What happens if you skip breakfast?

Tired

Breakfast provides nutrients and energy for the brain and body to function. Lack of nutrients slows down metabolism, causing fatigue, lack of alertness, and reduced ability to concentrate and remember.

Risk of obesity

Many people often think that skipping breakfast helps them lose weight. This is a misconception because people who don't eat breakfast tend to crave more food and eat more at lunch and dinner to make up for the lack of nutrients in the morning.

Snacking in between main meals can easily cause excess energy, leading to overweight and obesity over time.

Increased risk of chronic disease

Breakfast helps kick-start your body's metabolism and maintain stable blood sugar levels. When you skip breakfast, your body experiences temporary hypoglycemia, which causes a compensatory response by releasing more hormones to maintain blood sugar levels.

Large fluctuations in blood sugar during the day increase insulin resistance - a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes. The body goes through a state of prolonged fasting, leading to excessive release of inflammatory cytokines, increasing the risk of many chronic diseases.

Gastric ulcer

When you skip a meal, gastric juice is still secreted but there is no food to neutralize it. The acid in the gastric juice can damage the stomach lining, leading to peptic ulcers.

The habit of skipping breakfast is associated with an increased risk of gastrointestinal cancers such as esophageal, stomach, colorectal, liver and biliary tract cancers.

Gallstones

When eating, the gallbladder contracts to release bile into the intestines to help digest food. Skipping meals for a long time causes the gallbladder to not be stimulated to contract regularly. This leads to bile stagnation in the gallbladder, creating conditions for cholesterol and bile salts to crystallize and form stones.

This habit also reduces bowel movements, increases the risk of constipation and slows the elimination of excess cholesterol from the body through stool. Cholesterol deposits in bile also contribute to the increased risk of gallstones.

Doctors recommend that everyone eat a healthy, balanced and nutritious breakfast that includes all four food groups containing protein (eggs, milk, lean meat, beans), complex carbohydrates (oats, brown rice, buckwheat, whole wheat bread, sweet potatoes, corn), good fats (nuts, avocados, olive oil), and vegetables and fruits.