The BIG BREAKFAST debate

To eat or not to eat? It appears the health world just can't decide! If you're as stumped as us, read on as we get to the bottom of this cracking matter

- Angela Dowden

Surprisingly, the old adage that breakfast is the most S beginning to inform a shift in opinion, a few diet experts are starting to speak up in favour of demoting breakfast.

'Children definitely need a good meal first thing, but with some adults, I'm not so sure,' says nutritionist Dr Sarah Schenker, author of Myth-Busting Your Body. 'I find that some people who put off eating until midday manage their food intake better because, if they eat breakfast, they can't stop eating all day.' Dr Schenker also points out that many of the studies that have punted the physical and mental benefits of having breakfast have been funded by big cereal companies. And media portrayals of the benefits of breakfast on weight control, for example, usually give the impression of cause and effect, when in fact this has never been proven.

'Instead, eating breakfast may just be a hallmark of other healthy behaviours like eating better in general and exercising and these together manage weight,' says Dr Schenker.

FOR BREAKFAST

That said, most experts are st the breakfast corner. Accordi Dietetic Association (BDA), is simply a good habit to have people who eat breakfast have more balanced diets than those who skip it, are less likely to be overweight, lose weight more successfully if they are overweight, and have reduced risk of certain diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

One 2017 study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that skipping breakfast was associated with an increased risk of atherosclerosis (the hardening and narrowing of arteries due to a build-up of plaque) and another in the journal Circulation documented a 27% increase in coronary heart disease among those North American men who regularly failed to eat a meal at the start of the day. And no, these studies were not funded by the cereal companies!