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For years I haven't been eating breakfast long before the IF craze. Mostly out of laziness. Buying all the ingredients, making sure they don't expire, preparing

For years I haven't been eating breakfast long before the IF craze. Mostly out of laziness. Buying all the ingredients, making sure they don't expire, preparing the food etc. is quite some time, so I gradually dropped the habit with no adverse effect. I live alone, but oh boy when people learned that I don't eat breakfast they'd get so defensive and try to tell me how unhealthy it was and how I must be underperforming because of that etc... I even got back to eating breakfast and intellectually felt good that now I'm more of a healthy normal person who does the socially acceptable normal things. After all the IF articles I immediately went back to no breakfast with no guilt. It's crazy how much of this stuff is in our head. The body is really really adaptive! If you get used to eating breakfast and suddenly skip it, you will feel like shit. But that doesn't mean your friend who never eats breakfast also goes through that every day. Or, if you always wake up at 9 AM, you may be shocked at those morning people who wake up at 4:30 AM. But probably if you followed their exact routine incl the evening routine, you'd find after a few weeks that it's not too bad. Surely there is a genetic component to it as well, but we underestimate the power of adaption and habits. And most importantly, don't be so defensive when someone tells you about a strange habit of theirs while they are visibly healthy and well adjusted. Eating disorders and sudden drastic changes are of course cause for concern, but many people have a crabs in the bucket mentality and feel personally attacked when someone does something for their own health.

SergeAx 6y ago
Delicious breakfast gives me great mood boost for the rest of the day, so I prefer to skip dinner, or at least have it early enough to have at least 7 hours before sleep.
lucb1e 6y ago
> get so defensive and try to tell me how unhealthy it was and how I must be underperforming because of that etc. I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that the candy industry, ahem, the breakfast cereals industry's ads and sponsored "research" is behind that. Opening Wikipedia on Kellog's (first guess of where I might find sources on this): > The FTC had previously found fault with Kellogg's claims that Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal improved kids' attentiveness by nearly 20%. > In 2016 an ad telling UK consumers that Special K is “full of goodness” and “nutritious” was banned. And from one of the sources on ftc.gov: > At about the same time that Kellogg agreed to stop making these kinds of false claims in its cereal ads, the company began a new advertising campaign promoting the purported health benefits of Rice Krispies, according to the FTC. On product packaging, Kellogg claimed that Rice Krispies cereal “now helps support your child’s immunity,” with “25 percent Daily Value of Antioxidants and Nutrients – Vitamins A, B, C, and E.” The back of the cereal box stated that “Kellogg’s Rice Krispies has been improved to include antioxidants and nutrients that your family needs to help them stay healthy.” > The expanded order against Kellogg prohibits the company from making claims about any health benefit of any food unless the claims are backed by scientific evidence and not misleading. I, too, heard from my parents that "breakfast is the most important meal of the day!" and that I shouldn't skip it, and you can rationalize it with "sure, it's the first thing, a good start is half the work" or something. But that's not the same as reading the original research or at least doing a cursory search online -- something that my parents aren't used to questioning; and if they look it up, confirmation bias might play a big role. So I don't think you can fully blame the people that got defensive about this, though I am sorry you had this experience. To end on a more positive note, the European Union requires food to only make preapproved health claims. It feelt a bit like censorship or at least overreach when I first heard of this and I read that the number of claims made reduced very significantly (also correct claims, since it's now expensive to prove it truthful) if I remember correctly, but I guess this does stop a lot of this misinformation, at least within the EU. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_claim#European_Laws https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_claim#European_Laws)
- cutemonster 6y ago
  > from my parents that "breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Me too, and I've been slightly wondering how they got that idea -- when nowadays I don't eat breakfast and still feel fine > breakfast cereals industry's ads and sponsored "research" How interesting, makes sense, maybe the answer
dorkwood 6y ago
Ha, I've experienced the same thing. I'm a healthy weight and don't have any obvious health issues, but people keep telling me how bad it is that I don't eat breakfast. I've even had people tell me "yeah, you might look fine on the outside, but you're unhealthy on the inside", or imply that I'll run into health complications further down the track if I don't change my habits now. I think food to most people is a little bit like religion: everyone wants to believe that their knowledge of nutrition is correct, and that anyone doing anything differently must be wrong.
tedmiston 6y ago
> After all the IF articles I immediately went back to no breakfast with no guilt. > It's crazy how much of this stuff is in our head. Likewise the idea that "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" being ingrained in American culture despite lacking a scientific basis [1]. [1]: https://thefastingmethod.com/tyranny-breakfast-lose-weight-v/ https://thefastingmethod.com/tyranny-breakfast-lose-weight-v...
- cutemonster 6y ago
  Maybe breakfast is really important for children so they grow? But I stopped eating breakfast many years ago me too (before I knew about IF)

