Even after thousands of years of civilization, the human body is still programmed to live in a cave.
For example, goosebumps are caused by a pilomotor reflex, an involuntary muscle contraction that raises the hairs on your skin.
Our primitive ancestors had much more hair, and this response kept them warm in cold temperatures.
Metabolism works the same way.
When you skip a meal, your body’s defense mechanism believes that famine is imminent.
This simultaneously causes your metabolism to slow down, to ensure you do not burn “too many” calories.
Fearing starvation, it produces more lipase – a fat storage enzyme – to ensure that you don’t deplete your fat reserves too quickly.
Skipping meals causes your body to hold on to fat.
When you wake up in the morning, your metabolism is already low because you’ve been sleeping. It’s been a while since your last meal and your body hasn’t had anything to do for eight hours.
Your body needs breakfast to stimulate it into burning off calories, which will give you energy for the morning ahead.
Regular meals keep your metabolism moving along because your body knows that more food will be on the way. Rather than store calories, your metabolism will burn them off.
Breakfast gives your metabolism a jump start. An even flow of food into the body keeps blood sugar levels level, and also works in keeping the metabolism set on an even channel.
A breakfast that includes things like eggs, avocado, nut butters, and oats provides the fuel that will sustain you, so that you don’t have the need to snack throughout the day.
Your breakfast can be as simple as eggs and avocado or as decadent as Oatmeal Cottage Cheese Banana Pancakes.
A perfect breakfast will leave you feeling satisfied. It should satiate you so that you get through the morning feeling energetic.
Photo by Alison Marras on Unsplash