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We've all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
Now, researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark have found the most important item for breakfast.
Their research reveals that rich sources of protein are a key component of an ideal breakfast.
The authors of the study claim that a protein-rich breakfast promotes both an improvement in the feeling of satiety and satisfaction as well as concentration throughout the rest of the day.
The researchers originally set out to examine the connection between nutrition and cognition, or do different types of breakfast affect satiety and concentration?
To this end, the project included monitoring 30 women who suffered from obesity (ages 18-30) for three full days.
During that time, the women ate a high-protein breakfast, a high-carbohydrate breakfast, or no breakfast at all.
The research team also measured each woman's satiety, hormone levels and energy intake at lunchtime, in addition to overall estimates of daily energy intake.
Finally, all participants completed a cognitive concentration test.
The study was published in the Journal of Dairy Science.
Yogurt with bananas, oats, cranberries and raspberries/ShutterStock
"We found that a protein-rich breakfast with Skyr yogurt and oats increased satiety and concentration in the participants, but it did not reduce total energy intake compared to skipping breakfast or eating a high-carbohydrate breakfast," explained Dr. Matt Hansen, from the Department of Public Health and one of the authors of the study, in a press release.
Obesity rates continue to climb worldwide and obesity is often a precursor to a lifestyle-related disease such as type 2 diabetes. Previous research suggests that people who eat breakfast have a lower BMI than people who skip breakfast Foods rich in protein tend to increase satiety compared to foods high in carbohydrates and fat with the same number of calories.
Therefore, the authors of the study decided to test whether a protein-rich breakfast can cause more satiety during the day, and subsequently reduce daily calorie intake. Unfortunately, the solution is not So simple, the researchers warn.
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It's not enough to just eat a protein-rich breakfast
"The results confirmed that protein-rich meals increase the feeling of satiety, which is positive when it comes to preventing weight gain. However, the results also indicate that for this nutritional strategy to be effective, "it is not enough to just eat a protein-rich breakfast," comments Dr. Hansen.
Still, the benefits of replacing a high-carbohydrate diet with a high-protein diet are clearly evident in the satiety effects measured in this study.
Several study participants reported that they had difficulty eating the entire protein-rich breakfast, which consisted of skim yogurt and oats.
"It is intriguing that there can be such a big difference in the satiety effect of two different meals with the same calorie content. If the women in the project had been allowed to choose the size of the meal themselves, it is likely that they would have consumed more food and thus more calories on the day they were served bread and jam than on the day they received skyer and oats ", explains Dr. Hansen.
According to Dr. Hansen, although this work provides key insights, it also had its fair share of limitations due to the inclusion of overweight young women only.
This project was also based on relatively short-term observations, which means that the question of how long-term dietary changes can affect health and weight remains unanswered.
Therefore, researchers emphasize the need for more research aimed at creating a better understanding of how different types of food affect health over time.
"We already have new data from an experiment in which the participants received a protein-rich breakfast or a low-protein breakfast. The goal was to investigate how the different types of breakfast affect body composition and other parameters such as microbiota and cholesterol levels," concludes Dr. Hansen.
More on the same topic:
Breakfast
diet
protein
concentration
satiety