Over on Diet Blog, somebody recently wrote a post questioning the importance of breakfast for weight control.
Cari Corbet-Owen, a clinical psychologist, examined a lot of the claims made about breakfast and then tries to debunk each claim based on her own personal experience.
While personal experience can provide valuable information, it certainly can't be used on its own as evidence for anything. First, one person is hardly representative of the entire population. Second, there are always exceptions to every rule. For example, there are personal anecdotes of people who smoke but never get any form of cancer or COPD. But these people are the exceptions, not the rule; there are always going to be some outliers who get lucky. It's well established that smoking dramatically increases your chances of getting these diseases.
Anyway, Owen makes a bunch of statements that I would have to disagree with, so I'm going to list some of her statements here and explain why I disagree with them.
1. Fact is, much 'breakfast research' is done by groups that have a lot invested in the "Eat Breakfast like a King" theory.
She doesn't provide any evidence for this statement, and I'm wondering if she's even read the research on breakfast.
There are many studies supporting the importance of breakfast. Many of these are by different research groups from a variety of Universities. These aren't people trying to sell breakfast cereal or who are being funded by cereal companies. Here's a list of some of the studies supporting breakfast...
Granted, the majority of these studies are observational studies which can't establish cause/effect. Still, that's a large body of evidence from a variety of researchers all pointing to the same conclusion.
2. Researchers design their hypothesis and questions to inevitably prove their hypothesis true
Actually, researchers (at least good ones) design their hypothesis to try to prove it false. That's how science works. You come up with a hypothesis, then you design an experiment to test the hypothesis (you try to falsify it). If you are unable to prove the hypothesis false, then that means you've supported your hypothesis. It does NOT mean you've proven it to be true.
3. Plenty of people who don't eat until they get hungry in the mornings tell me their concentration isn't impaired at all.
Again, anecdotes aren't very good evidence. Some of the studies I referenced earlier are quite clear that eating breakfast is associated with better concentration during the day.
4. Water and exercise help mental agility as does oxygen.
I don't know of any evidence that indicates drinking water improves concentration. Unless you're severely dehydrated, I don't even see a mechanism behind how water would help. And I'm not sure what she means about oxygen. Unless she's referring to exercise, there's no practical way to increase oxygen delivery to the brain.
5. But breakfast researchers don't ask questions about water consumption or exercise. It wouldn't fit their hypothesis.
Researchers don't need to ask questions about water consumption or exercise; that's what control groups are for. When you're comparing breakfast eaters to non-breakfast eaters (the controls), ideally the only difference between them is in the breakfast consumption. With a large enough sample, other variables (like exercise) are going to be equivalent among the groups.
In fact, in one of the studies I referenced above, the researchers used a cross-over design. This means that the subjects acted as their own controls; they went through both the breakfast experiment and the no-breakfast experiment. This practically guarantees any confounding variables (like exercise) are going to be equal.
Now, when it comes to observational studies, this is not always the case. For example, maybe non-breakfast eaters tend to be less active. So, maybe its the lower activity is what really causes the weight gain. But scientists often adjust for these confounding variables when they analyze the data.
6. My body only wants food between 10-11am, so I only eat then. Yet, I have tons of energy having only had a large glass of lemon water and a brisk walk/jog. But let me eat a highly processed, refined and sugary breakfast cereal - and I'm lethargic and even sleepy.
This sounds like an either/or fallacy. Having some lemon water & a run, or having a sugary breakfast cereal are not the only two choices. You could also have a high-protein breakfast, which suppresses hormones that cause hunger and increases hormones that suppress appetite. You could also have a low-glycemic, whole-grain cereal, which improves blood sugar control over the rest of the day.
7. If you suffer with problems of blood sugar regulation -your body will let you know that. It's an amazing biological masterpiece, constantly letting you know what's going on with it. While some people may have blood sugar fluctuations if they don't eat first thing in the morning, the vast majority don't.
This ignores the 17.5 million people with diabetes, and the 73.3 million people that have either diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance. Their bodies are NOT very good at blood sugar regulation.
8. But when I eat my first meal of the day only when I am hungry and when I then eat whenever I am hungry thereafter, I eat in a way that maintains my weight just fine.
This ignores the vast amount of research that shows that obese people's hunger/satiety mechanisms are screwed up, so that they can't accurately regulate their food intake based on hunger alone.
The bottom line is that the experiences of one person (in this case, the blog's author) cannot be generalized to most people. While there are certain people who have no problems not having breakfast, or delaying breakfast, most people are going to need to have some sort of breakfast (preferably high-protein and low-glycemic) for optimal weight & blood sugar control. This doesn't mean you have to eat as soon as you wake up, but you shouldn't be waiting for hours, either.