We've always been told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day - but we might have been eating it at the wrong time for years.
Nutrition expert Tim Spector told an audience at Cheltenham Science Festival that we should in fact be eating breakfast 'after 11am' in order to experience 'a fourteen hour fasting period'.
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Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, said: ''Waiting a few hours before eating anything after waking up is better for staying healthy and shedding excess pounds."
According to the expert, this is mainly because people now eat dinner later at night than previous generations, with Brits adopting a more 'continental' eating pattern, with many now only stopping eating at around 9pm.
Instead of tucking into breakfast the moment we wake up, Spector advises that an 11am breakfast could be the perfect way for a person to achieve 14 hours of fasting overnight, which growing evidence suggests is best for the metabolism.
The expert told the science festival: "If you have a later breakfast, that will give you some benefits. I think we have to rethink all the things we have been told that are unhealthy because there’s just so much new science coming out.
“There are still people who eat earlier, but generally we have moved towards continental eating habits, having dinner much later like people in Spain and Italy.
“Even those who don’t do that may end up snacking up until 9pm, making it difficult to achieve a 14-hour fasting period.
“There is a simple change people can make by shifting their breakfast from 8 am to 11 am, which is more effective than more fashionable fasting diets like 5:2.
“Fasting for 14 hours a day, using a later breakfast, but overall eating the same amount is easier to achieve long-term.
“It works because the microbes in our gut have a circadian rhythm like us and need a rest period.
“Studies suggest a later breakfast to achieve 14 hours of fasting could help people to lose four to 11 pounds of weight over several months of doing it.
“Their microbes essentially become more efficient at burning food.”
