Breakfast is the food of academic champions
Now we have the evidence that children perform better at school if they start their day with a healthy meal, there’s no excuse for skipping breakfast
Most of us are familiar with feeling that life can get so busy that we don’t have time for everything. One of the common casualties is a healthy breakfast – or any breakfast – before we leave home. After all, we can “catch up” later in the day, with a take-out, even if a doctor would not recommend it as best practice.
But does it set a poor example? Researchers at the faculty of education at the Chinese University of Hong Kong have been alarmed to find that those who skip breakfast are getting younger. An analysis of data from 15,000 schoolchildren and 12,000 parents over the past six months found that fewer pupils eat breakfast regularly as they grow older.
The study found that 75 per cent of Primary Three pupils eat breakfast every day, 60 per cent in Primary Six and only 41 per cent in Form Three. Thirteen per cent of the latter said they never eat breakfast, which cannot be healthy at that age.