Everyone’s skipped breakfast from time to time… but the habit is even becoming common among young people, for time management, weight control, or because of peer pressure.
Recently researchers studied primary school children in Hong Kong and found that around 5% skipped breakfast at the start of the study. Researchers found that breakfast skippers experienced a greater increase in their Body Mass Index (BMI) over the two year period of the study when compared to children who did not skip breakfast. Although it’s not clear yet why this happens, researchers concluded that these results are important indications that eating breakfast is a behaviour that we should encourage, and skipping breakfast is not effective as a form of weight control in the long term.
You can read a brief summary of the research article here.
Some other articles on breakfast skipping in children:
- National Public Radio: ABetter Breakfast Can Boost Brainpower
- KidsHealth.org: Ready, Set, Breakfast!
- WatchMojo Health Blogs: Breakfast Recipes for Every Morning
