“Oh gosh! I’m so late for work…let me just find some food after the meeting..oops! I need to finish that task before next meeting , I can’t afford to eat now…let me grab a coke and pie that food can wait till lunch”….the typical cooperate worker’s morning.
Life as a worker can be very active and a busy one at that; many meetings to attend, numerous deadlines to meet and plenty reading to do. There is almost always not much time . This is especially true for the mornings when the day begins with early morning meetings after a long tiring night trying to cram as much as possible. This leaves us little time to prepare for the mornings activities and most of the time we are not able to eat a proper breakfast to begin the day with.
However, like any vehicle embarking on a busy schedule you need to fill up the tank before you start the journey. The breakfast you eat ,can set you up for a good day and it is indeed, the most important meal of the day, even more especially for active workers.
Having slept through the night or rather crammed throughout the night, the body’s energy stores especially Glucose ,the body’s main source of energy, goes down. aside this too the levels of other nutrients especially the vitamins which help in keeping us alert and also help the brain to function properly also get low.
Taking breakfast is therefore very important to replenish these energy stores and nutrients for proper brain functioning at the start of the day and also to improve your thinking ability as well as keeping your concentration level high.
Contrary to the common belief that eating breakfast will make you dull, studies have shown extensively that people who have eaten breakfast can concentrate better and have a longer attention span, helping them to give out their best. They also perform better physically after eating breakfast as there is more energy available to their muscles.
In a more subtle way too, Breakfast can also help improve mood, as workers have better concentration and aren’t tired or hungry hence ,preventing them from experiencing the usual mid-morning slump, where you feel dull, cannot concentrate or understand the things happening around and cannot just wait to go for break .
Aside these benefits, Eating breakfast regularly may also help you to control your weight. This is because when breakfast is skipped, hunger sets in long before it’s time for lunch, but because it’s not convenient to eat properly (as you may still be working or finishing a task), many people who have not eaten breakfast snack on foods that are high in fat and sugar before eating lunch later eg. fried yam, Coke etc. These excess calories are stored as fat which when accumulates can make one overweight or obese .the long term consequence of these can be unpleasant heart problems and diabetes.
Let’s keep in mind however that even though eating any breakfast is better than not eating breakfast altogether, some choices are better than others. Unbalanced or predominantly carbohydrate breakfasts, like plain Koko with “bofloat” , can give energy for one to two hours, while complete breakfasts that contain a balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates can maintain blood sugar levels for longer periods to provide the needed fuel active students need. So go on take your koko but do add some milk and some bananas or oranges for desert!
Remember, for you to fully make up your daily nutrients requirement ,you certainly have to make time for breakfast. So no matter how busy or hot you may be, let’s make time to have breakfast! With a good foundation (healthy breakfast) your day and mood would be as bright as the sun.
REFERENCES
http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/benefits-eating-breakfast-students-7697.html
http://www.redcross.org.au/files/Fact_sheet_4_%282%29.pdf
http://www.jhsph.edu/offices-and-services/student-affairs/_documents/Breakfast
http://www.breakfastfirst.org/pdfs/HealthAndAcademicBenefits.pdf
