Breakfast is More Than Timing: Research Shows the Importance of High-Quality Protein in the Breakfast Meal

 The American Egg Board recently presented and sponsored a panel discussion at the Annual IFT Expo titled Breakfast is More Than Timing. Featuring Douglas Paddon-Jones, PhD from the University of Texas Medical Branch, Marie Spano, MS, RD/LD, FISSN, CSCS from the Society of Sports Medicine and Craig "Skip" Julius, CRC, CCS, CEC, Director of Innovation at Pierre Foods. The panel presented pertinent science regarding the role of protein at breakfast in promoting satiety and weight management. Additionally, the panelists discussed the latest consumer trends in food choices for improving health, and practical recommendations for selecting high-quality protein foods and food formulations at breakfast.

Following you will find our top ten discussion points from the presentation. Read the panelists responses following each statement.

1. Americans tend to eat carbohydrate-heavy breakfasts and protein-heavy dinners, when for optimal health, they should be distributing their consumption of protein evenly throughout the day.
   
   Response: Dr. Douglas Paddon-Jones from the University of Texas says - So, this is what I think is a more sensible distribution patent and we're not talking about just throwing protein blindly at people's diet...what we are talking about is a more sensible redistribution. So, instead of this heavy carbohydrate-based breakfast...add in a couple of high quality proteins to increase the amount of protein at breakfast closer to 30 gm. Maximize your response at breakfast. Do the same thing at lunch and at dinner, a more moderate portion size.
   
   
   
2. Research has shown that a high protein breakfast not only increases short term satiety, but reduces caloric intake throughout the remainder of the day.
   
   Response: Marie Spano of the International Society of Sports Medicine reports - In this particular study, they took thirty women with a BMI of over 25 and gave them a isocaloric – so the same calorie breakfast, either bagels or eggs and then they gave them lunch 3.5 hours later to look at short-term satiety. The researchers found that the egg breakfast actually increased satiety and significantly lowered calorie consumption at lunch and throughout the day and again, to me this is – is this the key to weight loss? It is certainly a key to helping people make it through the day so that they don't over consume and get some short-term weight loss to stay on their diet program.
   
   
3. Protein has become a "functional superstar" in the food manufacturer's menu of potential product ingredients.
   
   Response: Chef Skip Julius of Pierre Foods states - Proteins are getting to be known as functional superstars. So, what does mean? There are relatively few healthy ingredients that are lucky enough to have survived the FSA...the early rulings. So they ruled a lot of stuff out of what's bad. So, proteins are very functional superstars will move to the front of that list and policy change will influence higher quality proteins, both in food service, but also primarily in food manufacturing. There's a lot of pressure coming down on food manufacturers to clean up their acts, so to speak...and that includes using higher quality protein ingredients.
   
   
   
4. Not all proteins are created equal: animal derived proteins are considered complete, which means they include all essential amino acids, the enablers of building muscle tissue.
   
   Response: Dr. Douglas Paddon-Jones from the University of Texas says - If you are looking at maximizing your response you do get a better response with whole high quality proteins, eggs, the meat proteins.
   
   Marie Spano of the International Society of Sports Medicine states - There is also a great way to look at protein quality foods with the protein digestibility corrected amino acids score. And basically this takes into consideration the digestibility of the protein, as well as the amino acids. You can see here again, there's that common thread – eggs and dairy proteins. They are at the top. So, the final word on strength gain...protein quality matters, protein timing matters. It should be consumed throughout the day.
   
   
   
5. Cravable foods seem to have one thing in common – protein and its complete array of essential amino acids.
   
   Response: Chef Skip Julius of Pierre Foods mentions - Certain amino acids are craved. I have been doing a lot of research on this lately. There seems to be a certain combination of amino acids that drive flavor footprints. So, in the world of product development that is like the Holy Grail, right? If you can figure that out you can build cravable foods that will be cash cows for years and years and years to come. We are wired this way. There is a reward mechanism that when we feed into these cravings, the brain actually secretes a compound – chemicals that are very much like opium or opiates. And so, we get this pleasure. We constantly want pleasure...we are pleasure seeking creatures, so we are always trying to reinforce that because it feels good. Eggs and milk are two examples and I talked about that earlier.
   
   
   
6. Protein offers several physiological benefits to those trying to control or lose weight.
   
   Response: Marie Spano of the International Society of Sports Medicine says - Protein can increase that thermic effect of feeding, so the calories that you burn during digestion are considerably more with protein than carbohydrates or fat. It does enhance satiety and I always like to say you are less likely to overeat something if you choose a protein-based food. So, protein increases satiety...studies show that it can suppress the food intake at your next meal and some studies show that protein intake, at least initially better for weight loss.
   
   
   
7. Schools recognize the importance of protein early in the day as being critical to their students' success.
   
   Response: Chef Skip Julius of Pierre Foods states - There is a trend I am seeing about breakfast sandwiches in school and I just worked with a really large contractor to develop these mobile carts that hold hot breakfast sandwiches, which is a product that we make and so when the kids – what they want to do they want to put it where the kids get right off the bus on the way into school and they can grab a hot breakfast sandwich and eat it on the way in, so they've got some nutrients going into their systems and they are balanced out and they can really focus and learn. It's really showing some really positive effects.
   
   
   
8. For most people, increasing proteins and commensurately decreasing carbohydrates in their diets will result in better overall health.
   
   Response: Dr. Douglas Paddon-Jones from the University of Texas says - Now, in terms of health outcomes – almost every study that you are going to come across that again has moderately increased protein at the expense of carbohydrates, has shown a positive health outcome in almost every marker...the blood pressure...blood, liver, cholesterol, and body fat.
   
   
   
9. Nutrition-based interventions using increased protein can substantially reduce or even reverse the lean muscle loss of age-related sarcopenia.
   
   Response: Dr. Douglas Paddon-Jones from the University of Texas reports - The most important thing I think is that there is no age-related impairment in our ability to turn protein rich food into muscle. That's really important. We know...you've heard of sarcopenia of aging. The gradual loss of lean muscle masses as we age. Now there are lots of theories why this has happened...because we are more sedentary, we don't exercise as much, but one of the leading theories was that we just lose the ability to take the food that we are eating and turn it into muscle. This doesn't seem to be the case. So, that is really encouraging news for older adults.
   
   There's a real big opportunity for someone to develop nutritional interventions, framework strategies, and react aggressively with nutritional support to really prevent these massive catastrophic losses of muscle mass as we age.
   
   
   
10. Food scientists and manufacturers have a great opportunity to benefit the American diet by formulating cravable products that provide 30 grams of high-quality protein per meal.
    
    Response: Marie Spano of the International Society of Sports Medicine offers - There are several research-based benefits to consuming a higher protein diet and evenly distributing that protein intake throughout the day. And this creates a tremendous opportunity for food scientists, food and beverage manufacturers...to develop products that taste good and meet that requirement of 30 gm. of protein per meal.