Eat Food. Do Good.

The best way I learn is through reinforcement -- I learn something once, learn it again later, then blog about it. TRIPLE REINFORCEMENT!

For this particular blog post, I'm referring to eating breakfast.

Vitamin D--licious!

I don't know when was the first time I learned that eating breakfast is good for you. Cereal commercials? Teachers? Parents? Peers? It's probably a combination of all of them. Anyways, it's highly recommended by everyone to start your day with a healthy meal. Studies have shown over and over again that students who eat breakfast score higher on tests, have better concentration, have higher attendance rates, maintain a healthier weight (and the list goes on and on).

I'm happy to say I'm on the breakfast bandwagon. There's not a day where I don't get some food in my system in the morning. If it's not a full meal, I'll at least grab some fruit and hydrate. After learning about all those benefits, why wouldn't I?! However, those are all just general statements. I never learned why. Why does breakfast help with concentration? Why does breakfast help with higher test scores? Why? Why? Why? My questions were finally answered (-ish) in my KIN 352 (Bioenergetics of Movement) class the other day! Well...come to think of it, I'm sure I've learned about it in my other classes before (especially Human Nutrition)....but I don't remember. Anyways..........

Here's my little blog post about what I learned, so let's break this baby down! The most basic function of food (Ahem. Breakfast) is to fuel our bodies...like a car! Our main source of fuel are carbohydrates...unlike a car. This can come from whole grain foods (bread, cereal, pasta, rice), vegetables, fruits, beans, etc. Trust me, a lot of our food has carbohydrates. Typically, carbohydrates should make up  between 50-60% of what we eat. That's a large percentage of our food! But there's a reason.

In the body, these carbohydrates are broken down to its simplest form, glucose. Glucose is energy -- energy for our cells to work, energy for our muscles to work, and most importantly, energy for our brains to work. NOTICE: OUR BRAINS CAN ONLY USE GLUCOSE TO FUEL OUR BODIES. And eating good carbs is the best way to do so. Bad carbs consist of sugary foods like desserts and soda. Anyways, since our bodies and brain always needs glucose for fuel, it's very important to refuel in the mornings after waking up to get us ready for the rest of the day.

We do have glucose saved up in our systems for times when we can't eat. Excess glucose gets stored in the liver and muscles in a form called glycogen. Glycogen exist more abundantly in the muscles; however, muscle glycogen is used by the muscles. If you haven't eaten and your brain needs fuel, it needs to take it from your liver glycogen. Liver glycogen is much more limited, so it's important to just eat breakfast in the morning instead of relying on your stored liver glycogen to fuel your brain and body through your day until lunchtime.