The word breakfast is divided into two essential parts: break and fast, what this means is staying without food for a certain period of time, in most cases we are breaking the fast, that we were observing, after going to sleep the previous night.

The first meal of the day, that is breakfast, is the most important because it provides the energy and nutrition that is needed to carry you through the rest of the day.

Statistics have shown that one in four Indians skip breakfast, more than seventy per cent of the people have meals that do not provide enough nutrition to meet the body's daily requirements and only three percent, consider breakfast as an essential part of the day.

Here are some of the ways your body is affected when you skip breakfast regularly:

1): When you do not eat breakfast, you are not allowing your body to get the essential nutrients and carbohydrates that provide you with the much needed energy to function properly. This further leads to a feeling of tiredness, with a strong desire to sleep and being unable to think clearly.

2) Skipping breakfast is not good for health, because it makes you feel hungry more often and one tends to eat junk food such as burgers, potato chips and carbonated drinks, that leads to other health problems due to overeating that causes weight gain.

3) When you skip breakfast, it affects your metabolism, after a good night's sleep, your body needs calories to function and when this does not happen, you will continue to be slow and sluggish and find it difficult to concentrate on your work, throughout the day.

4) The human body needs, vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates to be at peak performance, when you skip breakfast, the body cannot maintain the required nutrient levels.

5) Your brain needs sugar to function properly, skipping breakfast means affecting the sugar level and preventing the brain from being able to stay alert, concentrate and remember things.

A side effect of skipping breakfast is the risk of getting chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, heart problems, obesity and hypertension.

Now that we know the ways your body is affected when you skip breakfast, what makes a healthy breakfast?

Here are some of the foods that we need to include when eating a healthy breakfast: 

A) Whole grains such as cereals, oatmeal, multi grain bread etc. that are rich in fiber and low in sugar, this helps to give your body the required energy to function throughout the day.

B) Foods that are rich in protein like eggs, dry fruits and beans are not only good for health, they take longer to digest and help to prevent overeating and weight gain.

C) We can also eat low fat dairy products such as cottage cheese, milk or yoghurt, as they have calcium and contains fewer calories.

D) Fruits and vegetables are a good choice, as they are rich in fiber and provide the much needed nutrients to keep your body healthy.

Finally, we must keep in mind that breakfast helps us to successfully get through the rest of the day with better awareness, decision making and alertness, skipping breakfast does more harm than good to ourselves, a Hale and hearty breakfast helps one to lead a healthy life.