Through all of the advances the study of medicine has gone through over the course of human history, the idea notion of breakfast being the most important meal of the day seems to only grow stronger.

The latest example of this prevailing belief comes from the University of Bath’s Department for Health. In their new study, the researchers discovered that eating breakfast not only increased the rate which the body burned carbohydrates during exercise, it also increased the rate the body digested and metabolized food eaten post-workout.

The scientists were studying the effect of eating breakfast versus fasting overnight before an hour’s cycling. The control group rested for three hours after eating breakfast. The second group ate porridge made with milk two hours before exercise.

Following the period of exercise or rest, researchers tested the blood glucose, and muscle glycogen, levels of the 12 participants and discovered found the exercising group burned carbs, and digested/metabolized food, at a faster rate.

“This study suggests that, at least after a single bout of exercise, eating breakfast before exercise may ‘prime’ our body, ready for rapid storage of nutrition when we eat meals after exercise,” said Rob Edinburgh, a PhD student in the Department for Health who co-led the study.

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