Is Breakfast the Most Important Meal of the Day?

You might think of this mantra as one handed down through the generations, but in reality, it’s a modern invention that’s based more on sales than in science.

Breakfast wasn’t always the institution it is today. The ancient Romans, for instance, would eat just one substantial meal in the middle of the day, snacking lightly at dawn and dusk.

In more recent history, US breakfast cereal manufacturers initially promoted their wares as a healthy alternative for a population who ate badly. Their advertising campaigns reinforced the importance of breakfast—and catchy slogans such as “eat breakfast like a king” by Adelle Davis, a US celebrity nutritionist whose advice is now considered spurious, sealed the deal. The veneration of breakfast is still felt in the zeitgeist today—especially in Western countries.

Modern studies show that eating breakfast doesn’t “kick-start” your body’s metabolism (the rate at which you burn calories). There is a small rise in metabolic rate after any meal due to the energy needed to digest food—but it is no more marked at breakfast than at any other meal.

Your body clock will determine whether you need or want breakfast. Given that the ebb and flow of everyone’s clock is a little different, morning larks may want to eat breakfast as their energy levels climb in the morning, whereas night owls might prefer to eat later. An emerging field of science called “chrononutrition” looks at how best to eat according to your chronotype, but research is still at an early stage.

There’s no evidence that eating breakfast will make you healthier, and the significance of breakfast is usually down to an individual’s preference, lifestyle, and body clock. However, children, the unwell, those with diabetes, and people who do heavy manual work should make breakfast a priority, to provide ready-access fuel for the body and brain, and to avoid burning fat.