Breakfast needs protein

The traditional English Breakfast has always been eggs, sausages, bacon, toast and maybe mushrooms or other additions.

A recent study has found that this high protein breakfast is particularly good for women and reduces the amount of food eaten later in the day. Maybe this is a case of the research finally confirming what has obviously been known for years. It also shows what has long been stated that it is not good to miss or skip breakfast as it does influence appetite for the rest of the day.

“Acute Satiety Effects of Sausage/Egg-based Convenience Breakfast Meals in Premenopausal Women”, is the name of the research and it was presented at The Obesity Society’s annual scientific meeting in Atlanta on 14 November 2013. It was a joint effort by Biofortis Clinical Research, Chicago, a division of Merieux NutriSciences, and the University of Missouri’s Department of Exercise Physiology and Nutrition, Columbia

The research involved presenting each of the 18-55 year old women with a bowl of different types of breakfast food, each containing approximately 300 calories. The egg and meat breakfasts contained up to 39 grams of protein.

Each participant was given a questionnaire before breakfast and then at 30 minute intervals until lunch. The questions related to appetite, including fullness, feeling of hunger and desire to eat. At lunch tortellini and tomato based sauce was served and the participants were allowed to eat until comfortably full.

Those that had eaten the high protein breakfast had a lower appetite and ate less of the lunch than those that hadn’t or had not eaten any breakfast at all.

Kevin C. Maki, Principal Investigator of the study and a research scientist with Biofortis Clinical Research said; “Eating a breakfast rich in protein significantly improves appetite control and may help women to avoid overeating later in the day.”

There is a growth in the quick breakfast market with several drinkable breakfasts now available on our supermarket shelves. The findings of this research will probably change the formulations of these and any other brands wanting to come into this market.

It should also be of great interest to the diet industry, as it shows that breakfast should include a reasonable amount of protein to help achieve the diet goals and that skipping that meal is something that should not be encouraged.

So from now on, we probably shouldn’t feel guilty about a small serve of a traditional English Breakfast.

This article has been written by Rachelle Williams, The Green Food Safety Coach.