We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
We have written about habitual, ritual, compulsive, and recreational eating several times. Except for growing kids, manual laborers, distance hikers, and people who lift, all the talk about "the most important meal" was nonsense.
Yet we hear it all the time. For most people nowadays, the best way to get fat is to eat three meals/day.
This month’s Harvard magazine has an article on just this topic. Scroll down to the section titled, ‘Eating to Excess: Metabolic Inflammation’
“The metabolic stress that is a hallmark of modern life, the stress that the body has not evolved to handle, is constant eating, he continues. When people eat, energy and nutrients enter the body rapidly, are processed, produce in turn a lot of by-products, and then need to be reduced to “functional substances that are distributed throughout the body, and then disappear very quickly. Many cells and tissues actually undergo a huge amount of stress during this process,” he explains, “as they store appropriate nutrients and dispose of harmful intermediates.” Part of this process also involves mounting an immune response. “The pancreas, for example, must secrete four to five hundred milliliters of enzymes every day” to be able to manage the incoming energy load with every meal. “If you place these organs under constant stress, they start malfunctioning.” The consequence is that “right now, one out of every 10 individuals has diabetes. One out of every four individuals has fatty liver disease. And if you reach a certain age, one out of every three individuals will develop neurodegenerative disease.”
The metabolic stress that underlies these conditions comes from the daily imbalance between how much energy people consume and how much they need, and can process in a healthy manner. The long-term consequence of overconsumption, combined with lack of sufficient expenditure, is stored energy—the accumulation of fat...”
I'm getting a bit less impressed by Stossel as time goes on. His schtick of blanket rejection of claims is getting as bad as the uncritical acceptance of what he says is wrong information.
The claim that eating breakfast will help you lose weight is not the same as saying overweight people have bad eating habits, including poor nutrition choices and binge eating.
I stopped eating early, stopped eating late and I take it easy on the carbs, high calorie condiments, and sugar. I've been losing weight and I don't feel like I'm "dieting".
Breakfast cereal is poison and should be considered dessert. Eggs are good for you especially in the morning for lots of reasons. Etc.
Saying “breakfast is / isn’t important” is too simplistic. Many people make poor choices for breakfast but if they ate differently then that would make it a net gain.
Eating less is always a good idea though especially as we age.
Treat carbs like an IV drip.