Adam’s Journal
Thanksgiving, that day of monumental consumption, is almost upon us. I read that on Thursday, the average American will consume 4,500 calories. Wow.
This is one of those times when I’d actually like to be an underperformer. If I’m looking to curb the total amount of food I consume on Thursday, should I skip breakfast? Or am I better off eating early so that I don’t show up ravenous for the big Thanksgiving meal?
Dr. Scofield Prescribes
Researchers have done many studies on the effects of skipping breakfast. The results are not striking, but if there’s a larger takeaway message, it’s probably that whether you eat breakfast doesn’t end up making a sizeable difference one way or the other when it comes to daily calorie consumption.
That said, the breakfast studies did yield some tasty morsels.
At first blush, it appears that skipping breakfast leads to lower overall consumption throughout the day. When Australian researchers looked at 13 different studies on the topic, they found that breakfast skippers consumed an average of 260 fewer calories than those who broke bread early.
However, when researchers at Purdue University took a deeper dive, they found those differences largely disappeared if you eliminated people who consumed a liquid breakfast, typically in the form of a smoothie. The scientists hypothesized that the drinks didn’t cause people to feel satiated in the same way that solid foods do, with the result being that many people who started the day with a smoothie ended up calorically over-compensating by day’s end.
Another interesting finding came when the Purdue researchers looked at what was on people’s plates. In the handful of studies where scientists compared skipping to those who ate high-protein breakfasts, all but one found better appetite control and hormonal responses in the people who started the day with a protein-rich meal.
It’s worth noting that the decision to eat breakfast or not seems to have little to no effect on activity levels for the rest of the day or the amount of calories people burn throughout the day.
While it likely isn’t relevant to the Thanksgiving discussion, I’m particularly intrigued by one weight-loss study. In a 12-week trial, researchers found that people who were assigned either to a breakfast or no-breakfast routine lost the most weight when they did the opposite of what they usually did.
In other words, shaking things up a bit – if you’re used to eating breakfast, don’t; if you’re not, go ahead and do it – produced the best results.
Thanksgiving is but a single day, so it’s not going to make or break your health. Still, the best way to wake up feeling thankful on Friday is to avoid overdoing it on Thursday afternoon.
To that end, opt for vegetables over starchy or fatty foods, limit portion sizes, try to avoid seconds, and go easy on desserts and alcohol.
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Dr. Hal Scofield is a physician-scientist at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, and he also serves as Associate Chief of Staff for Research at the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center. Adam Cohen is OMRF’s senior vice president and general counsel. Send your health questions to contact@omrf.org.
