There’s Nothing Magical About Breakfast • Hacker News Board

Re: There’s Nothing Magical About Breakfast

#81

Post by ksk » Mon, May 23, 2016, 4:44 PM UTC

mmastrac wrote: post #5

This reads like "I don't eat breakfast, so here's the reasons why I'm right." Studies that support his conclusion, while flawed, are probably right. Studies that oppose it are obviously tainted by various problems. The fact that research shows that breakfast is actually beneficial for children is hand-waved away because 'reasons'. This is honestly just a low-quality, cherry-picked opinion piece by someone who really…

>"I don't eat breakfast, so here's the reasons why I'm right.

Its more like "I don't eat breakfast, because I'm not hungry at that time". In your haste to paint the author as biased, you ended up sounding the same.

Re: There’s Nothing Magical About Breakfast

#82

Post by gutnor » Mon, May 23, 2016, 4:55 PM UTC

will_brown wrote: post #76

>I don’t eat breakfast...In fact, I’m rarely hungry until about lunchtime. So, other than a morning cup of coffee, I don’t eat much before noon. This is fairly amusing. First, coffee is a well known appetite suppressant. Second, unless coffee is black it is probably far from zero calories, with dairy and sugar maybe between 200-300 [empty] calories which would be in the ball park of bacon and an egg. Of course some s…

> This is fairly amusing.

Or not. The effect of caffeine as an appetite suppressant is nowhere close to letting you skip a meal (that's what we are talking about when saying breakfast, not 5 corn flakes with a sip of milk). A lot of people take their tea/coffee without sugar and the calorie content of a table spoon of milk is negligible.

Re: There’s Nothing Magical About Breakfast

#83

Post by clessg » Mon, May 23, 2016, 4:57 PM UTC

pizza wrote: post #10

Honestly, fasting for >16 hr/d >> eating breakfast, in my experience. Pet-theory is that you get a lil' neurotransmitter upregulation as an added benefit ;) Thoughts?

Intermittent fasting is one of my favorite productivity hacks.

To anybody who decides they're going to try it: If you've gone through years of "6 meals a day" and suddenly fast for 24 hours, you're gonna have a bad time. Take it slow. Otherwise you'll feel cold, irritable, and distracted and will assume fasting is something only masochistic sociopaths can do.

Re: There’s Nothing Magical About Breakfast

#84

Post by Gonzih » Mon, May 23, 2016, 4:59 PM UTC

I'm also not hungry in the morning, but without breakfast I feel sleepy and often get headache. So I'm not sure what author was trying to prove here. Natural schedule and physiology is different from person to person.

Re: There’s Nothing Magical About Breakfast

#85

Post by steego » Mon, May 23, 2016, 4:59 PM UTC

douche wrote: post #19

steego wrote: post #15

I'm sure there are many breakfast food manufacturers who would vehemently disagree with this article. I recall hearing a story about how the father of modern public relations and propaganda (Eddie Bernays) played a key role in making sure that bacon and eggs were a part of an American breakfast. You can watch him in this interview explain how he created and manipulated a poll of 5,000 physicians to convince the publi…

Bacon and eggs is still better than a sugar-blasted bowl of breakfast cereal, which it seems we are thankfully getting away from as the default breakfast.

The breakfast cereal industry has their own message devised by their own PR teams. I can't help but appreciate how this comment shifts the topic to a false dichotomy between the breakfast cereal industry and the breakfast meats industry.

Re: There’s Nothing Magical About Breakfast

#86

Post by bluthru » Mon, May 23, 2016, 5:00 PM UTC

mmastrac wrote: post #5

This reads like "I don't eat breakfast, so here's the reasons why I'm right." Studies that support his conclusion, while flawed, are probably right. Studies that oppose it are obviously tainted by various problems. The fact that research shows that breakfast is actually beneficial for children is hand-waved away because 'reasons'. This is honestly just a low-quality, cherry-picked opinion piece by someone who really…

>The fact that research shows that breakfast is actually beneficial for children is hand-waved away because 'reasons'.

As a casual observer of this topic, it seems like breakfast is necessary for humans who want to grow: kids and people adding muscle mass.

If you want to lose weight or maintain breakfast can probably be skipped.

Re: There’s Nothing Magical About Breakfast

#87

Post by detaro » Mon, May 23, 2016, 5:01 PM UTC

Gonzih wrote: post #84

I'm also not hungry in the morning, but without breakfast I feel sleepy and often get headache. So I'm not sure what author was trying to prove here. Natural schedule and physiology is different from person to person.

> So I'm not sure what author was trying to prove here. Natural schedule and physiology is different from person to person.

That sounds exactly like the thing the author tries to demonstrate: There isn't a clear-cut evidence that breakfast is important, or that it is bad.

Re: There’s Nothing Magical About Breakfast

#88

Post by bluthru » Mon, May 23, 2016, 5:03 PM UTC

Gonzih wrote: post #84

I'm also not hungry in the morning, but without breakfast I feel sleepy and often get headache. So I'm not sure what author was trying to prove here. Natural schedule and physiology is different from person to person.

That could also indicate that you are too dependent on carbs and therefore your brain has a difficult time on "fat burning mode".

Re: There’s Nothing Magical About Breakfast

#89

Post by arcticbull » Mon, May 23, 2016, 5:08 PM UTC

de_Selby wrote: post #49

IIlllIllIIIIlII wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

.

I contend that lunch and dinner are also good for you. Can you apply the same logic there?

Well, yes, that's why you have people investigating intermittent fasting. Some interesting results there too. It's good to question things.

Re: There’s Nothing Magical About Breakfast

#90

Post by wildmusings » Mon, May 23, 2016, 5:10 PM UTC

bgilroy26 wrote: post #52

jonknee wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well there is no shortage of people who like breakfast (or are in charge of selling people breakfast) and hand wave about it being "the most important meal of the day". The truth is probably people have different metabolisms and if you are hungry in the morning you should eat and if you are not you shouldn't. And that's almost exactly what this post suggests: > The bottom line is that the evidence for the importance…

>The truth is probably people have different metabolisms and if you are hungry in the morning you should eat and if you are not you shouldn't. Bodies don't always cooperate, if you are going to exercise strenuously in a given day you had better eat some kind of breakfast whether your body feels like it or not. Breakfast is always going to be the opportunity to eat when you have more of the day ahead of you. That's tr…

>Bodies don't always cooperate, if you are going to exercise strenuously in a given day you had better eat some kind of breakfast whether your body feels like it or not.

I've done many multi-day hikes and a 24 mile one-day hike. I can confirm that eating breakfast before setting out in the morning is absolutely crucial. Like the old saying goes, an army marches on its stomach.

I'm normally not hungry in the morning, so this was a challenge. The few times I did skip breakfast on these hikes, I had to stop half-an-hour in to correct my mistake, as I felt completely drained.