overview of breakfast nutrition

Abstract

Many Canadians believe they can improve their health by changing certain lifestyle habits. Although some respondents in the 1985 Canada's Health Promotion Survey intended to improve eating habits, 29% reported that they did not regularly consume breakfast. This literature review focusses on the importance of breakfast and breakfast consumption habits. Breakfast can play an important role in the nutritional adequacy of the diet, supplying key nutrients that are often not compensated for in subsequent meals if breakfast is omitted. While individuals may skip breakfast to control or reduce body weight, the effectiveness of this practice is unsubstantiated, possibly even counterproductive. The prolonged fasting state in late morning induced by breakfast omission is of particular concern for children, adolescents and pregnant women. Conclusions about a direct impact of breakfast consumption on cognitive function and physical performance are equivocal because of the complex relationships between food consumption and behaviour. Breakfast consumption data suggest that substantial proportions of Canadians, including both children and adults, may be at increased nutritional risk as a result of missed or irregular breakfast consumption.