# Know how we said breakfast is the most important meal? Well not really we just made that up **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 24, 2014, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340 "2014-08-24T01:53:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DrumBum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e79b87/32.png) [@DrumBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrumBum)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340/41 "2014-08-25T13:06:12Z")
I got out of the habit of eating breakfast when I began university. Freshmen always had the early classes and I decided to skip breakfast and get that extra 30 minutes of sleep. Even today, I might eat a piece of fruit when I get to the office and that gets me through until lunch. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340/42 "2014-08-25T13:46:44Z")
Slugabeds, the whole lot of ya! The best part of the day is from an hour before sunrise until an hour after. (Well, 2nd best part - can’t forget cocktail hour!) After 30 years as a teacher, I can’t sleep past 7am if I try. The eyes pop open before 5am every day, no matter when I went to bed. So breakfast is essential if my stomach is to be kept from growling before lunchtime. ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340/43 "2014-08-25T14:22:03Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > \ Because other than when sedated I seem to not be able to sleep more than 3 or so hours. It used to be that I could manage to fall back to sleep after half an hour or so, then it got to be an hour or so, then a couple hours. Sometimes I can’t go back to sleep at all until my am medications kick in [some of the stuff I am on has a secondary use as a sedative. And NO I am not talking about nyquil or other OTC crap.] > [URL=“[http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/](http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/)”] Xyrem? I’m no lover of the morning, but I do need breakfast pretty quickly after getting up. Dinner I can do without and often do. I can’t eat after 8pm or my medication won’t work right. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340/44 "2014-08-25T14:27:59Z")
I didn’t really need it but it’s nice to hear a little vindication about not buying into this breakfast bullshit. I feel the same about lunch. To me, dinner is the most important (only) meal of my day. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340/45 "2014-08-25T15:08:37Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Slugabeds, the whole lot of ya! The best part of the day is from an hour before sunrise until an hour after. (Well, 2nd best part - can’t forget cocktail hour!) After 30 years as a teacher, I can’t sleep past 7am if I try. The eyes pop open before 5am every day, no matter when I went to bed. So breakfast is essential if my stomach is to be kept from growling before lunchtime. _sneaks into **silenus** ’ house while he’s still asleep, hides the weaponry and flops him out of bed_ Who you calling a slugabed, you bedbug? ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340/46 "2014-08-25T15:09:37Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Ladies, please dont get mad but I’ve always thought breakfast was more of a guy thing because we guys love breakfast food more than women. Biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs and hashbrowns - guys love them. > > Yes, some women also like big breakfasts. But IMO most women are content with just a muffin, smoothie, or a cup of coffee and toast. Painting with quite the broad brush there, are we? ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340/47 "2014-08-26T06:54:01Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > We made up the thing about eight glasses of water, too. I was coming in here to say exactly that. If it were true, I’d have been dead a long time ago. The only time I’ve been able to consume that much water was when I was pregnant. Otherwise, it makes me feel bloated and nauseous. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340/48 "2014-08-26T07:10:28Z")
I’m so glad to read this about breakfast and its alleged importance. I’m also glad to read that I’m not the only person who gets even hungrier if I force myself to eat breakfast. All this “don’t eat breakfast and you’ll be stuffing yourself with cakes and muffins by morning tea” just doesn’t apply to me. Most days, I don’t eat until about 1:00pm and that suits me just fine. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340/49 "2014-08-28T13:54:42Z")
My problem is that I am freaking starving every time I wake up. This doesn’t happen before any other meal. I can skip lunch and usually feel fine. But not breakfast. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340/50 "2014-08-28T14:38:00Z")
Then eat breakfast. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340/51 "2014-08-28T15:06:24Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > My problem is that I am freaking starving every time I wake up…[snip] I’m the opposite. I usually skip breakfast because I don’t get hungry for at least two or three hours after I wake up. