Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works. A brain stuff is Christian Sager here. A second breakfast has never been just a Middle Earth popbit tradition. Europeans have long enjoyed eating another morning meal. School Children in Germany get a mid morning break around nine thirty a m where they eat a second breakfast, which studies show benefits their health.
German adults also eat second breakfast, a small meal of poached sausages with mustard and pretzels, and sometimes beer, according to German born chef Michael Kufner of the bright Water Center for the Study of Food, but now Americans are picking up on it too, and depending on lifestyle, a second breakfast can be just as beneficial as a first. Exactly what a second breakfast is, though, in America, depends
on who is eating it and why. Athletes who need fuel to power hours of practice eat law arged meals with specific ratios of carbs, fat, and protein. For the average exerciser, a light breakfast might be plenty to sustain a workout, especially when followed later in the morning by a more substantial breakfast. For Americans with hectic mornings that
involve dropping kids off and rushing to work. Go to options for first and second breakfast include handheld microwavable foods such as burritos, sandwiches, and oatmeal or snack bars, yogurt and yogurt based drinks, or cereal. While brunch is typically just a late breakfast and usually a leisurely sit down affair, a second breakfast for most Americans is a chance to
fuel up for the day ahead. A second breakfast isn't quite a snack either, or at least what was once thought of as a snack is now becoming more intentional. For athletes, a second breakfast can help power morning training, build muscle mass, or provide an opportunity to recover over
after a hard early workout. Even some athletes are consuming upwards of four thousand, five hundred to six thousand calories in a day, breaking up high calorie meals is more comfortable on the digestive system and easier to consume than trying to eat a large number of calories in one sitting.
According to Stephanie Horvath, the director of Sports Nutrition at the University of Tennessee Athletics Department, while most Americans aren't doing so much activity to justify eating six thousand calories a day. A second breakfast can be helpful for people who love to exercise if it's carefully planned. The government's recommendation for Americans is close to two thousand calories a day, so surprisingly, another crowd that might benefit from a second
breakfast are people who want to lose weight. Where second breakfasts help athletes power through workouts and put on pounds of muscle, a second breakfast can help dieters manage hunger. This strategy is called front loading calories, the concept of
eating most of the day's calories by midday. A big breakfast and a smaller dinner can help people lose weight and manage hunger and blood sugar, according to a study published in the journal Obesity Indeed, research shows people who eat more during the day lose weight better than those who save their calories for later. Today's episode was written by Sean chaivis produced by Tristan McNeil, and For more on this and other topics, please visit us at how stuff works dot com.