10 Worst Breakfasts Ideas: Are You Sure You Want To Start Your Day With These Foods On Your Plate? | Nutrition & Dieting slideshows | Well Being center

The Worst Breakfast Is Not Eating It At All

The best breakfast is a matter of opinion. Different views on nutrition, different personal tastes and different cultural norms will lead to a different answer to that question every time you ask it. But the worst breakfast is not eating at all. If you skip breakfast, by the time lunchtime rolls around, you've often had no food for 16 hours. If you're not deliberately using a short-term fasting protocol for dieting purposes, that's an unqualified Bad Thing - your metabolism slows and you feel, not just hunger, but cravings for fatty, sweet foods. Skip breakfast and you'll be pigging out before lunch!

Sources & Links

Important notification about information and brand names used in this slideshow!
Photo courtesy of Nandini Gupta by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/nandini/397643715/
www.besthealthmag.ca/eat-well/healthy-eating/the-worst-breakfast-foods-you-can-eat?slide=2
http://health.yahoo.net/experts/dayinhealth/best-and-worst-breakfasts-your-health
http://www.activebeat.com/your-health/children/10-worst-breakfasts-to-feed-your-children/
http://eatthis.menshealth.com/slide/1-dennys-heartland-scramble?slideshow=185862#sharetagsfocus
http://eatthis.menshealth.com/slide/worst-breakfast-sandwich?slideshow=77333#sharetagsfocus

Do Better Than Just a Cup of Coffee... It's a Bad Breakfast Choice

Caffeine is a stimulant, aping the behavior of epinephrine in the body. It triggers the heart to beat faster, makes voluntary muscles prepare for action - and pushes sugar into the blood, making the liver and muscles give up their stored glycogen. OK, that caffeine rush is part of the reason many of us drink coffee in the first place, and caffeine is a proven performance enhancer. But it's also going to leave you more hungry than ever, with even your body's on-board stores of glycogen depleted. It's fine to drink coffee in the morning - but eat some breakfast first!

Sources & Links

Important notification about information and brand names used in this slideshow!
Photo courtesy of James Joel by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/98701585@N02/9271719538/

Fast Food Is A Bad Lunch and a Bad Dinner - But For Breakfast, it's the Worst!

Fast food isn't a great meal choice. But it's a particularly poor choice for your first meal of the day. Fast food tends to have poor nutrient profiles, being rich in 'bad' fats and short-chain carbs, and if it's the first thing to hit your stomach for 12 hours, it's not going to do you any favors. Eat food that's mostly fat and short-chain carbs, and you'll shortly be hungry again, with the additional problem that the fast food you've eaten will be making itself felt in the form of messed up blood triglyceride levels - which you'll feel as queasiness, headrushes, and, when your liver clears your blood, an insulin-inspired blood sugar crash that will make you reach for the first sugary snack you pass.

Sources & Links

Important notification about information and brand names used in this slideshow!
Photo courtesy of yung by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/fotogiraffee/340052845/

Whole Grain Cereals, Soy Milk, Low Fat Yoghurt... That's Healthy, Right?

This is a common myth, left over from a simplistic nutritional analysis that equates low fat intake with a body that's low in fat. In fact that's not how it works. Most whole grains aren't particularly good for your digestion; apart from their phytate content, they'll usually have an intact outer husk that abrades the interior of your digestive system. Soy milk is a source of pseudoestrogens - chemicals that mimic the behavior of estrogen in the body. And low fat yoghurt? Usually, it's sweetened and even if that doesn't mean that it has more calories than full-fat (which it sometimes does), the artificial sweeteners aren't great news for your body.

Sources & Links

Important notification about information and brand names used in this slideshow!
Photo courtesy of Rizka Budiati by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/rizkapb/2421345327/

Chocolate Peanut and Hazelnut Spread - a Treat, Not a Food Group

Chocolate nut spread is perfect - if you want diabetes. Seriously, chocolate and chocolate nut spreads are so high in sugar that they can cause dizziness and nausea, and shortly afterward the inevitable blood sugar crash, a step in the cycle of sugary snacks and cravings that leads to weight gain, and, if left unchecked, metabolic syndrome. From a nutritional point of view, the best thing you can do with chocolate nut spread in the kitchen is to put it in the bin. If you just happen to like it, eat it in moderation - use it as a treat, not a food group.

