Avoid These 5 Breakfast Mistakes


By Keri Gans for U.S. News Health

Many of my patients admit to skipping breakfast with this excuse: Whenever they eat in the mornings, they wind up feeling much hungrier than if they hadn’t eaten at all. Sound familiar? My nutrition intuition tells me that they’re not feeling hungry because they ate breakfast, but rather, because they ate the wrong breakfast. In my years working with patients, I’ve found that for some people with good intentions, there seems to be a disconnect with what they consider a healthy breakfast.

More from U.S. News Health:
Stop the Excuses: Eat Breakfast
How to Serve Dinner for Breakfast
How and Why to Become a Morning Person

Here are the most common breakfast mistakes I’ve seen:

Not Enough Protein
Many of my patients have a bowl of cereal with milk for their breakfasts. Seems like a good choice, right? Yes, one cup of milk provides eight grams of protein, but think about it: How often do slurp down all the milk that accompanies our cereal? Not often, I would guess. Protein digests more slowly than carbohydrates, so without ample amounts, you’ll be hungry sooner rather than later. If you don’t want to drink the milk from the bowl, add a hard-boiled egg to your meal for extra protein. You can also consume protein via 100 percent whole-grain toast, and when you do, don’t top it with just a tiny smear of peanut or almond butter. Enjoy the full serving of nut butter with your toast to get more protein.

Too Little Fiber
The more sugar in your breakfast cereal, the faster it digests, and the hungrier you’ll be. Conversely, more fiber will keep you fuller longer. So, here’s my rule of thumb for cereal: There should always be at least five grams of fiber, and there should always be more fiber than sugar. For extra fiber, add chia or flax seeds. If you choose the latter, make sure to grind the seeds first, or else you won’t absorb their nutritional benefits.

No Fat
A meal with no fat can make you hungry again within an hour. Let’s look at the supposed healthy breakfast of non-fat Greek yogurt, high-fiber cereal and berries. Where’s the fat? I tell my patients to either switch to 2 percent-fat yogurt or to add some nuts to prevent feeling hungry. However, whenever I mention adding fat, I want to drive home the point that more isn’t better. A little fat goes a long way.

Not Enough Food
While a piece of fruit is rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals, it’s not enough for breakfast. Many of my patients have found that a grab-and-go breakfast — like an apple on the drive to work — simply doesn’t cut it. However, if they sit down and mindfully consume about 300 to 400 calories, they feel way more satisfied. By the time lunch approaches, those extra calories are no longer relevant, and have likely kept them from a day of overeating.

Too Late In The Day
I usually recommend eating within an hour of waking, if possible. The longer a person waits to eat breakfast, the hungrier they usually become, making it harder to be satisfied once they eat. Remember: One of a breakfast’s main purposes is to provide you with fuel after a long break from eating. Once your breakfast blurs with the lines of lunchtime, it no longer does its job efficiently.

Bottom line. If you want your breakfast to keep you satisfied, let’s try and keep the mistakes to a minimum. But remember: Any breakfast is better than no breakfast.

Related on HuffPost:

Loading Slideshow...

  • …Are Leaner

    A 2003 study in a href=”http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/158/1/85.full”the emAmerican Journal of Epidemiology/em /ashowed that people who skip breakfast are 4.5 times more likely to be obese than those who take a morning meal.

    The study, which included 499 people whose diets were tracked over a year-long period, also showed that a href=”http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/158/1/85.full”eating out for dinner and breakfast/a are linked with obesity risk.

  • …Are All-Around Healthier

    A study presented in 2003 at the American Heart Association’s annual conference showed that not only are breakfast-eaters less likely to be obese, they’re also more likely to a href=”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2824987.stm”have good blood sugar levels/a and less likely to be hungry later on in the day, BBC News reported.

    “Our results suggest that breakfast may really be the a href=”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2824987.stm”most important meal of the day/a,” study researcher Dr. Mark Pereira, of Harvard Medical School at the time, told BBC News. “It appears that breakfast may play an important role in reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.”

  • …Feel More Energized

    Eating a breakfast that’s high in fiber and carbohydrates could help you feel less tired throughout the day, according to a 1999 study in a href=”http://www.colorado.edu/intphys/Class/IPHY3700_Greene/pdfs/atkins/Holt.pdf”the emInternational Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition/em/a.

    Researchers found that when people ate a high-fiber, low-carb breakfast, they a href=”http://www.webmd.com/diet/fiber-health-benefits-11/fatigue-fighters-six-quick-ways-boost-energy”had more energy/a throughout the day compared with people who ate a high-fat breakfast, WebMD reported.

    emstrongCORRECTION:/strong A previous version of this slideshow incorrectly stated that a high-fat, low-carb breakfast was associated with more energy. It has been fixed to say that a high-fiber, low-carb breakfast is associated with more energy./em

  • …Have Better Cholesterol Levels

    A study in a href=”http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/81/2/388.abstract?cited-by=yeslegid=ajcn;81/2/388?the emAmerican Journal of Clinical Nutrition/em/a showed that breakfast-skippers are more likely to have worse cholesterol levels and insulin sensitivity than breakfast-eaters.

    The study also showed that the breakfast-eaters consume about a href=”http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500368_162-673419.html”100 fewer calories/a a day, compared with people who skip their morning meal, CBS News reported.

  • …Remember Better

    Eating high-energy foods for breakfast could help to a href=”http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/019700709190042K”boost short-term memory/a, according to a study of 319 teens (between ages 13 and 20) in the emJournal of Adolescent Health/em.

    Researchers also found that eating a high-calorie breakfast actually seemed to emhinder/em concentration.

  • …Consume More Nutrients

    People who rarely eat breakfast a href=”http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22125684?consume more fat and fewer nutrients/a — like calcium, potassium and fiber — than regular breakfast-eaters and “often” breakfast-eaters, according to a 2011 study in the journal emNutrition Research and Practice/em.

  • …Have An Excuse To Eat Healthy Breakfast Foods

    Breakfast-eaters have an excuse to consume healthy breakfast-time foods like oatmeal, eggs, grapefruit and coffee.

    Oatmeal has been shown in many studies to be a href=”http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/uok-ohc010808.php”good for cholesterol levels/a, and research has also shown that it could help a href=”http://ase.tufts.edu/psychology/spacelab/pubs/MahoneyEtAl.pdf”improve children’s memory/a and attention skills when eaten for breakfast, compared with ready-to-eat cereals.

    Grapefruit is high in vitamins C and A, and has also been shown in a emClinical Cancer Research/em study this year to a href=”http://www.ivillage.com/grapefruit-juice-may-give-boost-cancer-treatment-study/4-a-478748?boost the beneficial effects of cancer drugs/a, HealthDay reported.

    Eating eggs for breakfast has been linked to a href=”http://www.jacn.org/content/24/6/510.full”increased satiety /aemand/em less food consumed later in the day, compared with eating bagels for breakfast, according to a 2005 study in the emJournal of the American College of Nutrition/em. (The study was funded by the Egg Nutrition Center.)

    And coffee, of course, has been linked to a a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/31/coffee-health-benefits_n_1064577.html#slide=440649?whole host of health benefits/a, from a decreased risk of depression to a lower risk of some cancers and Type 2 diabetes.

  • How to make Breakfast Shake

    Learn how to start the day with a healthy breakfast, the breakfast shake.

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • email
  • StumbleUpon
  • Delicious
  • Google Reader
  • LinkedIn
  • BlinkList
  • Digg
  • Google Bookmarks
  • HackerNews
  • Posterous
  • Reddit
  • Sphinn
  • Tumblr
  • Tumblr
  • Tumblr