No time to eat!

Back to school after a wonderful spring break. I could get used to waking up late, enjoying breakfast at home, and walking my dog.

I can never eat a good meal in the morning when I am rushing to school and mom always insists on having some good energy food in the morning. She quotes to eat“Breakfast like a king; lunch like a prince; dinner like a pauper.”

I am quite the opposite in my eating pattern. Not sure if I can ever eat the biggest meal of my day, first thing in the morning.

But I guess I feel more focused if I eat something in the morning. So I looked up if there is any scientific evidence on eating breakfast and better performance in school. Adolphus et al did an extensive literature review on articles published between 1950-2013 and included thirty-six articles examining the effects of breakfast on in-class behavior and academic performance in children and adolescents. The evidence suggests a mainly positive effect of breakfast on on-task behavior in the classroom. Gajre et al found that regular breakfast eaters (>4 days per week) had significantly higher grades for science and English compared to those who never eat breakfast, but there was no difference in mathematics grades. However, total grades, which included mathematics, were significantly higher in the regular breakfast group compared with the no breakfast group.

In short, breakfast skippers performed lower at school compared with breakfast eaters.

I think for now I need my grades so will try to eat something in the morning!

That's what I found, I am curious to hear what your take is on this! Don't forget to leave a comment.

References:

• Gajre N. S., Fernandez S., Balakrishna N., Vazir S. (2008). Breakfast eating habit and its influence on attention-concentration, immediate memory and school achievement. Indian Pediatr. 45, 824–828 [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

• Boschloo A., Ouwehand C., Dekker S., Lee N., De Groot R., Krabbendam L., et al. (2012). The relation between breakfast skipping and school performance in adolescents. Mind Brain Educ. 6, 81–88 10.1111/j.1751-228X.2012.01138.x [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]

• Adolphus K, Lawton CL, Dye L. The effects of breakfast on behavior and academic performance in children and adolescents. Front Hum Neurosci. 2013 Aug 8;7:425. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00425. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3737458/