Is Breakfast Really So Important?

供稿：涂淑梅

你会每天吃早餐吗？你可能知道吃早餐很重要，但阅读本文，或许你会有新的启发。

Have you ever heard someone say,“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day”,or tell you about why it’s vital to start the day with a healthy breakfast?

It seems that this feast,for many of us,is necessary for our day to start well,but is it really that important?

The word“breakfast”comes from“breaking the fast”——the idea of ending the period in which we didn’t eat during the night.The1)regenerationprocess that takes place while we sleep consumes some of our natural food2)reservesto3)healour bodies.

Breakfast gives us an opportunity to4)replenishthose5)depletedstores of things like protein and calcium.So,in that way,a healthy breakfast makes sense.

In a US study,50,000 people were6)monitoredover seven years,and those who ate a healthy breakfast were found to have a lower Body Mass Index(BMI),which seems to suggest that breakfast may indeed help people maintain a healthy weight.

1) reɡeneration [rɪˌdʒenəˈreɪʃn] n.新生；更新

2) reserve [rɪˈzɜːv] n.储备；储存

3) heal [hiːl] v.治愈；抚平；恢复

4) replenish [rɪˈplenɪʃ] v.补充，再装满

5) deplete [dɪˈpliːtɪ] v.耗尽，用尽

6) monitor [ˈmɒnɪtə(r)] v.监视；监督；监测

But it might not be as simple as that.

Some experts,like Alexandra Johnstone,professor of appetite research at the University of Aberdeen,suggest those who skip breakfast might be less aware of healthy diets and nutrition,and people who eat breakfast might have a healthier lifestyle overall——exercising and not smoking,for example.

你是否听别人说过“早餐是一天中最重要的一餐”，或者告诉你为什么健康的早餐对开始一天的生活如此重要？

对我们许多人来说，这顿早餐盛宴似乎是我们开启新的一天的必要条件，但早餐真的那么重要吗？

“早餐”这个词来自“打破禁食”，即结束我们在夜间没有进食的时期。当我们睡觉时，身体会消耗我们一天的储备食物以保证身体正常运转。

早餐让我们有机会补充这些耗尽的蛋白质和钙。因此，从这个角度来看，健康的早餐是有意义的。

在美国的一项研究中，对5 万人进行了长达7 年的监测，发现那些吃健康早餐的人的体重指数较低，这似乎表明早餐确实可能帮助人们保持健康体重。

但其本身可能没有那么简单。

一些专家，如阿伯丁大学食欲研究教授亚历山德拉·约翰斯通认为，那些不吃早餐的人可能不太了解健康饮食和营养，而吃早餐的人总体上可能有更健康的生活方式，比如锻炼和不吸烟。