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Biochemist breakfast should be the new smoking?
Self-taught against diabetes
The basis for the book is his own experience. Kealey suffers from diabetes 2 and wanted to avoid that he dies of heart attack or stroke.
Therefore, he meticulously noted his sugar level and noticed that it reached its peak after breakfast. He renounced the breakfast and could, so he says, so lower his blood sugar.
A sumptuous breakfast is considered healthy. But is it as dangerous as smoking? (Lunamaria / fotolia.com) "Breakfast hurts like smoking"
Kealey claims that even non-diabetics harmed themselves with the early meal. Because people developed insulin resistance through breakfast - the arterial vessels would get sick, people would become fat, suffer from hypertension and eventually end up with diabetes. Breakfast has the same effect on smoking as smoking.
Is there a breakfast for everyone?
The British scientist Amelia Freer does not consider Kealey's thesis to be tenable, precisely because all people are different: "There is no concept that fits alone."
According to Freer, everyone should decide for themselves whether they eat breakfast or not. If you feel better with breakfast and healthy overall, you should take it. If you are not hungry in the morning, you should not eat.
"Breakfast is not equal to breakfast"
Food researcher Dagmar von Cramm draws the line in the what and not the ob. What matters is what you eat for breakfast. High calorie breakfast, not breakfast in general, promotes overweight.
On the other hand, for example, wholegrain muesli with fruit and nuts would have no negative consequences, in contrast to white rolls with jam. The blood sugar actually rose quickly.
It even warns pregnant, breastfeeding, ill and people with eating disorders of intentionally omitting any meal.
Myth Breakfast
Breakfast as the most important meal of the day is a modern invention. Historically, people in most cultures have not paid much attention to a copious meal after getting up.
Agricultural workers in Germany usually ate only a plate of porridge before they went to field work. They did not eat the first proper meal until they had worked for a few hours.
The Bavarian snack can only be described as a limited breakfast. In fact, it is more of a brunch, because the custom is especially common among artisans who fortify themselves with wheat beer and pretzels when they make the first longer break at work.
Fish soup and mare's milk
In the morning, the Japanese ate only a hot fish or seaweed soup, the Mexicans tortillas, the Tibetans salty tea with yak butter, the Mongolians drank mare's milk.
Italians and French still prefer a light breakfast today, which mainly consists of coffee, to Crossant or sweets, in Iran there is tea and flatbread.
The ancient Egyptians, on the other hand, finished breakfast. In particular, they started the day with a lot of beer and bread.
Lush in the north
A lavish breakfast was widespread, especially in northern countries, the UK and Scandinavia. There, people ate plentiful in the morning, barely at noon, and tidy in the evening.
English Breakfast
The British "Lunch" still has a subordinate importance compared to the "Breakfast" and often consists of a cold sandwich.
In the early 19th century, the English bourgeoisie established the "full English breakfast" with stir-fried or fried eggs, fried bacon, blood and sausages, but also fried kidneys and smoked fish.
The British immigrants brought this sumptuous meal to America, where peanut butter, pancakes with maple syrup, and later cornflakes, donuts, and sugared orange juice were added.
A service for tourists
Travel destinations for Central and Northern Europeans, in which it is hot and the sun is shining, had to adapt to the customs of the tourists: Indian hotels strive to prepare "English Breakfast" while the Indians themselves drink tea with milk.
A sumptuous breakfast is considered healthy. But is it as dangerous as smoking? (Lunamaria / fotolia.com) A perennial favorite
The role of breakfast for a healthy diet is a perennial favorite among real and perceived experts. Some diet guides recommend skipping breakfast to save calories. Others think breakfast is necessary because otherwise the body will develop cravings.
Healthy wholegrain
Whole grain products come to the fore in the foremost thesis: Those who consume these in the morning stay fit through the morning because long-chain carbohydrates release their energy only slowly.
Nasty carbohydrates?
Others suggest carbohydrates not just for breakfast, but to stay in general and eat more fruits and vegetables instead.
Do we need energy in the morning??
Advocates of the carbohydrate thesis argue this: The body needs the energy boost in the morning to have enough energy to consume. Consequently, carbohydrates are bad before going to bed, because the body fixes them in the morning, but good because we consume them. They are sort of the gasoline that the engine needs.
