Do You Eat Breakfast? Science Says That It Really Is the Most Important Meal of the Day

You've likely heard the phrase "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day," but a new study reveals that the age old saying really is true. According to a survey highlighted by Study Finds, you could even see improvements in your career path if you start the day off with a hearty meal. The researchers polled 1,000 breakfast eaters and 1,000 non-breakfast eaters and found that those who have a morning meal are more likely to receive a promotion at work.

The same survey also reveals that 65 percent of respondents who eat breakfast say they have moved up in a position throughout their career, which is compared to 38 percent of people who don't eat breakfast. Survey participants who start their day with a meal also reported slightly higher overall life satisfaction than non-breakfast eaters, with seven in 10 breakfast eaters saying they feel optimistic about what the future holds.

According to a study by Northwestern University researchers the time of day in which you eat breakfast may also have an impact on your overall health. The study used data from 10,575 adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Survey. They split them into three groups based on their eating habits (those who only ate during a window of less than 10 hours, ten to 13 hours, or more than 13 hours per day) and then created six subgroups based on when people started to eat. The researchers found that people across all groups that ate before 8:30 a.m. had lower blood sugar levels and less insulin resistance than those who waited to eat.

This isn't the only study that shows the health benefits of eating breakfast. More research highlighted by Study Finds found that consuming the morning meal prepares the body to burn more carbohydrates during exercise and metabolize food more efficiently after working out. To obtain their findings, the study served 12 healthy adult males porridge with milk for breakfast. Two hours later, participants in the test group rode their bikes for one hour, while a control group rested for three hours.

Upon examining the results from blood and muscle tests on the participants, researchers found that eating breakfast increased the rate at which the body burns carbohydrates during exercise. What's more, it also speeds up the digestion and metabolizing of food consumed after working out. "This study suggests that, at least after a single bout of exercise, eating breakfast before exercise may 'prime' our body, ready for rapid storage of nutrition when we eat meals after exercise," says study co-author Rob Edinburgh.