As the saying goes, "Eat a good breakfast, a full lunch, and a light dinner." However, due to the fast pace of modern life and work, people often overlook the nutritional value of breakfast, with a particularly low intake of fruits and vegetables.
The nutritional monotony of Chinese breakfasts
Eating breakfast daily is a healthy lifestyle advocated by the World Health Organization (WHO), but it is often neglected. A survey conducted in China on the breakfast habits of urban residents in Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing found that the breakfast consumption rates in these three areas ranged from 74.8% to 90.5%. A higher number of respondents under the age of 35 skipped breakfast. Most people cited "no time in the morning" as the reason for skipping it. The survey also found that even for those who ate breakfast, the majority opted for nutritionally monotonous meals like steamed buns and fried dough sticks, which can hardly be considered healthy. It is clear that the issue of nutritional deficiency in Chinese breakfasts is a cause for concern.
Ruan Guangfeng, an expert from the Center for Food and Nutrition Information Communication, explains that breakfast plays a very important role in people's daily diet. Firstly, eating breakfast helps cultivate healthy eating habits and improves work efficiency during the day. Numerous studies have confirmed that people who skip breakfast tend to prefer junk food; those who regularly eat breakfast are more likely to develop healthy eating habits; people who eat a healthy breakfast are more efficient at work; and those who skip breakfast are more prone to drowsiness and lack of concentration. Secondly, research has found that people who eat breakfast regularly have lower incidences of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
Sun Shuxia, the chief expert for health education guidance of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, stated that Chinese people eat their breakfast too hastily. Among the six core nutrients—carbohydrates (sugars), fats, proteins, vitamins, water, and inorganic salts (minerals)—breakfast is particularly lacking in vitamins and minerals.
Increasing fruit and vegetable intake is imperative
So, how should we eat breakfast? Ruan Guangfeng says that a healthy breakfast must be sufficient in quantity and meet quality standards.
By "quantity," it means that breakfast should be filling. The Chinese Dietary Guidelines recommend that the energy provided by breakfast should account for 25% to 30% of the total daily energy to ensure efficiency for work and study in the morning. Therefore, breakfast should not be rushed; you need to eat enough. The "quality" of breakfast should mainly start with food variety. Breakfast should provide the body with rich nutrition, so it's best to have a diverse diet, including vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and eggs or dairy, to make our nutrition more balanced.
The World Health Organization's latest dietary advice also clearly states that for adults, eating at least five servings or 400 grams of fruits and vegetables daily can reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases. Relevant data shows that the average fruit and vegetable intake of Chinese residents is only about half of the recommended amount, leading to various health risks. Increasing fruit and vegetable intake is therefore imperative. Sun Shuxia explains that fruits and vegetables are the most direct way to supplement vitamins and minerals. Traditional breakfast pairings have flaws in balanced nutrition. To improve breakfast combinations, one can add fruits. "Currently, it is popular in developed countries to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juices with breakfast, which is a very healthy eating habit."
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In response to the current situation of nutritional deficiency in Chinese breakfasts, some forward-thinking brands have already launched nutritional breakfast products. This May, Huiyuan Group launched its new "Zao A" 100% composite fruit and vegetable juice, which extracts the essence of 11 fruits and vegetables, including apples, sweet corn, mangoes, carrots, figs, pomegranates, and lemons, blending more than 50 natural vitamins and minerals to provide more comprehensive nutrition for breakfast.
Experts remind that breakfast should include less high-calorie food, and drinking fruit and vegetable juice, especially composite juices rich in various vitamins and minerals like Huiyuan's "Zao A" 100% composite fruit and vegetable juice, can effectively supplement vitamins and minerals, which is greatly beneficial to health.