Why you should ALWAYS start your day with a full English for breakfast
Eating a substantial breakfast tricks you into eating less calories for the rest of the day, according to experts from Sheffield Hallam University
IT may go against all health advice you've previously heard, but eating a big breakfast every day could help you lose weight.
Eating a substantial breakfast tricks you into eating less calories for the rest of the day, new research suggests.
Experts from Sheffield Hallam University discovered that, despite eating the same breakfast made from the same ingredients every day, people ate more throughout the day when they believed their breakfasts was less substantial.
Previous studies have suggested that people feel fuller for longer if they expect their food and drink to be filling.
For this study 26 people were given breakfasts for two days.
They were told they were either eating a two egg or a four egg omelette, but both of the omelettes actually contained three eggs.
When the participants believed they had only eaten two eggs in their omelette they said they were significantly hungry after two hours, ate more of a pasta lunch and ate more calories over the rest of the day.
But when they thought they had eaten the larger omelette they were less hungry, ate less lunch and less calories over all.
Lead author, Steven Brown, said: "Previous studies have shown that a person's expectations can have an impact on their subsequent feelings of hunger and fullness and, to a degree, their later calorie consumption.
"Our work builds on this with the introduction of solid food and measured people's subsequent consumption four hours later, a period of time more indicative of the gap between breakfast and lunch.
"We were also able to measure participants' consumption throughout the rest of the day and found that total intake was lower when participants believed that they had eaten a larger breakfast."
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Steven and his team even took blood samples to test if the body was releasing more of the hunger hormone, ghrelin, as a response to eating the smaller breakfast.
But it turned out the hunger was all in their heads.
"As part of the study, we were able to take blood samples from participants throughout their visits," Steven added.
"Having analysed levels of ghrelin, a known hunger hormone, our data also suggest that changes in reported hunger and the differences in later consumption are not due to a differences in participants' physical response to the food.
"Therefore, memory for prior consumption, as opposed to physiological factors, may be a better target for investigating why expectations for a meal have an effect on subsequent feelings of hunger and calorie intake."
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