September 16, 2021

September 16, 2021

3 Reasons Breakfast Is So Important For Academic Performance

Breakfast is often described as the most important meal of the day, and while this is true, many people may not fully understand why. During sleep, the body uses its remaining stores of energy to help run basic processes. When you wake up, those energy stores are depleted and there are no longer enough nutrients in the body to help provide both mental and physical energy. Because of this, the body needs to replenish those stores, and that typically happens during breakfast.

The type of breakfast a person eats is also crucial to helping restore the body with the nutrition it needs to get through the day. While a sugary or caffeine-filled breakfast may provide a temporary bump, it does not give the body the vitamins and minerals it needs to run properly and perform well throughout the day.

Breakfast is an important meal at any age, but for children, it is even more vital when it comes to their development and academic performance. But why is breakfast important for students, and what does it do for their academic performance throughout the day? 

How does breakfast affect academic performance?
When a child doesn’t perform well academically, even in their early years, it can set the tone for their learning all the way through to post-secondary education. Children gain confidence in school early on in their education, and if that confidence is lessened by poor academic performance, they can often end up disliking school because they fear they are not smart enough to handle it. The correlation is pretty simple: children who feel as though they can do better in school will do better in school. But what does this have to do with eating breakfast?

Countless studies have found a direct connection between eating a nutritious meal prior to school and a child’s ability to learn effectively, suggesting that a child’s academic performance is directly connected to their breakfast intake. One particular review of 22 studies that examined academic performance and breakfast intake found that the more often children ate nutritious breakfasts, the more positively they performed at school, with attention and memory being core cognitive abilities that were much sharper.  

The studies also found that children who skipped breakfast had lower average grades at the end of the school year and had more trouble paying attention in class than their full-stomached counterparts. Research also found that the younger the child is when they skip breakfast, the worse the connection to bad grades and poor attention.

How does breakfast help improve a student’s performance?
As mentioned above, the type of breakfast also plays a role in cognitive performance in school-aged children. This is because of the effect that a nutritious diet can have on cognitive development as a whole. Vitamins and nutrients are needed to help the brain develop, and brain development throughout early childhood is directly linked to cognitive performance.

One particular review looked at the differences between children who ate breakfast and those who did not, as well as the specific types of breakfast they consumed. In the breakfast-versus-no-breakfast category, the study found that memory and attention were the biggest benefactors of eating prior to attending classes. They also looked at the number of errors that were made during school lessons, and those who ate breakfast were found to make less errors than their hungry counterparts.

Although there are fewer studies comparing healthy versus unhealthy breakfast intake in terms of academic performance, a report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention correlated better academic performance with healthier meal choices. In the report, findings revolved around both skipping breakfast altogether and having lower levels of nutrition, stating that children who don’t eat breakfast as well as those who do not have adequate nutrition levels are both at risk of a reduced aptitude for academics.

Does eating breakfast have an effect on school performance?
Although there are limited studies surrounding academic performance and eating breakfast, some have found that there is a positive association between the two. For the most part, the studies have shown that a child’s behavior in school has an effect on how well they perform in their studies. For example, if a child isn’t focusing and causing disruptions in class, they could be at risk of performing inadequately or getting lower grades. In a review of child behavior and breakfast intake, research shows that there may be a direct correlation between the two as well.

The studies based on behavior and breakfast intake are not all consistent, but the consensus shows that a child’s ability to stay on-task within the classroom is directly affected by whether or not they had breakfast that morning. It has also been found that children who are undernourished behave more poorly than those who aren’t. Children from low socioeconomic status backgrounds were also found to behave poorly in class, which could be linked to lack of proper breakfast at home.

The research is clear. Academic performance and eating a nutritious breakfast go hand-in-hand. That is why it is vital to provide your children with the proper fuel they need to go about their day prior to heading to school. The course of their academic future may depend on whether or not they get breakfast before heading out, even in the earliest years of their academic careers.

Featured image by Providence Doucet on Unsplash