Originally Posted by chinups
Exposed: The Top Ten Diet Fallacies -
And The Truth to Set You Free
By Ori Hofmekler, author of The Warrior Diet
Diet Fallacy #1. BREAKFAST is the most important meal of the day
When you wake-up, your body is already in an intense detox mode,
clearing itself of endotoxins and digestive waste from the past
evening meal.
During the morning hours, when digestion is fully completed (while
you are on an empty stomach), a primal survival mechanism, known as
fight or flight reaction to stress, is triggered, maximizing your
body's capacity to generate energy, be alert, resist fatigue and
resist stress.
This highly geared survival mode is primarily dominated by part of
the autonomic nervous system known as the SNS (sympathetic nervous
system). At that state, the body is in its most energy-producing
phase and that's when most energy comes from fat burning. All that
happens when you do not eat the typical morning meal.
If however you follow what "normal guys" do and eat your morning
bagel and cereal and egg & bacon, you'll most likely shut down the
above energy producing system.
The SNS and its fight or flight mechanism will be substantially
suppressed. Instead, your morning meal will trigger an antagonistic
part of the automatic nervous system known as the PSNS (Para
sympathetic nervous system), which makes you sleepy, slow and less
resilient to fatigue and stress.
Instead of spending energy and burning fat, your body will be more
geared towards storing energy and gaining fat. Under this state,
detox would be inhibited. The overall metabolic stress would
increase with toxins accumulating in the liver, giving the body
another substantial reason to gain fat. (Fat tissues serve as a
biological storage for toxins)
The overall suppressing effects of morning meals, can lead to
energy crashes during the daily (working) hours, often with chronic
cravings for pick-up foods, sweets, coffee and tobacco. Eating at
the wrong time, would severely interrupt the body's ability to be
in tune with the circadian clock. The human body has never adapted
to such interruptions. We are primarily pre-programmed to rotate
between the two autonomic nervous system parts: the daily SNS and
the nightly PSNS.
The SNS regulates alertness and action during the day, while PSNS
regulates relaxation, digestion and sleep during the nightly hours.
Any interruption in this primal daily cycle, may lead into
sleepiness during the day followed by sleeping disorders at night.
Morning meals must be carefully designed not to suppress the SNS
and its highly energetic state. Minimizing morning food intake to
fruits, veggie soup or small amounts of fresh light protein foods,
such as poached or boiled eggs, plain yogurt, or white cheese, will
maintain the body in an undereating phase, while promoting the SNS
with its energy producing properties.
*Note: Athletes who exercise in the morning should turn breakfast
into a post-exercise recovery meal. Such meals should consist of
small amounts of fresh protein plus carbs such as yogurt and
banana, eggs plus a bowl of oatmeal, or cottage cheese with
berries.
An insulin spike is necessary for effectively finalizing the
anabolic actions of GH and IGF1 after exercise. Nonetheless, after
the initial recovery meal, it's highly recommended to maintain the
body in an undereating phase by minimizing daily carb intake in the
following meals. Applying small protein meals (minimum carbs) every
couple of hours will keep sustaining the SNS during the daily hours
while providing amino acids for protein synthesis in the muscle
tissues, promoting a long lasting anabolic effect after exercise.
In conclusion, breakfast isn't the most important meal of the day.
The most important meals are post-exercise recovery meals. Saying
that, for a WARRIOR every meal is a recovery meal helping to
recuperate from either nutritional stress (undereating) or physical
stress (exercise). It's when you eat that makes what you eat
matter.
