Breakfast, an essential meal that would make… happy
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Attention those who do not take the time to eat in the morning: this (bad) habit could make you unhappy. A finding that may surprise, but which is nevertheless the result of scientific research. A study conducted among more than 150,000 young people in 42 countries establishes a link between breakfast and life satisfaction. Explanations.
Parents have been repeating it, rightly or wrongly, for decades: breakfast is the most important meal of the day. A stubborn idea that is not without its basis in science, which regularly reminds us of the benefits of the first meal of the day, provided of course that we eat a healthy and balanced diet. The public health campaign “Eat, move” recommends, for example, consuming a cereal product, a dairy product, a whole or squeezed fruit, and a drink that is not too sweet.Breakfast is a very important part of your diet. After a good night's sleep, your body needs energy to start a long day.“, the experts specify.
The Many Benefits of Breakfast
While the many nutritional benefits of breakfast are regularly highlighted by science, it is a completely different benefit that is now the subject of a major study. A team led by researchers from Anglia Ruskin University and the Universidad de Las Americas suggests a link between eating breakfast regularly and happiness. To reach these conclusions, the researchers relied on data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children 2017-2018 study, which included 155,451 children and adolescents aged 10 to 17 from 42 countries, including France.
The authors of the study asked participants how often they ate breakfast (defined as a substantial meal that was more than just a glass of milk or juice) and then measured their life satisfaction using a subjective rating scale ranging from 0 (poor quality of life) to 10 (excellent quality of life). The research, published in the BMC Nutrition Journal, found that children and adolescents who ate breakfast every day had higher satisfaction scores, and those who never ate breakfast had lower satisfaction scores.
NO to diets, YES to WW!
An essential meal to be happy?
“Our large study found a consistent association between breakfast frequency and life satisfaction, which may be explained by several reasons. Previous studies have shown that adolescents who skipped breakfast were in a poor mood and had higher rates of anxiety, stress, and depression.“, comments Lee Smith, professor at Anglia Ruskin University, in a press release.
The study does, however, highlight disparities across countries. For example, children in Portugal who ate breakfast daily had the highest levels of life satisfaction. But children and adolescents in England who ate breakfast daily had the fifth lowest satisfaction score, behind Romania, Hungary, Germany and Austria. This finding shows that other factors, particularly socio-economic factors, may influence these conclusions.
“The results showed some inconsistencies across countries, which may be influenced by different cultures, lifestyles and socio-economic factors. Despite this, our results show that in all countries examined, life satisfaction is overall higher among people who eat breakfast every day than among those who never eat it.” concludes Lee Smith.