Morning Muscle Maximizer (MMM)

Articles

There continues to be enormous media attention and controversy surrounding the topic of whether breakfast is an important meal of the day. This is currently one of the “hottest” nutrition topics and is especially timely at the beginning of the school year when parents, teachers, administrators, coaches, and children are scrambling to prepare for the start of school. But, it’s also relevant and timely for all of us on our journey to optimal health and fitness. Unfortunately, the truth of whether breakfast is an important start to a productive day is often missed or neglected.

Despite a flurry of recent news articles suggesting that breakfast eaters are not healthier than breakfast skippers, (See: Washington Post, Huffington Post, Today), the “science” says they are (Breakfast Benefits for 8-12 yr olds, Breakfast for Adolescents) the “science” says they are healthier (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eat-breakfast-gain-less-weight-belly-fat-study/). As a definition of “healthier” we mean improved body weight control and body composition management and in some cases better brain power and mental performance.

I’m here to help you understand why there appears to be confusion over the question “are breakfast eaters healthier?” First, most of the published research on the topic of breakfast and health has compared only two conditions; 1) skipping breakfast or 2) eating a high carbohydrate sugar-sweetened breakfast cereal and juice. As you would expect, the skipping breakfast condition often resulted in more favorable health outcomes because starting your day with a stomach and body full of sugar is not good! Thus, the news reports summarized that eating breakfast is over-rated and less healthy than skipping it altogether.

Fortunately, more well-controlled recent studies have incorporated a third condition – eating a protein pacingSM breakfast – to allow for a comparison of the “quality” of the composition of the breakfast meal. A carbohydrate-reduced high-protein diet acutely decreases postprandial and diurnal glucose excursions in type 2 diabetes patients (Samkani A, Skytte MJ, Kandel D, Kjaer S, Astrup A, Deacon CF, Holst JJ, Madsbad S, Rehfeld JF, Haugaard SB, Krarup T. Br J Nutr. 2018 Apr;119(8):910-917. doi: 10.1017/S0007114518000521; A Lean Pork-Containing Breakfast Reduces Hunger and Glycemic Response Compared to a Refined Carbohydrate-Containing Breakfast in Adults with Prediabetes. Palacios OM, Edirisinghe I, Wilcox ML, Burton-Freeman B, Xiao D, Maki KC. J Am Coll Nutr. 2018 May-Jun;37(4):293-301.2018 Feb 9). The overwhelming conclusion of these recent studies clearly shows that a protein pacingSM breakfast is indeed healthier than skipping or indulging in a typical high carbohydrate breakfast. While most of the studies have focused on weight control and body composition, a limited, but growing body of research is measuring cognitive and academic performance as well. A summary of the findings from these studies also supports a reduced consumption of simple carbohydrates for improved cognitive performance (Breakfast and cognition).

Therefore, the “take-away message” is… start your day with a nourishing protein pacingSM – and fiber-rich breakfast (containing 20-40 grams of high quality protein and 5-10 grams of fiber) to provide significant health and performance benefits. I refer to this as the Morning Muscle Maximizer and it’s a major part of my Protein PacingSM meal plan that has as its first strategy “to eat your 1st Protein PacingSM meal within an hour of waking in the morning. The number one reason for this is because your body is in a state of protein breakdown by the time you wake in the morning following an overnight fast and this is not an ideal environment to preserve and build healthy lean muscle mass nor to support our brains! Thus, starting your day with a Protein PacingSM meal to initiate protein building (synthesis) to help maintain and start to build healthy lean muscle mass and to support brain function is your top priority and makes the Morning Muscle Maximizer one of the most important meals of the day, without question!

Remember, Protein PacingSM holds the key to healthy body weight and composition management as well as cognitive performance, and it all starts first thing in the morning at breakfast and the Morning Muscle Maximizer.

One final note of importance, include both animal and plant based protein sources for breakfast to achieve superior health benefits.

References

  1. The effect of breakfast composition and energy contribution on cognitive and academic performance: a systematic review. Valeria Edefonti Valentina Rosato Maria Parpinel Gabriella Nebbia Lorenzo Fiorica Emilio Fossali Monica Ferraroni Adriano Decarli Carlo Agostoni. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 100, Issue 2, 1 August 2014, Pages 626–656, https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.114.083683
  2. Ramsay SA, Bloch TD, Marriage B, Shriver LH, Spees CK, Taylor CA. Skipping breakfast is associated with lower diet quality in young US children. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2018 Apr;72(4):548-556. doi: 10.1038/s41430-018-0084-3. Epub 2018 Jan 24.
  3. Increased Dietary Protein and Combined High Intensity Aerobic and Resistance Exercise Improves Body Fat Distribution and Cardiovascular Risk Factors. Paul J. Arciero, Christopher L. Gentile, Roger Martin-Pressman, Michael J. Ormsbee, Meghan Everett, Lauren Zwicky, and Christine A. Steele. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 2006, 16, 373-392.
  4. Kevin Smith (Mayo Clinic), Angelica Boeve (Mayo Clinic), Virend Somers (Mayo Clinic), Jan Bukartyk (Mayo Clinic), Prachi Singh (Mayo Clinic), Naima Covassin (Mayo Clinic). Frequency of Breakfast Consumption, Obesity and Weight Gain. FASEB. Apr 22 9:00A324 604.2.
  5. Arciero PJ, Edmonds RC, Bunsawat K, Gentile CL, Ketcham C, Darin C, Renna M, Zheng Q, Zhang JZ, Ormsbee MJ. Protein-Pacing from Food or Supplementation Improves Physical Performance in Overweight Men and Women: The PRISE 2 Study. Nutrients. 2016 May 11;8(5)
  6. Arciero PJ, Edmonds R, He F, Ward E, Gumpricht E, Mohr A, Ormsbee MJ, Astrup A. Protein-Pacing Caloric-Restriction Enhances Body Composition Similarly in Obese Men and Women during Weight Loss and Sustains Efficacy during Long-Term Weight Maintenance. Nutrients. 2016 Jul 30;8(8).
  7. Arciero PJ, Gentile CL, Pressman R, Everett M, Ormsbee MJ, Martin J, Santamore J, Gorman L, Fehling PC, Vukovich MD, Nindl BC. Moderate protein intake improves total and regional body composition and insulin sensitivity in overweight adults. Metabolism. 2008 Jun;57(6):757-65.
  8. Arciero PJ, Ormsbee MJ, Gentile CL, Nindl BC, Brestoff JR, Ruby M. Increased protein intake and meal frequency reduces abdominal fat during energy balance and energy deficit. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2013 Jul;21(7):1357-66
  9. Arciero PJ, Baur D, Connelly S, Ormsbee MJ. Timed-daily ingestion of whey protein and exercise training reduces visceral adipose tissue mass and improves insulin resistance: the PRISE study. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2014 Jul 1;117(1):1-10
  10. Samkani A, Skytte MJ, Kandel D, Kjaer S, Astrup A, Deacon CF, Holst JJ, Madsbad S, Rehfeld JF, Haugaard SB, Krarup T. Br J Nutr. 2018 Apr;119(8):910-917. doi: 10.1017/S0007114518000521
  11. A Lean Pork-Containing Breakfast Reduces Hunger and Glycemic Response Compared to a Refined Carbohydrate-Containing Breakfast in Adults with Prediabetes. Palacios OM, Edirisinghe I, Wilcox ML, Burton-Freeman B, Xiao D, Maki KC. J Am Coll Nutr. 2018 May-Jun;37(4):293-301.2018 Feb 9
  12. I would include Leidy H recent publications on this topic.

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