By Rylee Baker
Mornings can feel like a tornado just ripped you out of bed and flung you across campus to class. It’s chaotic, messy and you’re only half-conscious. Most students spend what little free time they have gulping down coffee before class, filling their stomachs with sugar and caffeine just to stay awake.
One-fourth of Americans skip breakfast, according to The National Library of Medicine. This statistic increases even more when looking at college-aged adults.
It may seem like a simple slip, missing a meal in the hustle of a day, but over time, that mistake can carry heavy consequences. I went around Susquehanna’s campus and asked students walking to class if they eat a full three meals a day. Out of the 15 students I questioned, 11 admitted to skipping breakfast or dinner most days, replacing them with snacks or nothing at all. Whether it’s a conscious decision or a mistake, skipping meals daily can negatively impact your physical and mental health. Your brain needs nutrition to work properly, much like our muscles, organs and entire body.
“When you go too long without eating, your body starts producing more Cortisol,” says EatingWell. Your body does this to try to help regulate low blood sugar. Cortisol is also known as the stress hormone and often accompanies anxiety, depression and anger. When you don’t provide your body with proper nutrition, you’ll become easily irritated, moody, anxious and sad. It’s where the term “hangry” originated from.
A study done with the National Library of Medicine showed the results of adolescents skipping breakfast, “A systematic review and meta-analysis, with almost 400,000 individuals total, found that skipping breakfast, specifically, was associated with a higher risk of depression and stress, and was associated with a higher risk of anxiety in the adolescent age group.”
There’s a reason you have better days after eating a full meal for breakfast. It’s not just your mood that gets impacted; your cognitive functions do as well. “Skipping meals can transiently impact cognition, with several meta-analyses reporting weaker selective attention, poorer working memory,” said The National Library of Medicine.
There’s also a misconception that skipping meals and eating less can help you lose weight. This is true for someone who is consistently overeating but eating less than what your body needs in a day can actually support weight gain. It seems impossible, but skipping meals often promotes binge-eating and snacking habits.
“Adults consumed 193 more kJ (calories) at lunch after skipping breakfast and 783 more (calories) at dinner after skipping breakfast and lunch,” reported The National Library of Medicine.
Eating almost nothing in the morning, but binging heavily at night, promotes fat gain. Your meals should be balanced throughout the day, as it aids the body in digesting food properly, preventing overeating, regulating blood sugar, and much more.
What comes off as normal could potentially be serious. If you often skip breakfast, I’d recommend trying it one day and seeing if you feel a difference in your energy and cognitive levels. I’m sure you’ll find that you’re much more focused and energetic when you’re kind to your body and give it the fuel it needs.