SE5 - Breakfast

Are you feeling sluggish today? Are you stressed, frustrated and depressed? Do your children refuse to eat breakfast? The answer to all your problems may be answered with one simple question: did you eat breakfast this morning. Since we were children our parents, teachers and oatmeal commercials stressed the importance of eating a balanced breakfast every day. If you are like me, you never listened to your parents and breakfast was simply that meal that you skipped on a daily basis. You skip it because you don’t have time or desire to wake up early enough to make something. However, if you knew all the areas that eating breakfast impacted you would never skip breakfast again. You see breakfast isn't simply a conspiracy theory created by oatmeal companies designed to capture a greater profit but a very important meal that not only affects you but those around you in three very specific ways.

Emotional and Mental Health

A study of 126 participants conducted by The University of Bristol found that those who ate breakfast were happier throughout the day. They were less stressed and less depressed than those who chose to skip breakfast. For example people who have irregular breakfasts – meaning it’s not consumed everyday – have a depression level of 10 while those who eat breakfast every day reach only a 6. This study shows strong relationships between choosing to eat breakfast and stable mental health. Do your emotions a favor and eat breakfast every day.

Physical Health

A second study explored how skipping breakfast is related to health compromising behaviors. This study looked at 3065 families and their breakfast eating habits. People who skip breakfast are found to be more tired, exercise less and have a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) than those who eat breakfast. When you skip breakfast you have less energy to do things such as working out. Also skipping breakfast leads to larger, unbalanced meals later in the day causing your BMI to rise. All these things are directly related to the poor emotional and mental health listed above. It’s a vicious cycle: you don’t eat breakfast causing a sluggish feeling and a desire to do nothing which creates depression. So break the cycle and eat breakfast.      

Family Values

Using the same study as above it was found that parental breakfast eating is the most significant factor associated with adolescent breakfast eating. In the families where the parents ate breakfast every day, their children ate breakfast 82% of the time. However children whose parents skipped breakfast only ate breakfast 46% of the time. This shows how important it is to eat breakfast not just for yourself but for your family. The two points above show how not eating breakfast leads to mental distress as well as health problems. If you can save your children from all of those issues simply by letting them watch you eat breakfast and hoping they follow in your footsteps, wouldn't you do it. It is true parents really do impact their children and shape them into adults. You never know when they are or aren't watching and how your actions will impact them. So do them a favor and eat breakfast.

I hope this has shown you all the importance that lies in eating breakfast. It is not just another meal in the day but a meal that sets a tone for your emotional well-being of the day, your physical state, as well as the future of those who look up to you. The two studies are inexplicably linked and demonstrate the various ways in which breakfast is a great meal. Do me a favor and try eating breakfast every day this week and see what it can do for you.  

Works Cited

Keski-Rahkonen, A., et al. "Breakfast Skipping and Health-Compromising Behaviors in Adolescents and Adults." European journal of clinical nutrition 57.7 (2003): 842-53. ProQuest. 13 May 2013.

Smith, Andrew P. "Breakfast and Mental Health." International journal of food sciences and nutrition 49.5 (1998): 397-402.ProQuest. 13 May 2013.