The Hazy History Of How Breakfast Came To Be

Whether you're a breakfast lover, you're reluctant to eat something in the morning, or you think breakfast foods are best served all day, you may have wondered why we eat breakfast to begin with. Although the common belief may be that eating breakfast is necessary for maintaining health, there is conflicting data that is shaking up that statement. According to Medical News Today, the science may not back up the claim that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but the information also shows that consuming it can help lower the risk of some health issues such as diabetes.

And if you're dedicated to eating breakfast, you may understand that the science has changed numerous times on the best foods to eat, from whole grains like oatmeal to more protein-based breakfasts like eggs, to smoothies and breakfast sandwiches. Most people in modern society eat some form of breakfast, but if you look back at history, eating early in the day wasn't always common.

As The Atlantic notes, eating early in the day was shunned by most people throughout the Middle Ages. Italian philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas looked upon eating in the morning as a form of gluttony. But that attitude changed when people began working outside of their homes. As reported by History Extra, the Tudors were responsible for creating our modern idea of breakfast in the 16th century, and they did so as a side effect of inventing employment.

BBC News further explains that the Industrial Revolution solidified the idea that breakfast should be consumed since eating early in the day before leaving home helped fuel laborers during their long work days. It makes sense to eat before you leave for work, especially for the type of physical labor many workers did during the Industrial Revolution, but how did we come to view breakfast as the most important meal of the day?

According to Priceonomics, the idea that breakfast is the most important meal of the day is nothing more than the result of a clever marketing campaign put forth by General Mills in 1944. And as Medical News Today mentions, today's science doesn't state that breakfast isn't important; a message that Insider reiterates in an article that explains how eating breakfast can provide you with important nutrients and give you an energy boost. These are some of the reasons why WebMD states that it is still the most important meal of the day.

While our modern-day lifestyles can be incredibly hectic, our breakfast choices are much more plentiful. Since there's no shortage of healthy, hearty, and on-the-go options, if you're a breakfast lover, the real dilemma may not be in whether you eat breakfast or not but might be in making the decision of what to eat for your first meal of the day. Here are a bunch of great breakfast recipes that we recommend.