It’s early in the morning, and you catch yourself running a few minutes behind. You’re late and you’ve got a lot on your mind — your busy schedule, your commute, your next cup of coffee — everything except eating a healthy breakfast.
But it bears repeating: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and a well-balanced diet should include morning meals. Learn about why you should make time for breakfast each morning.

Why Is Breakfast the Most Important Meal of the Day?
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1. Breakfast encourages healthier eating
Breakfast helps you reach your daily recommended servings of fruit and vegetables. Those who eat breakfast also tend to consume more milk and whole grains than those who skip the meal. And as you probably know, milk offers up important calcium for your body.
Breakfast also fills your stomach, helping you to avoid overeating and snacking later in the day.
2. Breakfast balances blood sugar levels
Eating in the morning helps your body better break down glucose, also called blood sugar. In fact, you can avoid glucose fluctuations throughout the day by eating fruit, grains, and lean protein within two hours of waking.
3. Breakfast kickstarts your metabolism
Breakfast jump-starts your metabolism in the morning. Getting your metabolism working early helps burn calories throughout the day. Skipping breakfast tells your body to conserve, rather than burn, extra calories.
Get healthy with the help of UPMC Nutrition Services.
4. Breakfast boosts energy levels
Breakfast energizes the body. People who eat breakfast show an increase in physical activity throughout their mornings than people who skip it. Activity helps prevent weight gain and fatigue.
5. Breakfast promotes heart health
People who skip breakfast tend to gain extra weight, according to studies. Weight gain contributes to high cholesterol and high blood pressure, which can contribute to heart disease.
Of course, what you eat matters as much as when you eat. Make sure you consume healthy grains, proteins, and fruits and vegetables.
6. Breakfast stimulates the brain
Eating breakfast can actually give you a mental edge. Stable glucose levels can help your ability to focus, reason, and process information.
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A $21 billion health care provider and insurer, Pittsburgh-based UPMC is inventing new models of patient-centered, cost-effective, accountable care. The largest nongovernmental employer in Pennsylvania, UPMC integrates more than 90,000 employees, 40 hospitals, 700 doctors’ offices and outpatient sites, and a 3.8 million-member Insurance Services Division, the largest medical insurer in western Pennsylvania. In the most recent fiscal year, UPMC contributed $1.4 billion in benefits to its communities, including more care to the region’s most vulnerable citizens than any other health care institution, and paid more than $500 million in federal, state, and local taxes. Working in close collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC shares its clinical, managerial, and technological skills worldwide through its innovation and commercialization arm, UPMC Enterprises, and through UPMC International. U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside on its annual Honor Roll of America’s Best Hospitals and ranks UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh on its Honor Roll of America’s Best Children’s Hospitals. For more information, go to UPMC.com.