Move It & Lose It with Prof Trim

Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen, and dinner like a pauper
We know that what we eat is important for weight gain. We know less about the importance of how we eat. Traditionally, it’s been thought that larger meals earlier in the day will lead to less weight gain, but this has typically come from the “Grandma’s knowledge’ school of good health.

Research carried out at the University of Texas has tended to support Grandma by showing that people who eat a large breakfast, tend to eat less over the remainder of the day. Dr JM de Castro used diet diaries over seven days for a group of males and females recruited for another study on diet. The total and meal intakes of food energy, the amounts of the macronutrients ingested and the density of intake occurring during five 4-hour periods were identified and related to overall and meal intakes during the entire day.

De Castro found that there was a reciprocal relationship between the amount of food eaten in the morning and the total amount eaten during the day, and a positive correlation between the amount eaten late in the evening and the total intake. There was a positive association, on the other hand, between the energy density of foods eaten at any time of the day and total intake.

In other words, low energy-dense foods (e.g. low GI breakfast cereals, low GI toast, fruit etc) eaten in the morning appears to be particularly satiating and reduces the total amount of food eaten later in the day. Late night snacks on the other hand lack satiating value and tend to result in greater overall intake and hence a greater risk of weight gain.

Implication: Grandma was right.

Dr Garry Egger aka Prof Trim

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