When I was young, there was a real emphasis on “have you eaten breakfast” – as I rushed out of the house, so I didn’t miss the school bus… and by that I mean, ‘moved unhelpfully slow’ so I did miss the school bus, and my mum would be forced to take a detour on the way into work to drop me off. Kids are cruel, aren’t they?

That question – “have you eaten breakfast” - was drilled into us as kids. Not because it was catchy, but because our parents genuinely believed it mattered. Mornings were a regime – get everyone up and ready on time, packed off with a lunch box and games kit… and of course, the race to open the silver top milk first to get the cream on your Weetabix. I grew up in a farming village.

But somewhere along the line — usually sometime in our late teens or early twenties — that habit slips. Mornings become about just getting out the door, and breakfast becomes optional. We develop this habit of ‘coffee first’. Many wake up glued to their phones, and the morning emphasis becomes checking social media, and what went on in the world whilst we were sleeping. Now and again, there’s a grab and go muffin, or a piece of fruit mid-morning.

For the record, I don’t think breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I believe all meals are equally important. And I don’t think you have to eat breakfast. But I do see patterns of dietary and overall health improvement in clients who switch from breakfast skippers to breakfast eaters.

The Role of Breakfast in Health

The research into breakfast eating and health outcomes is mixed but interesting:

Many observational studies find that people who regularly eat breakfast tend to have lower body mass index (BMI) and are less likely to be overweight or obese compared with habitual breakfast skippers (Kostarellou et al., 2025).

Breakfast eaters also tend to have higher nutrient intakes — more fibre, vitamins, and minerals (Coulthard et al., 2017) — because breakfast provides a great opportunity to get key foods like fruit, whole grains, and dairy into the diet.

Skipping breakfast is generally associated with greater daytime snacking and a lower overall quality diet (Leidy et al., 2013, Gwin et al., 2018).

It’s not about body weight; we can’t say that eating breakfast will cause weight loss or have metabolic benefits – ultimately, body weight outcomes will always depend on your total daily intake rather than intake at one specific meal. But it is about taking opportunities to eat inclusively, to prevent dietary inadequacy and manage appetite and energy throughout the day.

Why we used to treat breakfast like a rule.

In childhood, eating breakfast is supportive of our growing brains and bodies:

Breakfast replenishes glucose after an overnight fast, which the brain relies on for focus and memory (Lundqvist et al., 2019). There is correlation between regular breakfast eating in children and school performance, mood, and attention. There’s also evidence that breakfast eaters are more physically active and make healthier food choices throughout the day (Rampersaud et al., 2005).

The “have you eaten breakfast” is actually rooted in behavioural and child developmental logic.

So, what happened?

Well, I guess we just got older and busier.

And somehow forgot to prioritise ourselves.

As adults our mornings generally feel busier – getting to work on-time, commuting, fitting in a workout, preparing for a deadline. And we don’t want to sacrifice sleep because we have the fear that we’ll knock years off our lives. Breakfast often gets deprioritised – maybe we don’t have time to think about the hunger we are feeling, and this becomes a new learnt behaviour, so we believe we don’t need breakfast.

We reach for coffee, that’ll do!

Here’s the catch - coffee might stimulate the central nervous system and give you the alertness you desperately need, but it doesn’t provide actual energy. You’re borrowing focus — not giving your brain and muscles the glucose and nutrients they need.

Contrast that with breakfast which does give your brain and muscles what they need. It does replenish blood sugar after your overnight fast, which does help to stabilise your energy levels going into the day. I’m also a big believer in “one health behaviour leads to another” – eating a balanced breakfast can support healthier choices later in the day.

You might still choose to skip breakfast…

A lot of people skip breakfast because they don’t feel hungry in the morning, or they’re trying a trend like intermittent fasting. For some, waiting until later to eat works just fine — especially if overall diet quality is good and energy levels are managed across the day.

But I do question why you don’t feel hungry – sit with this for a moment. What do you feel? My experience with clients is some (not all), believe they don’t feel hungry, but when we talk through it, we often find that they are actually ignoring their hunger signalling and focussing on their tick-box morning routine. Their tummy might not be grumbling but their brain is certainly not as sharp as it could be.

And maybe you don’t feel hungry at 7am, but you do by 9am. By this time, maybe you can’t eat because you’re straight into meetings. Just because you don’t feel hungry, doesn’t prevent you from pre-empting hunger before your next opportunity to eat, and therefore choosing to bridge the gap with something light and balanced. If this prevents that dash to the biscuit tin at elevenses, is it not worth it?

If you are skipping breakfast, but also managing your body weight just fine, and you are eating enough of everything you need in the day – protein, fibre, dairy, micronutrients – then stick to what works for you. If not, maybe eating breakfast could be the one thing it would be worth changing.

If you are a parent, what do you tell your children?

Isn’t it ironic that we make sure children eat breakfast every day?

Why do you do this? Why is it so important for them but not for you?

The statement “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” oversimplifies a complex picture, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t prioritise it.

Ps. If you need support, please reach out!