In the fast-paced modern life, many people often choose to skip a certain meal due to time constraints or other reasons. Among them, skipping breakfast and skipping dinner are two common phenomena. A few days ago, the #不吃早饭比不吃晚饭危害更大吗#话题登上微博热搜 sparked heated discussions among netizens.
So, what kind of effect does such a diet have on the body? Skipping breakfast or skipping dinner, which has a greater impact on the body?
Image source: Weibo screenshot
What's wrong with skipping breakfast?
As the saying goes: the plan of the day is in the morning. So we all take breakfast very seriously. However, due to the ever-accelerating pace of life, more and more people often skip breakfast, let alone eat it well.
As the first meal of the day, breakfast is essential for dietary nutrient intake, health and work or study efficiency, and eating breakfast every day is also a healthy lifestyle promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO). Breakfast is the longest time from the previous meal, and the energy consumption is high, and if you don't eat breakfast, it may lead to nutritional imbalance; It can also lead to hunger, reduce brain excitability, slow response, lack of concentration, and affect work and study efficiency.
It's good for your health to make it a habit to eat breakfast regularly. Many studies have found that regular breakfast eating is negatively correlated with the occurrence of obesity and cardiovascular disease. The Continental Dietary Guidelines also point out that a reasonable diet can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, and eating breakfast regularly is also part of a reasonable diet, so it is important.
However, many people don't eat enough for breakfast. According to the "Survey Report on the Breakfast Diet of Chinese Residents", 35% of Chinese people cannot eat breakfast every day; Even if they can eat breakfast, many people do not eat healthily, 55% of people have less than 3 kinds of food for breakfast every day, and 42% of people can get it in 10 minutes, so it is difficult to achieve a balanced diet.
What's wrong with skipping dinner?
Of the three meals a day, we usually think that dinner is the least important.
In fact, if you really skip dinner at all, it will also be harmful to your body. The most immediate and obvious is hunger, which in turn leads to malnutrition.
After all, the energy and nutrients that our human body needs every day are about the same, and if we don't eat a certain meal, we don't eat much at other times, it will definitely not be enough, and it will slowly be exhausted, and the hunger will skyrocket, affecting the quality of sleep, making it difficult for people to fall asleep or sleep lightly.
If you simply skip dinner, and other lifestyle habits remain the same, malnutrition will occur in the long run, for example, you may be listless, physically exhausted, depressed, and gloomy...... These are all signs of malnutrition.
For some patients with special diseases, such as patients with ulcers in the digestive tract, or people who work during special hours (such as working three shifts and night shifts), skipping dinner will have a greater impact on them.
Therefore, from a health point of view, you should also try to arrange your three meals a day regularly, and dinner should not be missing.
Breakfast or dinner, which is more important?
The field of "chrononutrition" is exploring this question.
Temporal nutrition is an emerging field of research in recent years, which studies how factors such as food intake time, eating patterns, and eating frequency affect the body's metabolism, energy balance, and health status. Over the years, it has been found that the time to eat breakfast and dinner will have a certain impact on health.
Studies have found that skipping breakfast is associated with an increased risk of circulatory disease and all-cause mortality in men and an increased risk of all-cause mortality in women; Habitually skipping breakfast is associated with an increased risk of gastrointestinal cancers, including esophageal, gastric, colorectal, liver, gallbladder, and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma; Skipping breakfast increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality.
Dinner is also important. For example, some studies have found that eating dinner after 9 a.m. increases the risk of cancer. Eating dinner before 9 p.m. each day reduces the risk of combined cancer by about 25 percent, and falling asleep 2 hours or more after a meal is associated with a 20 percent lower risk of breast and prostate cancer compared to going to bed immediately after a meal. Eating just one meal a day is associated with a higher risk of death, and skipping lunch or dinner in particular increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.
These studies are still being explored and need to be further demonstrated. However, judging from the current voice of the nutrition community, everyone still generally believes that a regular diet is more healthy.
The U.S. Dietary Guidelines report states that Americans who eat three meals a day have a higher quality diet than those who eat two meals a day, attributed to the relatively large intake of vegetables, leafy greens, fruits, whole grains, and dairy products.
The American Heart Association (AHA) summarized the effects of specific dietary patterns on markers of cardiometabolic health, including obesity, blood lipid levels, insulin resistance, and blood pressure, and concluded that skipping breakfast, intermittent fasting, eating frequency (number of meals per day), and timing of meals were among the dietary patterns that affect markers of cardiometabolic health. Irregular eating patterns are not conducive to maintaining good cardiometabolic health.
Therefore, it is recommended that people still consciously formulate a good eating pattern, whether it is breakfast or dinner, they must eat, and develop a regular eating habit of three meals.
Finally, some advice for you:
1. Give yourself a little time: Whether it's breakfast or dinner, set aside a little time for yourself. Even if it's as simple as eating a bowl of porridge, an egg, or a slice of bread and a glass of milk, you can provide your body with the energy and nutrients it needs.
2. Gradually improve the level of nutrition: Many people are indeed busy and do not have much time to prepare breakfast or dinner, but you can start slowly and try to diversify your food and promote balanced nutrition within your ability. The dietary guidelines recommend that we eat 12 foods a day and 25 foods a week. Therefore, the variety of food every day should not be too small, and it is recommended to try to have high-quality proteins such as vegetables, fruits, staple foods and meat, and not all big fish and meat.
3. Pay attention to how your body feels: When you feel hungry or unwell, don't ignore it. This is your body's signal to you that you need to be fueled and nourished. Please respect your body's feelings and provide it with the food it needs in a timely manner.
4. Maintain a positive mindset: Eating habits change doesn't happen overnight, it takes time and persistence. In this process, please maintain a positive attitude and patience, believing that your efforts will bring health to your body and a better life.
Source: "Popular Science China" WeChat public account