Do these words sound familiar? “Eat your breakfast, you have an exam today!” “If you don’t eat breakfast you won’t have a healthy start to the day!” “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” Then you probably had parents who were always pushing you to eat breakfast even if you weren’t hungry; just as I did.
This always seemed to be a shady statement though. Breakfast does not seem to be as an important deal as it is made out to be. The article “Champions of Breakfast say: make a meal out of it,” written by Jennifer Huget, states that yes, eating a breakfast is healthy, but it may not pull as much weight as we assume.
“There is some research suggesting that breakfast is linked to better school performance as a result of students having more concentration and discipline,” said James Hill, president of American Society of Nutrition (ASN), “but there isn’t definitive information out there.” If there isn’t definitive information about a topic that is so widely discussed, why aren’t the researchers listening? Studies should be conducted about how breakfast affects children and adults, nutritionally and energy wise. Catie Kelly, a 22-year-old nurse at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Pennsylvania said, “It doesn’t affect your brain power as much as it does your metabolism. Breakfast helps wake you up so you are more energetic and active throughout the day.”
So our parents may have been wrong as far as the brainpower statement does, but it seems that breakfast truly does help shape our attention and attentiveness during the day.
A study was conducted about how breakfast affects us nutritionally, with 12,000 adults both male and female. During the course of this research they established that women who eat breakfast have lower Body Mass Indexes (BMI’s) than those who do not eat breakfast. However, this is not a true statement for men.
Breakfast may not serve as brain power, but it definitely gives your body a nutrition jump start for your day. Even if you claim that you are not hungry in the morning have orange juice or even coffee, just a little something to get your metabolism going. The next time you are stopped on your way out the door and reminded to eat breakfast think twice before bolting. Heed the advice and eat, after all we all want healthier lifestyle and an easier fit into our jeans.
