要不要吃早餐，你自己说了算

从小时候起，大人们就时常告诉我们早餐——相对于午餐和晚餐——是最最重要的一餐。但是研究并非总是表明这是正确的，导致很多研究者和营养师暗示早上起来吃不吃饭更多是和个人喜好有关，和获取营养优势关系不大。那么，什么时候绝对应该吃早餐，什么时候或许可以不吃呢?以下就是我们所知的。

Though research on the impact of breakfast has focused on short-term effects, rather than long-term impacts, as of now, there’s no conclusive evidence that skipping the meal is damaging to your health. However as a whole, our body’s responses to breakfast are mostly positive, says Kristin Gustashaw, a clinical dietician at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center who says that most people would benefit from eating something in the mornings.

虽然对于早餐影响的研究是将重点放在了短期影响上，而不是一个长期影响，但是截至目前，没有任何决定性的证据可以证明不吃早餐会对健康有害。不过作总的来说，我们的身体对于早餐的反应基本上都是积极的，来自芝加哥拉什大学医疗中心的临床营养师Kristin Gustashaw表示，并表示大多数人在早上吃点东西都是有好处的。

Aside from this generality, there are certain groups of people from whom breakfast is key. For athletes who need to boost their exercise performance, for those taking an exam—or anyone with tough a cognitive day ahead of them—and of course, if you wake up hungry, breakfast makes a difference.

撇去普遍性，早餐对一些特定人群来说是关键所在。对于那些需要增进训练表现的运动员来说，对于那些要参加考试的人来说——或者是将要面对接下来烧脑一天的任何人——而且当然，如果你早上起来饥肠辘辘，早餐会让一切变的不同。

In a recent study published in the American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism, researchers compared the effects of eating breakfast versus fasting prior to an hour’s worth of cycling in 12 healthy men. They found that those who ate a meal of porridge with milk burned, digested, and metabolized carbohydrates better than those who extended their overnight fast.

一个发表在《美国生理学杂志：内分泌和新陈代谢》上的近期研究中，研究人员在12位男性中对比了吃早餐和禁食对一小时自行车骑行的影响。他们发现那些早餐吃了牛奶麦片的人比那些通宵禁食的人消耗、消化和代谢了更多碳水化合物。

According to researchers, this is the first study looking at how our bodies respond to morning meals before exercising. “A lot of what we know about exercise is from the fasted state. We don’t know [much] about what the impact is after breakfast,” he says. “That’s a problem. We need to see how breakfast impacts health in other ways.”

据研究人员所说，这是首例着眼于我们身体对锻炼前的早餐如何反应的研究。“我们知道的关于锻炼的很多都是在禁食状态。我们还不知道太多早餐后的影响如何，”他说，“这是一个问题。我们需要了解早餐是如何在其他方面影响健康的。”

How could eating breakfast optimize performance? “Burning carbohydrate as a fuel has a number of benefits over burning fat as a fuel for many endurance performance events,” says Javier Gonzalez, a researcher in human physiology at the University of Bath in England and co-author of the study. “Carbohydrate is a more ‘rapid’ fuel and can be used to generate energy almost twice as quickly as burning fat.” In addition, using carbohydrates is more oxygen efficient; fat requires about 10 percent more oxygen to produce the same amount of energy.

吃早餐是如何优化表现的呢?“在许多耐力表现项目里，把碳水化合物当做燃料一样消耗比起燃烧脂肪有更多的好处，”Genozale表示，“碳水化合物是更‘迅速’的燃料，产生能量的速率几乎是燃烧脂肪的两倍。”此外，消耗碳水化合物在氧气使用上更有效率;产生同等的能量，燃烧脂肪所需的氧气量要多10%。

So, people who need to improve their body’s capacity to be active longer, such as performance athletes and even people in physically strenuous jobs, would likely benefit from eating breakfast.

因此，那些需要提高身体能力来更持久活跃的人，比如说竞技运动员和从事艰苦体力劳动的人们，很可能从早餐中获得好处。

Past research also suggests eating breakfast is useful if you are going to work out your noggin. In fact, if you have an exam or another demanding cognitive task, you would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t eat breakfast. One study from 2005 found that school children perform better on tests when they’ve eaten breakfast. Ultimately, eating breakfast gives your body another chance to get the nutrients it needs, Gustashaw says. “If you spread out your nutrients, it gives your body the best cycle for metabolism.”