Sources & Links

Important notification about information and brand names used in this slideshow!
Photo courtesy of ziggiau by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/ziggiau/197014356/

Sugar "Bombs", Like Pastries, Muffins and Doughnuts

In terms of their caloric content, doughnuts, pastries and muffins are almost pure sugar, and the remainder is short-chain carbohydrates and a mix of usually 'bad' fats. It's like a concentrated anti-nutrition pill. And yet, the best of us must admit that we like them from time to time. So, what's to do? Well, as with other unhealthy but tasty foods, it's best to break the habit by avoiding them completely for a while, and then have them occasionally - perhaps a weekend treat, as part of a breakfast that also contains healthier foods. The bottom line, again, is to make them a treat.

Sources & Links

Important notification about information and brand names used in this slideshow!
Photo courtesy of su-lin by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/su-lin/385873277/

Storebought Smoothies and Shakes Aren't Always as Healthy as They Seem

Many of us have become accustomed to viewing smoothies as a kind of health/convenience food - like a takeaway, but stuffed with fruits and vitamins. Which many of them are. However, many of them are also stuffed with sugar, thickeners and fats. While that's not always an issue, it can drive the caloric content up very high, and the sheer sugar content of some commercial smoothies is a major issue; it can be higher than many fizzy drinks, in some cases. The best advice? Read the label carefully, find brands you trust, and make your own when you can: that way you have full control of the ingredients.

Sources & Links

Important notification about information and brand names used in this slideshow!
Photo courtesy of Paul Wittal by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/paulwittal/5581577888/

Sugary Cereals - A Definite No-No In Health Terms

Breakfast cereals have a peculiar history. While they were invented by religious proselytizers who hoped they would help to prevent impure thoughts, they have gone entirely mainstream and are the go-to image of breakfast in the Western world. Where we have a massive obesity problem. Coincidence? No, not really; some breakfast cereals are 60% or more sugar by weight, and the preponderance of coloring agents doesn't bode well either. Every time you eat something very sweet, you're teaching your body to think of a higher level of sweetness as normal - a process that takes two to four days to alter. Starting your day with sugar bomb breakfast cereals sets you up for a day of overconsuming sugar. Even unsweetened cereals like corn flakes are so high in short chain carbohydrates that they're a bad choice nutritionally.

Sources & Links

Important notification about information and brand names used in this slideshow!
Photo courtesy of cobalt123 by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/cobalt/6388971729/

Pancakes With Syrup - Or Artificial Maple Syrup

Pancakes: flour, fried in fat. Syrup: liquid sugar. Could there be a problem here? You bet! The original appeal of pancakes and syrup was that they were an economical way to get a lot of cheap calories into the bodies of men and women who worked tough, manual jobs outside or in a rough environment. But if you happen not to be a lumberjack, and you don't live halfway up the Yukon, they're probably too caloric. If you choose them for breakfast, try to pair them with a food that contains some protein, to reduce the blood sugar hit, and cut some calories later in the day to compensate. And try to avoid synthetic syrups: they're absorbed faster and lead to bigger blood sugar spikes, and they don't have the nutritional benefits of the natural product.

Sources & Links

Important notification about information and brand names used in this slideshow!
Photo courtesy of Dan Cunningham by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/dancunningham/413846843/

Bacon, Ham Or Sausage - Especially With Eggs

Bacon and eggs have been a breakfast staple for decades, but they've fallen into disfavor in recent years as worries over their fat and sugar content have caused experts to counsel against them. The truth is, as so often is the case, somewhere in between. If you're highly active and have an otherwise clean diet, a breakfast of bacon and eggs has only one major drawback: there's not enough calories. Otherwise, the high fat and salt content can be a liability, and for sedentary individuals the fat content can result in dangerously elevated blood triglyceride levels. In general, though, it's hard to beat this breakfast from a nutritional standpoint.