Don't Break The Fast

Is breakfast really necessary?

Have you noticed that we are not actually hungry in the morning? I am not anyway. I eat breakfast out of tradition and I am willing to be that that's the reason why most people eat breakfast first thing in the morning. We have been conditioned to physiologically expect it so we just do it automatically, regardless of hunger or lack thereof.

I recently missed breakfast for a couple of days back to back, and didn't eat till late afternoon. I noticed that I wasn't actually hungry once I'd forgotten that I hadn't had breakfast. That is to say, once the psychological bit was overcome. I decided to carry on doing it for the entire week to see what happened. It got easier every day and towards the end of the week I had to actually remind myself to eat something. All I had in the morning was warm lemon water in the morning, and a cup of coffee a couple of hours later.

Ironically, I had way more energy than usual. Apparently my body had tapped into my own body storage of energy, my very plentiful fat deposits around by mid-section 🤣, which is a very efficient source of energy. I also lost a good amount of weight, understandably since my body was burning it's own store of fat.

As it happens, fat is a better source of energy for our body than sugar. It's not black and white since other factors also come to play such as other nutrients like Vitamins D and C, hormones, exercise, etc, but generally speaking processed carbs and sugar are terrible for us. Many people also get a lot of their sugar first thing in the morning since "breakfast" meals are often sugary.

Fasting is also good for us. Our ancestors did it a lot, for thousands of years, so we've evolved around this concept. These days we have so much abundance of food that we no longer fast - except intentionally (religious reasons for example). We also binge on processed foods which are full of sugar, salts, chemicals and hormones and lack roughage.

A cup of black coffee in the morning is really all I need apparently, as long as I'm well hydrated. I may do this for one week every month going forward. Maybe it'll help reset my body on a monthly basis. We shall see :)

Peace & Love,

Adé