Research studies indicate that children who eat breakfast perform better at school. Maybe it works that way for adults too since our brains need fuel to work properly.

Skipping breakfast is a common way for people who are trying to lose weight, but unfortunately, it’s usually not a successful way. Your body (or more likely, your brain) expects to be refueled a few times each day. When you don’t eat breakfast, you may feel so hungry by lunchtime that you eat more foods than you normally would, which cancels out the calories you cut by skipping breakfast. You may also be tempted to choose foods that are not the healthiest choices when you feel like you are starving.

For many people, eating breakfast may be an important part of a weight loss diet. Research studies tell us that people who eat breakfast are more likely to keep up a healthy weight. Some experts believe that breakfast keeps your metabolism (新陈代谢) running higher. In fact, it takes three or four days of eating nothing before the body starts changing down your metabolism. It’s more likely that people who regularly eat breakfast also make good dietary choices the rest of the day.

Breakfast should include a healthy source of protein and plenty of fiber; the combination will help satisfy your hunger and will keep you feeling full until lunchtime. The protein can come from low-fat meat, low-fat dairy products, or nuts. Eggs are also a good source of protein. High-fiber foods, include fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

If you really don’t like to eat breakfast in the morning, you can split it up into two smaller meals. Eat a hard-boiled egg, or a small cup of yogurt at home before you leave for work, and then about an hour or two later, take a break from work and snack on an apple and a handful of healthy nuts like pecans or walnuts.

Staffan Lindeberg is a professor in the department of medicine at the University of Lund in Sweden. He was interested in a Stone Age diet. In the early 1990s he travelled to Papua New Guinea to study the diet of the people on the island of Kitava as it was very close to the Stone Age diet. While there, he found that people did not suffer from heart attacks, diabetes (糖尿病), being overweight and many other diseases common in western countries.

As a result of his findings, he decided to test patients in Sweden to see how such a diet would affect them. Fourteen patients followed a Stone Age diet while another fifteen followed a Mediterranean diet, also healthy with lots of fruit and vegetables. All of the patients in the tests had high blood sugar levels, most suffered from diabetes and all had heart problems.

At the end of three months, the group following the Mediterranean diet had reduced their blood sugar levels by a small amount but those following the Stone Age diet had much lower levels of sugar in their blood. The patients in both groups also lost weight although the level of sugar in the blood and the patients’ weight didn’t seem to be related.

So, what is it about the Stone Age diet that can make us healthier? The diet contains some meat, fish, vegetables and nuts (坚果) but it doesn’t contain any dairy products (乳制品) or grains, and there is no salt.

The next question is whether the Kitava people are healthier than us. After all, their life expectancy (预期寿命) is much lower. According to Professor Lindeberg, this is not as simple as we may think. Because of their poor health care, there is more chance of them dying at a young age. However, if people on Kitava manage to reach fifty, they are likely to live as long as people in more developed countries.

Healthy Eating

There is much debate nowadays as to what makes up a healthy diet. For example, scientists have insisted for years that a big enemy of health is fatty food. 【小题1】 People who receive 25% of their daily calories (热量)or more through sugar are twice as likely to die from heart disease than people who receive less than 10% a day.

【小题2】 On average, people get 1/3 of their sugar through sweet drinks alone. You need to limit yourselves to less than 100-150 calories a day from sugar. In other words, if you want to be healthy, you have to cut down on desserts, and cut out sweet drinks altogether.

Beyond this, you can keep healthy by consuming different types of fresh foods, which are full of vitamins and fibre, rather than processed foods. It is also important to have some meat, beans, or dairy products in your diet. As with everything in life, moderation (适度)is key. 【小题3】

Finally, a key to healthy eating is to eat slowly. It takes about twenty minutes from the time you start eating for your brain to tell your body that you are full. 【小题4】 In addition, studies show that consistent eating habits, for example, taking three meals a day at the same time each day, are better for our health.

There is no one secret to healthy eating. 【小题5】One question you can ask yourself is, “Do I eat to live, or live to eat?” It is up to you to decide how you want to live, and to make the right decisions about your diet.