What about salt and water?
That's not logical. The human body has energy reserves for almost six weeks. Those who have to survive on their own in the wild can easily pull the energy out of their fat reserves - but not salt and water.
Liquid and minerals
Traditional cultures in an inhospitable climate do not pay much attention to an opulent meal to start the day. What they do not do without is water and nutrients: Tibetans use salty tea and yak butter with fat, water and salt; Berber in Morocco with fresh mint tea with water and vitamins, Indians in the Andes provide with mate tea for water and tannins, Indians lead with tea and milk water, fat and minerals.
A British peculiarity?
Is Kealey's thesis determined by his experiences in Britain? Englishmen and Scots belong in the western industrialized countries to the people with the unhealthiest nutrition.
The classic "English breakfast" with an excess of fat and simple carbohydrates or the normal English breakfast with jam, sweetened coffee or sugared tea, nutrient-poor white bread recommends no nutritionist as healthy.
This is not necessary because it is breakfast. Widespread alcohol abuse is also a factor leading to much lower life expectancy in Scotland than in comparable industrialized countries.
Too much fat and sugar is never healthy
Therefore, British nutritionists have been alarming for years and school canteens are trying to offer a balanced diet. However, this is unsuccessful because many students prefer to go to the nearest bakery to buy "roll and chips" for one pound, ie deep-fried rolls of white flour with fried French fries, ketchup and mayonnaise.
Food and energy consumption
"The" breakfast for every person does not exist. The Nordic breakfast, rich in calories, carbohydrates and fat was not invented by the locals because they liked to eat unhealthy food but because it met their needs.
Those who did the hardest physical work as a fisherman or farmer in cold and rain, consumed calories far more than today's computer potatoes. And it made more sense to put those calories before work than afterwards.
Also in the Harz, for example, there is the so-called lumberjack sausage, which consists almost of pure fat, because that's exactly what needed someone who implemented several thousand calories daily.
A flexible stomach
The human organism proved to be very flexible in evolution. One reason for our success is that we can use almost any food source - in prepared form.
Our ancestors, the hunters and gatherers, hardly knew any fixed mealtimes. Meals were based on what was there, and the changing seasons.
Immediately after hunting, American Natives devoured innards such as heart and liver in a bison hunt, which surprised European witnesses.
Eating when you are hungry
In industrialized countries, we hardly have the feeling that we are hungry. Most people consume more energy than they consume through physical activity. This situation is historically unique to the majority of people.
The body is the best indicator
Even within this abundance, our body is still the best indicator of what we need. When we get used to eating only when we are hungry and do not constantly over-burden our physical needs with excess sugars, fat and simple carbohydrates, the organism tells us not only if we need food, but also what we eat good.
Carrot juice instead of Red Bull
As a house rule that means: If in the morning we drink a glass of freshly squeezed carrot juice, eat nuts and a wholemeal roll and then feel the need to swing on the bike, because the body wants movement, the risk of high blood sugar levels is not too large.
However, if you have a Red Bull drink for breakfast, a kids' milk slice, a chocolate-crossant, and a morning meal with a nutella toast, you should take Kealey's warning seriously. For him, it is probably better to do without the breakfast.
Studies are missing
Kealey's thesis that breakfast leads to insulin resistance spiced the debate with a new aspect. However, there are no reliable studies to make or disprove it. Kealey's own experience is scientifically worthless without questioning his seriousness.
Whether his experience can be formulated as a general rule, or even if only his own blood sugar level lowered, because he did without the breakfast, would have to substantiate extensive studies.
To do this, the research would need a group of subjects of different ages, backgrounds and sexes, and different breakfast, who abstain completely from breakfast over a period of several months, and whose blood sugar levels were previously measured after breakfast, and continue to be measured during the study without breakfast Only then would results be produced that could be worked with.
The smoker breakfast
Even a "Belmondo breakfast" with chewing gum, filterless cigarette and black coffee contradicts a healthy lifestyle. As Kealey is right: If the breakfast is made of a cigarette, it is as dangerous as smoking. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)