Your parents might have told you that skipping
breakfast was bad for you, but after a quick
google search, you have a cluster of websites
arguing that skipping the most important
meal of the day might help you lose weight, that it’ll
boost your metabolism, or that it won’t do anything at
all. And then there are the other philosophies, which

include simply “eating when you’re hungry, and
only when you’re hungry,” supplementing water for
food, and many others. So with a barrage of different
sources telling you different things, what’s the real
consequence, or benefit, of skipping breakfast–or
any meal for that matter?
It’s suggested that skipping breakfast when you’re
young affects your lifestyle as you age. An excerpt
written by Evelyn Tribole, MS RD for Newport Beach
Nutrition Counseling Office of Dietitian, suggests
that skipping breakfast causes a person to be more
stressed, perform at a lower quality of work, and have
significant lack of brain power throughout the day.
It can also make you something Tribole labeled
as, “Hangry.” She claimed, “It’s a great description of
when you’re getting so hungry that affects your mood,

that it gets your angry. It sounds kinda silly but there’s
a real truth to it.”

Because skipping any meal can sour anyone’s
mood. And will, in the long run, catch up with them.
“Your blood sugar gets low, and your body needs
energy to function, your cells need it to function,” said
Tribole, “and so it’s kinda like trying to stop breathing.
You can stop breathing, if you want, for a little bit, but
your body is going to take over and compensate and
make you pass out and breath again. It’s the same
thing with eating, it [your body] is going to get you to
eat. So what you might notice is that you start thinking
about food more, you start getting more cravings,
and it’s a biological response because eating is that
important to survive.”
And that boost to the metabolism or edge of weight
loss? Fiction. Tribole said, “That’s probably the
biggest myth that gets exploded out there, because
it can [skipping a meal] actually end up making you
overeat: I call it overeating backlash, and that as your
body gets so hungry that you just don’t care. It’s like,
I’m gonna kill you if I don’t get to eat that bagel. It’s not
a good kind of hunger.”
”I don’t want someone to get the impression that
‘Oh my god, I went too long without eating’ and now
they’re going to be in some really big trouble.” Tribole
clarifIed, “it’s what you do consistently over time that’s
the real issue.”
And you might want to be worried about what you
do over time. Women who skipped breakfast regularly
had a 20 percent increased risk of developing type
two diabetes, and men are more likely to have heart
disease or blood pressure problems, according to
Harvard School of Public Health.

“Honestly, it’s probably because [skipping
breakfast] doesn’t give me the energy I need. I feel
like it takes you longer to get going with stuff.” said
senior Natalie Stanfield, who can attest that
skipping breakfast usually has a negative effect upon
the rest of her day.
But even knowing that eating breakfast before
starting her day is the healthier, happier option,
Stanfield admits that she hasn’t, and probably won’t.
“I’ve thought about waking up like, 30 minutes
earlier to make myself a bowl or cereal or something,
but it just doesn’t happen.” Stanfield said.
Her reasons for skipping breakfast are commonplace
amongst teens who value sleep or other activities over
it, but after what’s been dug up, does skipping a meal
sound as smart and easy as it did before?