Are your mornings plain madness? By the time you’ve polished your pearly whites and knocked your golden locks into some semblance of order you’re running late … again!

The last thing on your mind on the way out the door is breakfast. Who’s got time and you’re not hungry anyway, so what does it matter? Well, we want to find out the answer to the morning’s biggest question: is breakfast the most important meal of the day?

The test

For Sydneysiders Peter Buckingham and his wife Marianne, every morning is rush hour! First, there’s baby Bella to get ready, then it’s shower and dress for work, followed by the usual mad dash to get out the door in time. So where does breakfast fit into the morning mayhem?

“Breakfast actually doesn’t fit into this. I just haven’t got time,” says Peter.

“If I’ve had a coffee that’s the very most I would have had time for,” says Marianne.

It wasn’t so long ago we were all sitting down to a decent brekkie with cereal, eggs and toast. They were the days when you’d never go to work on an empty stomach. Not any more, we just don’t have time.

And we’re paying the price, says the University of Miami’s Lisa Dorfman, who is a sports nutritionist.

“Breakfast is critical. If there was any meal of the day in terms of weight management, in terms of energy levels, in terms of mood, breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” she says.

Well, that’s the mantra. But our reporter Leila McKinnon is going to find out for herself. Leila: “I’m not a huge breakfast eater at the best of times. But I’m going to do without breakfast entirely and see how it affects my weight, my ability to concentrate and my mood.”

She’s got three days.

Now you’d expect no breakfast means less food, which equals weight loss, right? Well, we’ll see if that dream will come true.

Meanwhile in Sydney, Marianne and Pete are going to do the exact opposite. For two weeks they’ve agreed to have a proper brekkie every morning. Will they gain weight or something else? And just to keep them on the straight and narrow, our nutritionist has come up with a really healthy breakfast menu for the next two weeks — wholegrains, fruit and vegies with fibre and nothing that contains too much sugar or processed food.

Day one
Pete Buckingham and his wife Marianne are on the first day of their brand new breakfast regime.

Meanwhile in Florida, Leila’s doing the opposite. She’s skipping breakfast for three days. But by midmorning first day, she’s flagging.

“Everywhere I look people are feeding their faces! This is cruel! I am starving. It’s only been a couple of hours since breakfast time but I’m having trouble concentrating. All that I can think about is food,” says Leila.

A few years back, not enough brekkie was also a problem at the Sarah Redfern Primary School in the Sydney suburb of Minto.

“Teachers have been noticing that children in classrooms were losing concentration and we discovered that there were quite a few children coming to school without eating breakfast,” says school principal Cheryl McBride.

So the community got together and came up with a clever solution. They put on a free breakfast every day, before school. There’s a choice of toast, cereal or fruit. It’s made a dramatic improvement in the classroom.

Cheryl: “We’ve noticed quite a considerable difference with a number of children who are now able to function effectively right through until 11 o’clock time. So yeah, wonderful.”

And the scientists agree. There’s lots of research now showing that breakfast really is a brain booster in all sorts of ways.

“Kids who do eat breakfast have better cognitive function. Meaning that when they look at their schoolwork or a test or answer a question from the teacher, that they actually perform better, answer questions more correctly, are more attentive in class and have less behaviour problems,” says nutritionist Lisa Dorfman.

Day two
It’s the second day of Leila’s no breakfast routine and she finds herself aimlessly walking the streets thinking about food! By late morning, lunch can’t come quickly enough

Leila: “Well I couldn’t hold out any longer. Skipping breakfast is a lot harder than I thought. I don’t know how I’m going to do it for three days in a row … all of a sudden those big hearty bacon and egg breakfasts have becoming strangely attractive. But the sad thing is, while they look filling, all those rashers dripping with fat aren’t very healthy!”

“Bacon and sausage, butter on your toast would kick your fat content so high that it would not be beneficial to weight loss or energy levels,” says Lisa.

Right now, Leila couldn’t care less about weight loss or energy levels, she’s cranky and desperately seeking a sugar hit so she breaks the rules and buys something to eat.

“Okay you’ve caught me. It’s day three of my no-breakfast diet and there won’t be a day four. I’m irritable and I’m tired and I’ve got less energy. Worst of all is I’m craving food, and not just any food — junk food,” she says.

Worse still, when Leila checks back in with Lisa Dorfman she hadn’t lost an ounce. “I am not surprised that you didn’t lose weight. First of all breakfast gives you energy, so if you don’t have energy to sustain you during the day or to energise you for other activities, you’re going to burn less calories,” Lisa says.

What about the Buckinghams?

They’ve been tucking into nourishing breakfasts every morning for two weeks.

Marianne: “I’ve just incorporated it with Bella’s breakfast. We actually eat out of the same bowl.”

And it’s working!

Peter: “Prior to eating breakfast, my energy levels were a lot down. I find that, now, I feel a lot more energetic, a lot more alive.”

A second weigh-in showed that, like Leila, Pete and Marianne hadn’t changed weight. Maybe that’ll come with time, because this couple plans to stick with breakfast long-term.

So a good breakfast every day helps to give you energy, aids concentration and helps to maintain your weight. So it seems, after all, breakfast could be the most important meal of the day.

Facts

Some people swear by a bowl of porridge for breakfast. But is the gruel Goldilocks wanted so much really good for you? Yep, Goldilocks got it right first time. Porridge is great because it’s made from oatmeal, which is chock full of nutrients. Not only that, but because it digests slowly, it should keep you feeling full right up until lunchtime.

Via health.ninemsn.com.au