We’ve all heard it a million times: breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
But according to leading neurologists, what you eat for breakfast can make or break how you feel, think, and perform throughout the day.
While some foods give your brain a powerful boost, others can actually zap your energy, disrupt your mood, and even dull your focus—all before you’ve had a chance to finish that first coffee.
And the worst part?
It turns out that what we think is a healthy breakfast could actually be affecting our mental health (Getty Stock Image)
Many of the foods we think of as breakfast staples are among the biggest offenders, with them being packed with hidden sugars, unhealthy fats, and processed ingredients that impact your brain health in surprising ways.
Here’s what a brain doctor says you should steer clear of in the morning if you want to feel sharp, alert, and ready to take on the day.
According to Psychiatrist Daniel G. Amen, foods that contain high levels of sugar or foods that quickly turn to sugar are the worst you could have in the morning.
Taking to Instagram, the doctor explained in a video that these foods include donuts, pop tarts, sugar cereals, pastries, and even oatmeal.
These foods spike your blood sugar, with Dr. Amen elaborating: “Then your pancreas sees it, and 45 minutes later your brain is walking in mud.”
Sugar cereals and pastries are some of the biggest culprits, according to Dr. Amen (Getty Stock Image)
“Eating a diet chock full of foods with a high glycemic index, such as sweetened drinks, processed meats, and processed baked goods, has been linked to a greater risk of depression through various research,” Dr. Amen wrote alongside his video.
“Collecting and analyzing data from almost 70,000 women with no history of mental health disorders (including depression) or substance abuse, they found that those eating a high-glycemic diet, with high levels of refined carbs, had an increased risk of depression.”
“Increasingly, after the study’s 3-year period, researchers concluded that added sugars, not total sugars or total carbohydrates, were strongly associated with the onset of depression. Yes, that includes oatmeal.”
At the end of the doctor’s video, he concluded with the simple suggestion of eggs for breakfast in a morning instead.
Healthline highlighted recent research that indicates that sugary treats do in fact have no positive effect on mood. Sugar may actually have the complete opposite effect.
One study published in 2017 found that consuming a diet high in sugar can increase the chances of incident mood disorders in men, and recurrent mood disorders in both men and women.
A more recent study in 2019 found that regular consumption of saturated fats and added sugars were related to higher feelings of anxiety in adults over age 60.