Fitting a hearty breakfast into your child's rushed morning routine can be challenging, but it's more important than you think. Skipping breakfast not only affects your long-term health; It also affects happiness. Children who regularly skip breakfast are less likely to be happy in life, a study suggests.
on a large scale study Researchers from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in the UK and Universidad America in Mexico surveyed 150,000 children and adolescents in 42 countries around the world to examine the association between breakfast consumption regularity and life satisfaction. . Results published in the “BMC Nutrition Journal” showed that the more frequently you eat breakfast, the higher your life satisfaction, and there is a “nearly linear relationship” between the two.
“Participants who ate breakfast every day had the highest life satisfaction scores, while children who never ate breakfast had the lowest life satisfaction scores.” Press Releases pointed out.
The study involved participants in the School-Aged Children's Health Behavior Study (2017/2018), which used a nationally representative sample of school children and adolescents aged 10 to 17 years. Participants were asked how often they had a substantial breakfast—not just a glass of milk or juice. Their life satisfaction was then measured on a scale from 0 to 10, where 10 represents the highest quality of life and 0 represents the lowest quality of life.
“Our wide-ranging study found a consistent association between breakfast frequency and life satisfaction, and there are several potential reasons for this. Previous research has shown that adolescents who skip breakfast have higher levels of depressed mood. “In addition, eating a sufficient breakfast provides essential energy and nutrients for optimal cognitive function and enhances attention, memory and learning,” said senior author Lee Smith, professor of public health at Anglia Ruskin University.
“Another reason could be that the vitamins and minerals we get from our daily breakfast, if not consumed regularly, can lead to decreased life satisfaction over time. A regular schedule that includes breakfast can also provide Others brought structure and a positive tone to the day,” Smith added.
However, the researchers noted inconsistencies in life satisfaction scores between countries, suggesting that underlying socioeconomic factors may influence the results. They observed that children in Portugal who ate breakfast every day had the highest life satisfaction, while children in Romania who skipped breakfast had the lowest life satisfaction.