A few months ago my partner Andrew decided to stop eating breakfast each day. I was very sceptical. Hadn't we spent our whole lives being informed that 'breakfast is the most important meal of the day'? Wouldn't the ensuing hunger drive him to snack more? It all sounded rather dubious. Turned out he'd read a book called Spoon-Fed: Why almost everything we've been told about food is wrong, by Tim Spector, a professor of genetics. Andrew appeared to have no ill effects from giving up eating breakfast at home (we still splurge on a café brekkie most Sundays) and I gradually realised that I never felt hungry in the morning either. I'd simply kept eating breakfast (usually home made yoghurt and a sprinkle of dried fruit and nuts) out of force of habit and the old brainwashing about the importance of breakfast. So, I stopped eating breakfast myself … and nothing bad has happened. I've lost a little weight – a good thing, after a year of pandemic comfort food – and haven't resorted to junk food. I haven't even felt hungry.
Professor Spector argues that the breakfast mandate came about not because we need food first thing in the morning, but because makers of processed food (such as breakfast cereals) popularised the notion in Victorian times.
It's been a revelation. I do have a cup of coffee each morning, and perhaps without that I'd feel hungrier. We're enjoying the new routine.
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