Forcing your child to eat breakfast is 'child abuse,' one expert claims

Many people are led to believe that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but at least one expert suggests that statement is only true if you skip it.

Terence Kealey, a biochemist from the UK and author of “Breakfast is a Dangerous Meal: Why You Should Ditch Your Morning Meal For Health and Wellbeing,” believes that eating breakfast is not only dangerous, it can lead to obesity and type 2 diabetes — he also suggests that the idea of forcing your child to eat breakfast is a form of child abuse.

“I would let the kids decide for themselves if they want breakfast,” Kealey said at the Oxford Literary Festival in the UK, according to the Daily Mail. “Lots of kids don’t want to eat breakfast.”

Kealey explained that eating breakfast in the morning can increase blood sugar levels when they are already elevated and can essentially encourage people to eat more throughout the day. Elevated cortisol levels consistently over the long term produce glucose, which can lead to higher blood sugar levels — this can put adults at risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

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Kealey came to these conclusions after he was able to reverse his type 2 diabetes by skipping breakfast. He discovered that his glucose levels were remarkably high after eating first thing in the morning, but when he continued to fast until lunchtime, his levels fell to a normal level.

According to Kealy, the idea of placing breakfast on a pedestal has been prejudiced by studies funded by cereal manufacturers.

“There is a scientific community that for a hundred years has determined we should all be eating breakfast, and in a sense, it has fooled itself as much as fooled anyone else in the data it has collected,” he said at the festival.

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