以往的研究同时暗示如果你要耗费脑力的话，吃早餐很有帮助。事实上，如果你要参加考试或者从事其他需要脑力的任务，如果你没有吃早餐的话那就是在帮倒忙。一项2005年的研究发现，在学校里吃了早餐的孩子们考试成绩更理想。基本上来说，吃早餐能给你的身体额外的一个机会来获得所需的营养素，Gustashaw说，“营养素的扩散，会为你的身体提供最佳的新陈代谢循环。”

As for skipping breakfast? On average, Gustashaw says, “people who do eat breakfast [are] less overweight, less obese, [and] less likely to have diabetes.” Also, according to some studies, breakfast skippers on the other hand smoke, drink more, and exercise less. However, these are just associations; none prove a cause and effect, she says, adding that there needs to be more research into what’s happening metabolically.

至于不吃早餐?平均来说，Gustashaw表示：“吃早餐的人很少超重，很少肥胖，而且很少会患上糖尿病。”同时根据一些研究，另一方面不吃早餐的人吸烟和饮酒更多，而且锻炼更少。不过，这些只是一些关联;没有证据表明这是因果关系，她说，并补充表示需要更多的研究来弄清代谢的变化。

A study published last year in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that skipping breakfast may have some other positive benefits: On days participants skipped breakfast, they burned more calories. However, there may be a risk to doing so. Gustashaw says this based on a 2017 study which found that skipping breakfast may cause inflammation and affect negatively affect a person’s insulin sensitivity, which affects how well the body regulates the amount of glucose in their blood.

去年发表在《美国临床营养学杂志》的一项研究报告发现不吃早餐可能还有一些其他积极的好处：在参与者没有吃早餐的日子里，他们燃烧了更多的热量。不过，这样做可能是有风险的。Gustashaw说这是基于一项2017年的研究，该研究发现不吃早餐可能会导致炎症并且消极的影响到一个人对胰岛素的敏感性，而这会影响到身体调节血糖水平的效果。

Another recent study that made headlines last week, found that increasing the amount of time between last night’s dinner and this morning’s breakfast could also be a successful way to lose weight. Those who either delayed breakfast by 90 minutes or ate dinner 90 minutes earlier lost more than twice as much body fat (during a 10-week period) than those participants who didn’t change up their eating times. This idea is related to the concept of chronobiology which posits that our inner biological clocks play a role in optimal body functioning. It’s an active area of research, with promise, but even the researchers of the study note that the investigation was small, and more rigorous, large studies would be needed to make sweeping conclusions.

另外一项近期研究在上周登上了头条，该研究发现加大头天晚上晚餐和第二天早餐之间的时间间隔也能有效减重。那些将早餐推迟90分钟或者将晚餐提前90分钟的人比那些没有改变吃饭时间的人在10周的时间内减掉了超过2倍的体脂。这一想法和生物钟学的概念有关，该概念假定我们体内的生物钟在最优的身体功能上起着作用。这是研究里的一个活跃领域，很有前景，但就连从事该研究的研究人员也指出这个调查研究很局限，并且需要更精确、更大型的研究来做出全面的结论。

And, of course, another time to skip breakfast is when you don’t have access to something healthy (i.e. avoid that donut). If you’re not eating in the morning, Gustashaw suggests planning ahead and asking yourself: Are you going to over-eat the rest of the day? When are you going to end up eating the nutrients you need? Are you going to drink enough water?

而且当然，如果你吃不到健康的食物的时候可以不吃早餐(比如说避免吃甜甜圈)。如果你在早上没有进食，Gustashaw建议提前做好打算并问自己：是否准备在接下来的时间里暴饮暴食?打算什么时候吃一顿来补充营养?打算喝足够多的水了吗?

Gonzalez adds: “I would never say everyone should eat breakfast all of the time. It should certainly be personalized to each individual’s lifestyle.”

Gonzalez补充说：“我永远不会说所有人每天都要吃早餐。这当然应该根据每个人的生活方式来个人定制。”

Gustashaw also advises that we should let go of the idea of breakfast or breakfast food; she prefers to call it the first meal of the day. That means you can have a full-blown meal or just a cheese stick, depending on your lifestyle and needs.

Gustashaw同时还建议我们应该摒弃早餐或者早餐食物的概念;她更喜欢称之为一天的第一餐。这就意味着你可以选择丰盛的一餐也可以选择一根简单的芝士棒，全看你自己的生活方式和需要了。