Could breakfast actually be bad for our health? This expert thinks so

Could breakfast be bad for our health? [Photo: Getty]
Could breakfast be bad for our health? [Photo: Getty]

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” say the experts. Skip it at your peril! But one former Cambridge University lecturer doesn’t agree. Instead Terence Kealey believes breakfast is a “dangerous meal” that could actually be as harmful to our health as smoking cigarettes.

In his book, Breakfast is a Dangerous Meal, professor Kealey suggests that the “glorification” of carb-heavy breakfasts could actually be having a negative impact on our health.

The theory is based upon his own experiences. After being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2008, the 64-year-old noticed that his blood glucose levels would spike after breakfast. But when he ate a little later or even held off from eating food until lunchtime, his glucose levels would remain stable.

Having been told that his diabetes was incurable, he decided to quit breakfast and now believes that he has been “effectively cured”.

“I still take medication, but some of my diabetic friends are now going drug-free after taking my advice,” he told Sunday Times.

One expert believes skipping breakfast was the key to curing his diabetes [Photo: Getty]
One expert believes skipping breakfast was the key to curing his diabetes [Photo: Getty]

And while he recognises that skipping breakfast might not be an option for everyone, Professor Kealey does believe the importance of consuming breakfast is a bit of a myth.

Though a significant number of scientific studies have suggested that people who eat breakfast are likely to be thinner, healthier and live longer, Kealey claims that often these studies are funded by food manufacturers.

“What the scientists and epidemiologists have been doing for years is a crime,” he continues. “People who typically skip breakfast tend to be at the bottom of the economic heap and have far more stress in their lives. Those who eat breakfast live longer in spite of it, not because of it.”

Breakfast is a Dangerous Meal is out now (£12.99 Fourth Estate)

Should we be skipping breakfast for the sake of our health? Let us know what you think @YahooStyleUK

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