Dieticians recommend that breakfast should be treated a real “little meal”. Although there are no official recommendations, breakfast should represent 20-25% of our daily energy requirements. For children in particular, but also for adults, the quality of the day’s first meal has a direct impact on our physical and intellectual performance.
An irreplaceable ritual
After eight to twelve hours of sleep, the body’s energy reserves are depleted. Breakfast supplies the necessary energy for facing the day effectively.
It has been demonstrated that children who eat breakfast have a better attention span at school. Breakfast is an important way of avoiding hunger pangs at 11 am and to ensure you’re not famished at lunchtime. According to dieticians, the first meal of the day should cover, depending on the case (difficulty in waking up, slow start, lack of appetite, etc.) between 20% and 25% of energy requirements. A good reason not to hurry it - or skip it entirely.
The consequences of repeatedly skipping breakfast.
Breakfast is a very important meal for growing children. For adults, breakfast should be adapted to a person’s lifestyle. Repeatedly skipping, or eating an inadequate, breakfast can have many harmful effects on your health and academic and job performance, including:
- general fatigue and the 11 a.m. low-energy syndrome;
- poorer concentration, drop in learning and memorizing abilities;
- weight loss (skipping breakfast increases snacking or the consumption of bigger meals with a higher fat content).
A “good” breakfast
Start by drinking a glass of water when you wake up. Milk or other dairy product (yoghurt, cheese, fromage blanc) for calcium. Bread or other cereal product (cereals, melba toasts), rich in carbohydrates, to restore carbohydrate reserves used during the night. Fresh fruit, a source of freshness and pleasure, or a glass of fruit juice.
According to a survey by the French Study and Observation of Living Conditions Research Centre (CREDOC), performed in 2007, “the stereotype of the Frenchman or woman dunking a slice of bread and jam into a bowl of coffee is still true, since 93% of breakfasts in France consist of a hot drink, very often with sugar, 54% include a slice of bread, of which 41% are eaten with butter and 27% with jam or honey.”
Not many children go to school on an empty stomach. According to this survey, 91% of 3- to 12-years old eat breakfast seven days a week. A breakfast of cereals with a dairy product is much more popular than the slice of bread and jam eaten by adults. Breakfast is eaten more often outside of the home by 13- to 19-year olds.
What if you can’t eat anything in the morning? Stress, a disturbed sleep and getting up too late may explain your lack of appetite. Try eating food that’s easy to swallow like cereals with milk, drinking yoghurt, fromage blanc, fruit juice and purées. You can also slip a piece of fruit, a cereal bar, a few biscuits or a small portion of cheese into your bag to enjoy mid-morning.
Carbohydrates in the diet
Breakfast provide carbohydrates, which should supply over half the body’s daily energy needs. Transformed into glucose by the body, carbohydrates (provided by such foods as bread, biscuits, milk, sugar and jam) are a “fuel” essential to muscle and brain functioning.
Pleasures of freedom
A special time with loved ones, breakfast can offer a genuine sense of freedom that not only appeals to the senses, but also allows those gathered to create their own menu in tune with the season or their desires. Eggs, cheese and dairy products, cured meats, fruit and purées, fruit juice or vegetable juice, cereals and dried fruit, bread, pancakes and pastries, hot drinks... all of these foods vary the flavour and pleasures of breakfast on a daily basis.