GI, what is that I hear you say. The Glycemic Index Foundation says that GI is a relative ranking of carbohydrate in foods according to how they affect blood glucose levels. So basically, when you eat foods that contain carbs, your blood glucose levels rise and fall according to the GI of that food. Low GI foods, that is foods with a GI of 55 or under are easily absorbed, and once absorbed, the blood sugars are used as energy over about two hours. Some low GI foods are fruit, pasta, grainy bread and oats, and they generally contain more vitamins and minerals. Foods with a GI of 70 or over are digested quickly and some examples of foods are potatoes, white bread and short-grain rice.

Important factsBefore I get into some important stuff, I want to share with you a few facts that I found in the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science. Volume 8, July 2017, Breakfast: The most important meal of the day?

‘’British children under 10 years of age are currently consuming more than 50% of the recommended daily allowance of sugar at breakfast in the form of sugary cereals, drinks, and spreads. Many parents were unsure as to what makes up a healthy breakfast for their children. Specifically, 84%

of parents whose children were found to be consuming more than 50% of their daily recommended dose of sugar before school started, actually considered that their child’s breakfast was healthy.’’

Highly processed breakfast cereals are usually bulked up with sugar. By the way, there are over 60 different names of sugar, including corn syrup, rice syrup, dextrose, sorbitol, maltose, and ethyl maltol. If you know what you are looking for you can see this on the ingredients list. Not all 60 are in one packet of course. All ingredients listed on a food packet go in descending order, so the first ingredient is the main ingredient whereas the last ingredient is the least added so it is easily seen what ingredient, and roughly how much of this ingredient, makes up the food. There is no real way to see what percentage of the ingredient goes in – that is Intellectual Property stuff. In highly processed breakfast cereals, sugar is often listed as the second or third ingredient. These cereals contain way too much sugar, and would contain a very low amount, if any, of essential minerals and vitamins. After eating these sugary cereals, the body experiences a blood sugar spike, a glucose build up, and an even bigger crash in the blood sugar levels which leaves you

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fruit is high in fructose, a natural sugar but fruit contains a lot of minerals and vitamins so fruit would not be as bad for you as the traffic light system indicates. To say the least, the traffic light system is a bit dubious and could send the wrong message about some healthy foods. Instead of this the Health Star Rating system is slowly taking shape, ½ star unhealthy to five stars very healthy. This is a voluntary system by the food industries and it is due for a formal review in 2019, so let’s see what comes of that. For now we have to rely on Nutritional Information Panels on the side of every packet to tell you how good the food is, if you can understand it or not is another thing.

But wait, there’s more from the journal ... “A 27% increase in coronary heart disease amongst North American men who regularly failed to eat a meal at the start of the day has been documented.’’ So there alone is a good reason for you men to um, man up if I can say, and eat some breakfast.

Why is breakfast so important?Breakfast has a meaning to break the night’s fast, and the word breakfast was thought to be introduced in the middle ages. So why is this meal so important, what are the benefits and why shouldn’t you skip it?

Breakfast improves your metabolism by restoring the energy lost after the overnight fasting. Although your metabolism slows down at night, it does not stop. Your body constantly pumps blood, you continue to breathe, and the brain never stops, it is constantly using energy. In fact, your brain takes up 20% of your energy. When you don’t eat for a long time, such as overnight or over six to eight hours, you are literally starving your body of energy, and the energy you have in reserves stored in the muscle tissue and liver, actually known as glycogen, is used as a buffer to keep your

body functioning. Breakfast kick starts your day and gets the energy levels up to where they need to be for you to function fully throughout the day.

Breakfast improves memory and concentration. As the brain uses 20% of the body’s energy source, you have to feed the brain. Now there is some food for thought ... The brain's preferred energy source comes from complex carbohydrates, which has a low GI. So when you eat a healthy breakfast the glucose is slowly released which constantly feeds your brain instead of a big sugar spike with a crash soon afterwards.

Have you ever hit the wall? Now as we all go the extra mile and use a lot of energy, especially on a multi-day hike carrying that heavy rucksack, did you know that long-distance hikers, skiers, cyclists or even marathon runners experience glycogen depletion? You know that feeling that you have hit the wall and you are completely stuffed, yes that feeling. That means you have used up all that blood sugar, the glycogen in your stores and you need a fix of carbs to reset the system. This will happen a lot quicker if you skip breakfast or if you have a not so healthy breakfast like those sugary processed cereals.

The good types of breakfast are porridge or muesli with yoghurt or fruit, wholegrain, or wholemeal bread with nut paste, wholegrain cereals, fruit or vegetable smoothies, eggs, avocado, spinach or fried mushrooms and banana bread.

The final notes from the Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science is “According to the latest evidence, we should all be aiming to consume around 15–25% of our daily energy intake at breakfast (i.e., 2000 kilojoules for women and 2500 kilojoules for men); The general advice from the health experts is to eat a substantial well-balanced breakfast, one that delivers its energy slowly over the course of the morning”

There you have it, that is why breakfast is important and we should not skip it. Now go and get some good stuff into your bowl.

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