PROBLEM: Skipping breakfast is strongly correlated with weight gain. "Start your day off right," right? Still, young people eat nearly half of their daily calories between 4 p.m. and midnight. So, eat breakfast, but what's best?
- Why Straight Women Are Often Close With Gay Men
- Children of Divorce More Likely to Become Smokers
- Mediterranean Diet Can Save Money
METHODOLOGY: A small experiment out of the University of Missouri involved 20 overweight or obese females, aged 18 to 20, who identified as infrequent breakfast eaters. Each morning for a week, the researchers had the participants eat either 350 calories of cereal (13 grams of protein), 350 calories of eggs and beef (35 grams of protein), or skip breakfast entirely. Dietary fat, fiber, sugar, and energy density were kept constant across all of their breakfasts.
Participants adjusted to their diets for six days. On the seventh day, they were kept in a lab so that researchers could track/control their behavior. They had them fill out questionnaires about their hunger levels and cravings. They took repeated blood samples. They hooked them up to an fMRI while showing them pictures of food. These tests were repeated on three different Saturdays.