How Your Breakfast - and Insulin Blood Levels - Affects Your Day

Which of these two scenarios sounds more familiar to you?

It’s morning again. You wake up and go for breakfast choice A, maybe with a tea or coffee. At work, your mind is clear and focused. You quickly put away task after task, solve problems creatively and efficiently, and communicate your ideas with confidence. Your energy doesn't flag as you gradually work up an appetite for a good healthy lunch.

Alternatively, you wake up and choose breakfast option B. But things go very differently this time. One hour into the day and you're already dragging.

Is this the way you feel in the mornings?

You do your best to ignore the feeling and push on with your work or chores – but you realize you simply cannot continue to function without a pick-me-up and eventually reach for a snack or cup of coffee.

This gives you a much needed short-term boost which soon gives way (as you knew it would) to brain fog. You struggle to keep on top of your work, but you feel as though you're investing most of your energy just in chasing your cravings to keep from crashing.
So you count the minutes until lunch time. When it arrives, you try to make healthy choices as you know you should. However, you’re not satisfied, so you end up going back for the foods you were craving all along.

If this second scenario is all too familiar while the first seems more and more like a far-off dream, don't blame yourself.
You may simply need to change one thing to set you on the right track for productivity, one that is crucial in setting the stage for the rest of your day: your breakfast.
Overnight, your body and brain have rested and re-set themselves, while your insulin blood levels are low and steady.
The first meal of your day is like the first stone dropped into a still pool. The waves it makes are the ones with the most long-lasting effects. Your choice of breakfast will remain with you and impact the quality of your day, until you go to sleep again.

To understand these two scenarios better, let’s look at them in terms of your insulin levels.
Why insulin?
Insulin is the major hormone involved in controlling blood sugar in your body. When glucose and protein from the food you eat enter your bloodstream, insulin is released from the pancreas to make sure they can be taken up into the cells in your body that need them.
As your blood sugar returns to normal, insulin release from the pancreas tapers off. There is a lag time between these 2 events. So your insulin blood levels are still high for a while after your sugar levels have normalized.
This lag time – which is more pronounced the more sugar enters your blood and the faster it gets in – is the reason for the endless cycles of snacking and craving you can’t seem to shake off.

So, going back to the first scenario when you were focused and alert - most likely your breakfast choice led to a gentle increase in your blood sugar and steady insulin blood levels.
This usually means healthy, optimal brain activity. 
In the second scenario, your choice of breakfast causes you to experience cyclic food cravings. Your insulin levels fluctuate wildly after the initial sugar spike of your meal, followed by several more spikes with every sugary snack you take.
End result - you have trouble focusing on the task at hand, because high circulating insulin levels favor a state of “rest and digest” in your body and brain and not the driven and focused state you want to be in.

So as you can see, your blood insulin level is a key player in determining the quality of your entire day.
And since breakfast sets the stage for the day's insulin activity and the cascade that follows it, your choices at breakfast are crucial for how your day goes - for better or worse!
There is no one ideal breakfast – nor is eating breakfast at all the best choice for everyone. Like any lifestyle tweak, you will need to find a setup that matches your own very personal physiology, lifestyle, and preferences.
In other words, you need to figure out what works to help YOU to be at your best.

Editor's Note: Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day!
A nutritious, well-balanced breakfast not only sustains your energy levels better than endless cups of coffee, but it has other benefits as well:
Maintains ideal body weight - breakfast eaters are more successful at losing weight and maintaining an ideal body weight compared to those who skimp on it or skip it entirely.
Sharpens your mind - a high-fiber breakfast will help you stay more alert for the rest of the day.
Protects your heart - whole-grain cereals (rather than refined cereals) lower your risk of heart disease.
Strengthens your immune system - making the right breakfast choices can help you start the day in the best possible way, with immune-boosting vitamins and minerals.

This superb post was conceived and written by Gittit Szwarc, with a little rewriting and editing for style.