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 Kids who skipped breakfast every day were less likely to get enough
iron, calcium, iodine and folate when compared to kids who ate
breakfast every day, the research team found.
“A greater proportion of those children who ate breakfast met their
recommended intakes of these micronutrients compared to breakfast
skippers,” coauthors Gerda Pot and Janine Coulthard of Kings College
London told Reuters Health in an email interview.
“These findings suggest that eating breakfast could play an
important role in ensuring that a child consumes enough of these key
micronutrients,” Pot and Coulthard said.
Though older children were more likely to skip breakfast, the day’s
nutrient shortfall was greater when younger children missed the
morning meal.
“Our research indicated that although lower proportions of
4-to-10-year-olds skipped breakfast regularly compared to
11-to-18-year-olds, greater differences in micronutrient intakes
were seen in the younger age group when comparing days on which they
ate breakfast with days on which they skipped it. It may, therefore,
be particularly important to ensure that this younger age group eats
a healthy breakfast, either at home or at a school breakfast club.”
Researchers examined four-day food diaries for almost 1,700 children
ages 4 to 18. The information was taken from a yearly national diet
and nutrition survey between 2008 and 2012.
Breakfast was defined as consuming more than 100 calories between 6
a.m. and 9 a.m.
Overall, about 31 percent of kids ate breakfast daily, 17 percent
never ate breakfast, and the rest ate it some days and skipped it on
others. In this group, the researchers also compared differences in
nutrient intake by the same child on different days.
The team found that 6.5 percent of kids aged 4 to 10 missed
breakfast every day, compared with nearly 27 percent of
11-to-18-year-olds.
Girls were more likely to miss breakfast than boys, and household
income tended to be higher for families of children who ate
breakfast every day.
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More than 30 percent of kids who skipped breakfast did not get
enough iron during the day, compared to less than 5 percent of kids
who ate breakfast, the researchers report in British Journal of
Nutrition.
Around 20 percent of breakfast skippers were low on calcium and
iodine, compared to roughly 3 percent of kids who ate breakfast.
About 7 percent of children who skipped breakfast were low in folate,
compared to none in the groups that ate breakfast.
Fat intake went up when kids skipped breakfast, researchers found.
Kids who skipped breakfast didn’t seem to compensate by eating more
calories later in the day. In fact, kids who didn’t eat breakfast
ended up eating the same number or fewer total calories as kids who
ate breakfast every day.
Making sure kids eat breakfast appears to be more difficult in the
older age group, who are possibly less receptive to parental
supervision, Pot and Coulthard said.
“One tactic would be to get children involved in making breakfast,
maybe even preparing something the night before if time is short in
the morning.”
The authors noted there are a wealth of healthy, simple and tasty
recipe ideas available on social media that children can choose
from, adding that kids might even like to post a picture of their
creations online.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2wjszk0 British Journal of Nutrition, online
August 17, 2017.
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