Is Breakfast Really The Most Important Meal Of The Day?

Is Breakfast Really The Most Important Meal Of The Day? - It’s fuel for the brain, parents often tell their children while feeding them breakfast.

But is your first meal every day the most important one?

Nutritionists say the body needs a strong energy booster in the morning to fully wake up from its night-time break.

“People who leave the house without eating anything in the morning tend to have trouble focusing,” says Harald Seitz, of the German Federal Nutrition Centre.

Furthermore, skipping breakfast will make you prone to ravenous hunger later on in the day.

There is also a lot to be said in favour of eating something at the beginning of the day, in order to provide the body with the nutrients and vitamins it needs.

“Foodstuffs that are high in carbohydrates are precisely the right thing to eat in the morning, because they provide short- and medium-term energy,” says nutrition expert Gabriele Graf.

That could be the classic sandwich, but also muesli, porridge or a banana and oatmeal milkshake.

“Bread should, if possible, be wholemeal, because that will fill you up for longer,” Graf explains.

“Everyone can choose for themselves what they would like to have in a healthy breakfast,” says nutritionist Margret Morlo. But sweets, cake and fizzy drinks don’t belong on the breakfast table.

“They do provide the body with energy, but they contain few vitamins, minerals and trace elements, if any,” she says.

There are, however, real breakfast renegades around, who refuse to eat anything before leaving the house in the morning.

Those people should at the very least try to drink something before going out, experts say. It could be fruit juice or a smoothie, or even a glass of milk.

“Liquids go down better and provide enough energy and nutrients to make a good start to the day,” Morlo notes.

If you are generally not hungry in the morning, you can take something with you and eat it later. A late breakfast should also consist of bread, muesli, fruit, vegetables or yoghurt.

Breakfast renegades can also trick themselves by preparing something the night before: seeing vegetable bites ready to eat may entice them the next morning.

Morning meals are particularly important for kids. Schoolchildren who eat breakfast tend to perform better, have quicker reactions and take longer to get tired.

A team of researchers led by Hannah Littlecott of Cardiff University in Wales, Britain, found that those who regularly had breakfast performed better than their peers who skipped that meal.

Meanwhile, a breakfast that consisted of unhealthy snacks like sweets did not have a positive influence on school performance, according to the research, which involved about 3,000 schoolchildren between the ages of nine and 11.

Children should first eat breakfast at home, and then again at kindergarten or at school, Graf recommends. That should provide them with enough energy to cope with the tasks they face during the day.