Health Chronicle/ Breakfast: who really needs it?

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Extract from the article: Breakfast is the first meal of the day. It is very important because it comes after a long period of fasting, the time that corresponds to sleep.

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Breakfast is the first meal of the day. It is very important because it comes after a long period of fasting, the time that corresponds to sleep.

The first use of breakfast is that it's important to eat in the morning because we've spent around 6 to 8 hours of the time during which we've had no fuel but during which the human body has continued to function.   The second reason is that many people get up in the morning with a full agenda. But most of them don't have time to eat lunch. For these people, breakfast is doubly important, as a nutritional support in the morning and at midday.   The third reason: when you've had 6 to 8 hours of sleep, your heart has continued to beat, your kidneys have continued to function, and so has your liver.  In any case, the vital mechanisms were functional. This assumes that energy has been expended from the body's stores. So breakfast helps to replenish the body's energy reserves, some of which have been used up during sleep.

However, as long as these three reasons are valid, there are also exceptional cases where breakfast is not systematic or compulsory. This is where the intermittent diet can come into play.For example, people suffering from inflammatory diseases or chronic illnesses, in certain cases, people with reduced mobility who do not make enough physical effort, breakfast is not compulsory. 

What should breakfast consist of?

This depends very much on the person's profile.Is it a man or a woman? Is it someone who works sitting down all day or someone who has a job where they have to be on the move and expend a lot of energy. There can't be a universal breakfast for every category of society, there can't be a universal breakfast for two women of the same age who have different professional activities.There cannot be a single breakfast for two women of the same age but with different physiological conditions, size and shape.A woman who is breastfeeding and another who is not cannot have the same breakfast pattern.

But to sum up, since breakfast is the first meal of the day, it's important to include: carbohydrates, pasta, manioc, semolina and everything else in the carbohydrate family.  It's also important to include proteins such as eggs, beans and fruit, 

Breakfast should also include a little fat in the form of egg yolk, avocado, mahogany seeds or mahogany purée, peanuts and anything else that is a source of the fat we all know.

You also need vitamins and minerals, which play a vital role in metabolism and the optimum functioning of the brain and memory, and are found mainly in fruit and vegetables.

A few examples of Togolese-style breakfasts

The first example of a breakfast that follows this pattern is wild rice with aubergine sauce, fish and an orange.  Breakfast can be leftovers from the previous day's meal, such as yesterday's pasta with vegetable sauce.  Second example: it could be leftover adémé, gboma or gombo sauce from the previous day with millet paste, akpan, ablo, a small piece of ablo.  Or a dish of ayimolou or watsi (rice and beans) with a little oil and chilli or with a peanut sauce, tomato sauce with fish, etc.

Note that the quantities and proportions will depend enormously on the person's physiological condition and daily activity. So, for example, an office secretary who works sitting down, or anyone who is overweight or obese do not necessarily need a flat breakfast. They can make do with a banana, watermelon or papaya or, if possible, a nice glass of local soya milk, or coconut milk, or baobab fruit juice (alagban), or bissap without sugar or lightly sweetened with honey.

But if the person has a high metabolism and over the course of the day they're going to climb stairs, walk or run from one place to another, they're going to work standing up, then it's legitimate for them to eat a real breakfast in the morning and have a piece of fruit some time after breakfast.

Gamé KOKO