I have a nagging sense of guilt that I don’t really eat breakfast. A cup of black coffee (preferably a dark Sumatran), a glass of water (preferably filtered and cold), and a measured cup of orange juice (preferably fresh-squeezed, but usually out of a carton) do me just fine. My stomach doesn’t generally wake up until a few hours after the rest of my body, and if breakfast is the most important meal of the day I fear I’m starting at a disadvantage.
Well! A new meta-study in the BMJ shows that perhaps I’m not in such bad shape after all (did you see what I did there?). Aggregating the results from 13 studies, it turns out that breakfast eaters consume on average 260 calories more per day, and weigh about a pound more. The idea may be a classic correlation problem where studies incorrectly conflate effect with cause.
With a late dinner still considered unhealthy, I feel pretty good (smug even) in thinking that lunch is the most important meal of the day. But, that being said, everyone’s metabolism is different and there’s no one true way—each of us need to figure out our own metabolic best practices. In the meantime, I say “Bring on the Brunch!”