Nutritionists have already shown a link between eating breakfast and staying healthy. Now, a study of 5,000 nine to 11-yearolds by Cardiff University reveals the first authoritative link between eating breakfast and academic performance. The study states that children are twice as likely to score higher than average marks in assessments if they have started the day with a healthy breakfast.

In a report by The Independent, Hannah Littlecott, lead author of the study, says, “While breakfast consumption has been consistently associated with general health outcomes and acute measures of concentration and cognitive function, evidence regarding links to concrete educational outcomes has until now been unclear.”

Professor Chris Bonell, professor of sociology and social police at the University College London Institute of Education, adds: “Many schools throughout the UK now offer their pupils a breakfast.Ensuring that those young people most in need benefit from these schemes.”
As reported by the Medical News Daily, the research further cites growing evidence that break fast items with a lower glycemic index, which release energy steadily throughout the morning, may have a positive effect on cognitive functioning, health, school attendance and academic outcomes The level of educational performance was significantly associated not only with the number of healthy breakfast items consumed, but also with other dietary behaviours, such as the number of sweets, chips and portions of fruit and vegetables eaten throughout the rest of the day. In India, in a recent study on the nation’s breakfast habits conducted by College of Home Science, Nirmala Niketan, Mumbai, with support from Kellogg’s India, only 40% of the 3,600 people surveyed felt that breakfast was the most important meal of the day .

In a sample size of 3,600 subjects in the age groups of 8 to 40 years, the survey conducted within a SEC A and B sample population found that nearly 24% of kids below 12 skip breakfast, and 32% adolescents (of which more higher number of girls than boys are skipping breakfast). The study also found that for 72 % of Indians breakfast is nutritionally inadequate. And the nutrients missed at breakfast are not being compensated for through the consumption of a mid-morning meal or through other meals in the day .

The breakfast for all the people studied is poor for all nutrients except calcium. The calcium intake at 30% of the day’s Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) is high due to the consumption of milk at breakfast.

However, there are gross inadequacies in the intakes of iron, fibre and most B group vitamins in breakfast across all age groups.

Protein intake in children was significantly lower than 25% of the RDA. Breakfast skipping is seen more in Mumbai, followed by Delhi and Kolkata. Though there is very little skipping in Chennai, the trend for an inadequate breakfast rather than no breakfast is seen across all age groups.