Eating breakfast reduces cravings, overeating

Many people especially teenagers do not eat breakfast as required and this likely increases the chance they will overeat and put on weight. A new study published in the Nutrition Journal finds when late-teen girls eat breakfast, it raises levels of a chemical in the brain's reward center that may help them stop craving sweet foods and overeating during the rest of the day.

Researchers have found that breakfasts that have normal amount of protein and are high in protein –both reduced cravings for savory - or high-fat - foods. On the other hand, if breakfast is skipped, these cravings continue to rise throughout the day. But compared to a normal-protein breakfast, the high-protein breakfast tended to be followed by greater reductions in cravings for savory food and sustained levels in dopamine metabolite up until lunch. Higher levels of dopamine metabolite stimulates feelings of reward that regulates food intake.

Dopamine levels are blunted in individuals who are overweight or obese, which means that it takes much more stimulation - or food - to elicit feelings of reward; we saw similar responses within breakfast-skippers.

There is a lot of evidence that breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. Studies suggested that eating a large breakfast could boost fertility for women with PCOS and lower the risk of heart disease, diabetes and blood pressure.