breakfast

Stop me if you've heard this before... but before you click out, keep reading - it gets interesting. Eating a big breakfast with copious amounts of (gulp) carbs and protein, followed by a low carb, low calorie diet the rest of the day has shown some pretty promising results - and get this; obliterates the low carb only! This according to a new study presented at The Endocrine Society's 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

I will now attempt to break this down in the simplest terms possible (so that I can understand what I've written).

Okay, so we probably didn't need a study to prove this one, but nonetheless a recent analysis of 161 brands of cereals came to 2 unsurprising conclusions:

Dr. Marlene Schwartz of Yale University - lead researcher of the study made the following observations:

The following is a guest post from Cari Corbet-Owen. This post challenges the assumption that an early breakfast keeps you slim.

I'm tired of the 'breakfast buzz' - every breakfast article finds that eating first thing is essential. Fact is, much 'breakfast research' is done by groups that have a lot invested in the "Eat Breakfast like a King" theory.

So it's hardly surprising that researchers comes to the same conclusions. It's called 'research bias.' Researchers design their hypothesis and questions to inevitably prove their hypothesis true.

Let's look at each of the claims:

Eating a good breakfast is one of those generation-tested mantras that have become lost on many these days. Teens are of particular concern as more of them seem to opt for an extra 20 minutes of sleep, a shower or some Facebook time instead of a good breakfast.

Take that iPod out of your ears and listen up kids: According to a recent study of 2000 teens, those who skipped breakfast weighed an average of 5 lbs more than those who ate breakfast.

Here are some other findings from the study;

Another testament to gluttony:

Hardee's presents the Country Breakfast Burrito.

Food review site Iateapie.net has compiled a list of the lowest calorie breakfast cereals.

Here they are:

Given that most ready-to-eat breakfast cereals tend to be high in added sugars, what alternatives are there?

Here is a great recipe for muesli (sometimes called Bircher Muesli). This version is from English chef Jamie Oliver. He calls it "Pukkola Muesli".

When it comes time for me to peruse the cereal isle, I often begin to tremble from so much sugar stimulus. All of the colorful boxes dance in the isles before me, taunting me with their sugary goodness.

New research has shown that the addition of a teaspoon of cinnamon can lower blood sugar after eating.

Anyone who has perused the breakfast cereal aisle over the last few years will have noticed a change: breakfast cereals are increasingly being marketed as a health food.

For example, Kellogg's bought Kashi in 2000, and a few years ago General Mills decided to switch all of their breakfast cereals to whole-grain products. Green tea and grape seed extract has take the place of cinnamon as the new and improved addition.

Eat More Special K? So, it's not a surprise that Kellogg's is interested in learning whether regular cereal eaters have a lower BMI than those don't.

Often one of the challenges of maintaining a healthy weight management program is finding good choices for breakfast. Some of my favorite alternatives to sweetened sugar cereals include whole grains such as quinoa, amaranth or good old-fashioned oatmeal.

Recently, Quaker gave oatmeal a makeover, so it could be classified as a weight-control food. Unfortunately, the new Weight Control Oatmeal ends up having artificial flavorings, chemicals and artificial sweeteners.

As an alternative, here are 5 simple ways to make oatmeal a little healthier.

British consumer group Which? has published a comprehensive survey of breakfast cereals. They found "that more than three quarters (76 per cent) of cereals had high levels of sugar, a fifth (19 per cent) had high levels of salt and 7 per cent had high levels of saturated fat."

Over the last few months there has been a lot of cereal promotion going on. There are the Cereality restaurants. Kelloggs' Special K brand have been promoting their very own Special K Diet Challenge (for a number of years now). Not to be outdone, Kraft have "lose 10 pounds" emblazoned on virtually the entire line of "Post" brand cereals (called Eat 2 Lose 10)

Both cereal "diets" are bold and upfront with their claims: "Lose up to 6 pounds in 2 weeks!" shouts Special K. Is this for real? Is it valid?

One of the first rules of healthy weight loss is always eat breakfast. Ironically this is one of the first meals to be skipped when people are desperate to lose weight.

CBS News points to empirical evidence that girls who eat breakfast actually have a lower BMI that those that skip breakfast. A girl who reported eating breakfast on all three days had, on average, a body mass index 0.7 units lower than a girl who did not eat breakfast at all.

If the breakfast included cereal, the average was 1.65 units lower, the researchers found.