Another important reason eating breakfast is critical to your diet

It’s been said before that if you want to maintain a healthy weight and help boost your metabolism for the day, eating breakfast is a must. While kick-starting your digestive system and helping to reduce cravings by providing your body with fuel are two important functions of breakfast, there is another reason why this meal is important for you diet–at least if you’re a teenage girl.

According to a study published in the Nutrition Journal, young women who eat breakfast are less likely to have cravings during the day, and it appears the mechanism behind this has to do with the brain chemical dopamine. Researchers from the University of Missouri in Columbia, older teenage girls who eat breakfast generate higher levels of dopamine, and that dopamine, in turn, decreases cravings for sweet foods throughout the day. What’s more, if the breakfast is high in protein, cravings for savory or high-fat foods are also reduced.

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“Our research showed that people experience a dramatic decline in cravings for sweet foods when they eat breakfast,” said Heather Leidy, an assistant professor of nutrition and exercise physiology, in a statement. “However, breakfasts that are high in protein also reduced cravings for savory – or high-fat – foods. On the other hand, if breakfast is skipped, these cravings continue to rise throughout the day.”

Understanding how dopamine influences diet is important, explain researchers, because studies show obesity can dull the effects of dopamine in the body, contributing to cravings and why it takes more and more food for an individual to feel satisfied.

“Dopamine levels are blunted in individuals who are overweight or obese, which means that it takes much more stimulation – or food – to elicit feelings of reward; we saw similar responses within breakfast-skippers,” Leidy said. “To counteract the tendencies to overeat and to prevent weight gain that occurs as a result of overeating, we tried to identify dietary behaviors that provide these feelings of reward while reducing cravings for high-fat foods. Eating breakfast, particularly a breakfast high in protein, seems to do that.”

The new research is important, especially because the The Morning MealScape 2011 study showed more than 31 million Americans skip breakfast every morning. In addition to craving reduction, earlier research from Leidy suggests people who skip breakfast set themselves up for nutritional deficiencies, consuming fewer fruits and vegetables and more soft drinks and unhealthy foods compared to those who do eat breakfast.

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“In the U.S., people are skipping breakfast more frequently, which is associated with food cravings, overeating and obesity,” Leidy said. “It used to be that nearly 100 percent of American adults, kids and teens were eating breakfast, but over the last 50 years, we have seen a decrease in eating frequency and an increase in obesity.”

Unfortunately, the barriers that lead people to skip breakfast can be difficult to overcome. Some people state they simply don’t have time to eat breakfast before stating their days, while others say they aren’t hungry in the morning. During Leidy’s research projects, she notes most people who are chronic breakfast skippers go back to skipping breakfast even when they experience the benefits of the meal as study participants.