Ten Foods and Drinks You Should Avoid First Thing In The Morning

You wake up in the morning feeling super-hungry and the first thing you do s raid the fridge for a quick snack before figuring out the rest of your day. Well, some snacks may be doing more harm to your body than you could imagine. It is very important to get a wholesome breakfast in the morning rich in fibre and protein alongside the carbs and vitamins to give you enough energy to face your day. Resorting to some quick fixes, especially on an empty stomach may hurt your stomach lining and cause many health problems that your next meal of the day cannot solve. These are some of the foods you should avoid putting your mouth on an empty stomach.

Chewing Gum

Gastritis is a major health problem all over the world and its biggest cause is poor eating habits. One thing that increases the risk of getting gastritis is chewing gum on an empty stomach or for long periods. When you chew gum, your digestive enzymes in the stomach brace themselves for the entrance of food which means the release of acid to help digest the food that is coming in. The only problem here is that there is no food coming, and on an empty stomach, the acid starts eating at your stomach lining. It is a sure way to get gastritis if you do this regularly. You should switch to chewing gum that has natural sugar and don’t chew it for over 10 minutes because the longer you chew, the more acid is released into your stomach.

Alcohol

Drinking alcohol in the morning is highly associated with developing alcohol dementia even at a young age. Alcohol is bad enough for your liver, heart, kidneys, and brain; it can turn you into an addict really fast, which would require you to visit a local or international rehab facility. But if you think that the above piece of information is bad, then wait till you hear this: the worst part is when you drink it first thing in the morning and on an empty stomach–the effects are worse. Drinking alcohol in the morning will create an alcohol dependence as you have to keep drinking to retain the high and avoid a hangover. The alcohol is also absorbed faster on an empty stomach which leads to a high blood alcohol content and that hurts your liver.

Sweets

Sweets have a similar impact to chewing gum when you eat them in the morning. As you suck on them, saliva in your mouth triggers the release of acid in the stomach to digest food. However, the sugar in the sweets is rarely enough to suffice the quantity of acid being released. As a result, the acid starts reacting with your stomach walls which is a major cause of gastritis and other stomach diseases.

Carbonated Drinks

Soda can be filling when you drink it in the morning and some people argue that you have the whole day to burn the calories but it is one of the worst things you can take on an empty stomach. Drinking soda on an empty stomach can make you feel sick. Besides, sodas are very acidic and too much acid in your stomach in the morning is bad for the rest of the day. You will feel full for a while and therefore avoid eating real food. The calories in the soda mostly turn into belly fat and don’t turn into the energy you need to face the day. You will only end up with an uncomfortable stomach with lots of acids and very little energy.

Granola Bars

Sometimes, you just don’t have the time to sit down for a proper breakfast so you opt for a quick breakfast bar and get going. The only problem with most bars is that they have more sugar than your body needs and the result is lots of insulin that cause your blood sugar to skyrocket. It is wise to go for bars that are made of whole foods and have protein and fibre as well but most manufacturers use too much sugar and artificial flavours. The sharp rise and fall in your blood sugar is a major cause of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Flavoured Yogurt

Whole natural yoghurt is a great breakfast meal, but unfortunately, there aren’t that many. Most yoghurts are flavoured with refined sugar and other artificial sweeteners which makes them unhealthy. The manufacturers strip the yoghurt of fat and all the healthy components and replace that with sugar and artificial flavour which makes them less filling. They become just as unhealthy as chewing on sugar on an empty stomach. It is safer to go for whole-fat natural yoghurt instead.

Plain Coffee

Waking up to a cup of coffee will help you feel alert for a short while but it is not the healthiest thing for you. Caffeine stimulates the production of cortisol, the stress hormone which puts your body in a fight or flight mode for the rest of the day. The hormone causes immediate hormonal imbalance and an increase in blood sugar which is bad when done on a daily basis. It is wise to eat a complete meal first before going for your coffee.

Sugary Cereal

Breakfast cereals are one of the most commonly consumed food for breakfast in the world. Now, many people add milk to it which is very wise because the cereal alone is no good. Most cereals are not made of whole grains so all they have is refined sugar and flavours. The sugar will make you feel full for a short while and cause your insulin to shoot up and that is how trouble begins. Your blood sugar falls shortly afterwards and you are hungry and craving more sweet foods which is the clearest path to obesity.

Citrus Juice

You need to eat at least one orange per day and the more you can get the better. However, eating citrus fruits or drinking the juice on an empty stomach is a bad idea. The fruits contain too much acid which is bad for your stomach lining and it hurts you if there is no other food in the stomach. Citrus fruits also have fibre and sugar which slow down your digestive system causing you to be sluggish for the rest of the day. Just take the fruits after eating another meal.

Packaged Fruit Juice

The images on the packages of fruits juices and the actual contents are often very different. Most manufacturers use imaging to fool consumers into drinking sugar and artificial flavour with little fruit juice or actual fruit extract. That is why drinking packaged fruit juice in the morning will feel more like eating sweets. Too much sugar causes a sudden rise and then fall in your blood sugar which is bad for your health. Most fruit juices will leave you hungry and craving sweet drinks for the rest of the day.

Do you know of any other foods or drinks that you shouldn’t consume in the morning? If you do why not tell us about them in the comments below.