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340/52 "2014-08-28T15:29:36Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > You wouldn’t happen to know where/when this was done, would you? Because my daughter, like me, doesn’t voluntarily eat breakfast, and I have experienced quite a bit of grief from her father for not forcing her to eat something before she goes to school. I would very much love for this to be true. No, but it was when I was doing programming for disabled (many MR and autistic) people, and I was reading lots of journals. See if it’s in _JAMA_ online, and see if dieticians or nutritionists have a professional journal. Then try both APAs (pediatricians and psychologists). Maybe compromise with your daughter. See if she will drink a glass of chocolate milk made with Carnation Inst. Breakfast. Don’t use as much as the package says-- you can get a good chocolate taste with half. If you want extra protein, use skim or 1%, and put in some powdered milk. It’s a lot easier to drink than eat when you don’t have an appetite, and most people are thirsty in the morning even if they aren’t hungry. Show your husband the label, so he knows the nutrition she’s getting. > [@CairoCarol](#): > > I was coming in here to say exactly that. > > If it were true, I’d have been dead a long time ago. The only time I’ve been able to consume that much water was when I was pregnant. Otherwise, it makes me feel bloated and nauseous. Or when nursing. I was so thirsty when I was nursing. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340/53 "2014-08-28T21:36:17Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Ladies, please dont get mad but I’ve always thought breakfast was more of a guy thing because we guys love breakfast food more than women. Biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs and hashbrowns - guys love them. > > Yes, some women also like big breakfasts. But IMO most women are content with just a muffin, smoothie, or a cup of coffee and toast. I’m not “mad” (and I’m not much of a “lady” either) but biscuits and gravy, eggs of amost any kind and hashbrowns sounds good to me! Maybe most women you happen to see are on an eating plan or just happen to be smaller eaters. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340/54 "2014-08-28T22:14:08Z")
Technically, isn’t _whatever_ you eat first breakfast, no matter how long it is after you get up? If not, what’s the cutoff? An hour? Two? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340/55 "2014-08-29T00:17:37Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Technically, isn’t _whatever_ you eat first breakfast, no matter how long it is after you get up? If not, what’s the cutoff? An hour? Two? No, because that would make sense. Breakfast in American/Canadian/British/Irish terms is eaten at a specific time in the morning and it consists of a specific group of foods that you need to eat during that time (the earlier the better) or you will get slowly sick and die or something. If you are a morally upright and traditional type, those foods need to high in fat, dairy products, sugar and meat. If you are a pansy modern flake, that can be accommodated as well through an alternate selection of fruit juices, blended smoothies, cheeses and highly flavored breads or grains like flavored bagels and large muffins. However, although it is critical that everyone eat these foods during this 4 - 5 hour period unless you want to die, you shouldn’t eat them outside of those hours either. It isn’t technically against the law but you will be judged for it as well you should because it means you have no control over your life. It is true that there are breakfast restaurants like IHOP that are open all the time but that only proves the point more because only hopeless drunks, drug addicts and and degenerates frequent those types of places outside of the moral hours. The sad thing is that the world is still filled with primitive cultures that do not know these facts and probably suffer badly for it. You can go to Asia, Africa, South America and even large parts of Europe and they don’t even have the manufacturing and farming capacity to support the life-sustaining breakfast food industry even if they understood it like we do. In some parts of the world, they just eat the same types of traditional food (varied of course) regardless of what time of day it is. Don’t even try asking for a tall stack of pancakes heaped with maple syrup, 5 strips of bacon, a two fried eggs over easy even during breakfast hours in places like Thailand. They probably won’t even know how to make them right even if they have the ingredients on hand to cater to foreigners. Meanwhile the locals are stuck eating fresh fruit, rice dishes and small pieces of fish at 8 am no less! It is no wonder that they are so thin. American style breakfast foods are essential for building up a decent weight because it is the only thing that will ‘stick to your ribs’ at that time of the day as my grandparents used to explain. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340/56 "2014-08-29T02:25:29Z")
> [@campp](#): > > All that being said, I try to eat a breakfast, because I can’t concentrate or do much of anything very well when I’m hungry. Once the tummy is happy, so is the brain. This was the WHOLE PREMISE behind the statement! It’s still true. BTW, to the poster criticizing “put baby on their back”, significant research has found it reduces SIDS risk. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340/57 "2014-08-29T10:03:37Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > My problem is that I am freaking starving every time I wake up. This doesn’t happen before any other meal. I can skip lunch and usually feel fine. But not breakfast. > [@QuickSilver](#): > > Then eat breakfast. This. No one is telling you NOT to eat breakfast. If I was hungry upon waking, I would most definitely eat breakfast. The problem lies when The Experts tell everyone that they should eat breakfast when it’s obvious to many of us in this thread that we have no appetite for x hours after waking. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/know-how-we-said-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-well-not-really-we-just-made-that-up/696340.md?page=2)