'Unhealthy' breakfast foods has same effect on kids as skipping breakfast - study

Lester Kiewit speaks to Professor Andrew Martin, Professor of Educational Psychology in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales, about a study they did looking at the effects a poor breakfast diet has on learners.

Breakfast, the most important meal of the day or is it?

A new study suggests that breakfast may not be important at all for kids... if they're eating 'unhealthy' foods.

What's the study about?

Educational Psychologists looked at the impact breakfast has on learners’ motivation to learn and their academic achievement at school.

The study also looked at whether it matters if kids have a healthy breakfast, an unhealthy breakfast or no breakfast at all.

The study was conducted in Australia and used the country's national health and medical research guidelines to establish what 'healthy' and 'unhealthy' breakfast items were. Martin notes that Australia's guidelines are similar across the world. 

As part of an Australian Research Council project, researchers studied 648 Australian high school learners from five private schools in New South Wales. Two of these schools were single-sex boys schools, two were single-sex girls schools and one was co-educational.

Learners were 7 to 9 years old, with an average age of 13–14 years.

Overall, the study suggests that "eating breakfast means nothing if kids aren't starting the day with foods which are healthy".

What are 'healthy' breakfast foods?

Martin says healthy breakfast foods can be classified as fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, seeds and nuts while unhealthy breakfast foods include sugary cereals, cakes, pastries and drinks which are high in sugar.

"The type of fuel you go into the day with matters. So, if you're going in with food that burns quickly like sugar then by the time you get to school and hitting your first lesson, you're possibly approaching a cliff if you have not already fallen off it."

- Andrew Martin, Professor - Educational Psychology

Martin says, the study also found that learners who ate a healthy breakfast on the morning of the study demonstrated higher levels of motivation and achievement.

In comparison, learners who ate no breakfast had lower levels of motivation and achievement.

Martin argues that it's not about calories or putting just anything into bellies to feel full but it's about filling a belly with food that's nutritional and releasing energy throughout the day so learners can learn until lunch time and concentrate.

"Those learners having an unhealthy breakfast seem to have the same low motivation as those who skipped breakfast altogether whereas healthy breakfast eating learners were going in with fuel to sustain them throughout the day."

- Andrew Martin, Professor - Educational Psychology

Unhealthy breakfast vs no breakfast at all...

Martin says the study also depicts that learners who had no breakfast had similarly low levels of motivation and achievement to those who had an unhealthy breakfast.

This suggests eating an unhealthy breakfast could be as disruptive to motivation and achievement as not eating breakfast at all.

Overall, the study recommends:

• The importance of learners eating a healthy breakfast each and every morning.
• Schools can help ensure this by offering a healthy breakfast to learners.
• Giving kids a healthy morning snack.
• Teaching learners about the importance of a healthy breakfast (for example, as part of health and wellbeing syllabus units).
• Giving parents information about the importance of healthy breakfasts, meal ideas and strategies.

If these barriers are effectively managed, the researchers' study shows a small and relatively achievable change in a learner's life – a healthy breakfast each day – can have a positive academic impact.

Read the full study's findings on The Conversation. 

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the full conversation.