SergeAx 6y ago

Delicious breakfast gives me great mood boost for the rest of the day, so I prefer to skip dinner, or at least have it early enough to have at least 7 hours before sleep.

lucb1e 6y ago

> get so defensive and try to tell me how unhealthy it was and how I must be underperforming because of that etc. I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that the candy industry, ahem, the breakfast cereals industry's ads and sponsored "research" is behind that. Opening Wikipedia on Kellog's (first guess of where I might find sources on this): > The FTC had previously found fault with Kellogg's claims that Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal improved kids' attentiveness by nearly 20%. > In 2016 an ad telling UK consumers that Special K is “full of goodness” and “nutritious” was banned. And from one of the sources on ftc.gov: > At about the same time that Kellogg agreed to stop making these kinds of false claims in its cereal ads, the company began a new advertising campaign promoting the purported health benefits of Rice Krispies, according to the FTC. On product packaging, Kellogg claimed that Rice Krispies cereal “now helps support your child’s immunity,” with “25 percent Daily Value of Antioxidants and Nutrients – Vitamins A, B, C, and E.” The back of the cereal box stated that “Kellogg’s Rice Krispies has been improved to include antioxidants and nutrients that your family needs to help them stay healthy.” > The expanded order against Kellogg prohibits the company from making claims about any health benefit of any food unless the claims are backed by scientific evidence and not misleading. I, too, heard from my parents that "breakfast is the most important meal of the day!" and that I shouldn't skip it, and you can rationalize it with "sure, it's the first thing, a good start is half the work" or something. But that's not the same as reading the original research or at least doing a cursory search online -- something that my parents aren't used to questioning; and if they look it up, confirmation bias might play a big role. So I don't think you can fully blame the people that got defensive about this, though I am sorry you had this experience. To end on a more positive note, the European Union requires food to only make preapproved health claims. It feelt a bit like censorship or at least overreach when I first heard of this and I read that the number of claims made reduced very significantly (also correct claims, since it's now expensive to prove it truthful) if I remember correctly, but I guess this does stop a lot of this misinformation, at least within the EU. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_claim#European_Laws https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_claim#European_Laws)

cutemonster 6y ago
> from my parents that "breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Me too, and I've been slightly wondering how they got that idea -- when nowadays I don't eat breakfast and still feel fine > breakfast cereals industry's ads and sponsored "research" How interesting, makes sense, maybe the answer

dorkwood 6y ago

Ha, I've experienced the same thing. I'm a healthy weight and don't have any obvious health issues, but people keep telling me how bad it is that I don't eat breakfast. I've even had people tell me "yeah, you might look fine on the outside, but you're unhealthy on the inside", or imply that I'll run into health complications further down the track if I don't change my habits now. I think food to most people is a little bit like religion: everyone wants to believe that their knowledge of nutrition is correct, and that anyone doing anything differently must be wrong.

tedmiston 6y ago

> After all the IF articles I immediately went back to no breakfast with no guilt. > It's crazy how much of this stuff is in our head. Likewise the idea that "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" being ingrained in American culture despite lacking a scientific basis [1]. [1]: https://thefastingmethod.com/tyranny-breakfast-lose-weight-v/ https://thefastingmethod.com/tyranny-breakfast-lose-weight-v...

cutemonster 6y ago
Maybe breakfast is really important for children so they grow? But I stopped eating breakfast many years ago me too (before I knew about IF)