greek yogurt, a hard-boiled egg or a small handful of nuts to get your total calories up to around 350 and to add more protein," say Clarke and Jarosh.
Finally, their number-one rule when it comes to breakfast? "Eat it!"
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50 Healthiest Snacks
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