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Build Your Day on a Good Breakfast
At any age, breakfast is important. The word ‘breakfast’ means to end a fast, a period of time without food. After a night’s rest, your body and your brain – which has no blood-glucose reserves – has already gone without nourishment for many hours. Without sufficient nutrients, breakfast skippers often feel tired and listless, irritable and restless. Eating a good breakfast full of nutrients restores your energy.
For kids, numerous studies over decades have shown that when children eat a good breakfast, they have more energy, strength and endurance for both physical and mental tasks. They also have better attendance records and have fewer behavioral problems.
Students who eat breakfast find it easier to pay attention, can concentrate better and have better memories and problem-solving abilities. So, breakfast eaters score higher on tests than those who skip a morning meal. Breakfast eaters are also less depressed, anxious and hyperactive than those who eat an unbalanced breakfast or skip the meal entirely.
Eating breakfast also helps you keep your weight in line. For adults, a good breakfast can help you avoid overeating by making you feel full longer. In adult research, when overweight women had a protein-based breakfast (eggs, toast and fruit spread), they ate fewer calories the rest of the day compared to women who had a carbohydrate-based breakfast (bagel, cream cheese and yogurt). The protein-based breakfast made the women feel more satisfied. Because they didn’t feel ‘starved’ at other meals, they could avoid filling up with too much food throughout the day.
Breakfast also helps everyone get a jumpstart on all the nutrients they need to meet daily requirements.
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