Researchers from the Department of Dietetics and Nutrition at Singapore's Alexandra Hospital surveyed households in six Asian countries and regions, investigating whether children eat breakfast, their brain development, and academic performance. The results found that students who skip breakfast not only have poorer concentration but also slower reaction times.
The researchers pointed out: "If breakfast is consistently neglected, a child's brain will shrink. Even if they later return to a healthy, nutritious diet, the atrophied brain cannot resume its growth, causing them to become less intelligent."
Meanwhile, American experts also conducted a study on students, where some ate breakfast after arriving at school while others did not. The results showed that students who skipped breakfast had poorer numerical reaction abilities, whereas children who ate breakfast were more sensitive to numbers.
This was especially true during the first-period math class, where children who ate breakfast performed much better than those who did not. The researchers noted that having the teacher convey the importance of eating breakfast is the most direct and effective method.
Five types of children's breakfast to avoid for your child's health
1. Leftovers Breakfast
After being left overnight, vegetables can produce nitrites (a carcinogen), which can harm human health. Therefore, leftover vegetables should preferably not be eaten.
2. Western-style Breakfast
This high-calorie breakfast can easily lead to obesity, and the long-term consumption of fried foods is also harmful to the body. If a Western-style fast meal is eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner must consist of low-calorie foods. Furthermore, this type of breakfast has the problem of being nutritionally unbalanced—it is high in calories but often lacks nutrients like vitamins, minerals, and fiber. If choosing a Western-style fast meal for breakfast, one should add fruits or vegetable soup to maintain nutritional balance and ensure the intake of various nutrients.
3. Fried Dough Stick Breakfast
When food is deep-fried at high temperatures, its nutrients are destroyed, and carcinogenic substances can also be produced. Moreover, fried dough sticks are high in calories and their fats are difficult to digest. Breakfast must include vegetables or fruit.
4. Snack Breakfast
Most snacks are dry foods, which are not conducive to digestion and absorption for the human body, which is in a semi-dehydrated state in the morning. Furthermore, snacks like biscuits are mainly made from grains. While they can provide energy in a short time, they can also quickly make a person feel hungry again. Eating snacks for breakfast can easily lead to malnutrition, a decline in physical fitness, and make one susceptible to various diseases.
5. On-the-move Breakfast
To save time, many parents buy breakfast from roadside stalls for their children and have them eat while walking. In fact, eating while walking is detrimental to gastrointestinal health and is not conducive to digestion and absorption. Moreover, the hygiene of food from roadside stalls is difficult to guarantee.