Healthy breakfast for kids to help them ace their tests: study

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A study conducted by researchers from Cardiff University revealed that eating breakfast can help kids do better in school. Results indicate that children who ate a healthy breakfast were more likely to do well in school than those who did not.

EurekAlert says the study involved 5,000 9- to 11-year-old kids from over a hundred primary schools in Wales. The students were asked to list what they ate and drank for the past 24 hours and at what times.

Researchers wanted to determine if there was a relationship between breakfast, the quality of foods consumed and the student's results in assessments taken a year and a half later. The results reveal that students who ate a healthy breakfast were twice as likely to do well in the exams.

According to the Guardian, the kids who had dairy, fruit, bread or cereal performed better in school. One out of five of the respondents ate crisps and sweets for breakfast but students who ate this type of meal did not show positive results on the exams.

Hannah Littlecott is the head of the group from the Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPher) at Cardiff University. According to Littlecott, "This study therefore offers the strongest evidence yet of links between aspects of what pupils eat and how well they do at school, which has significant implications for education and public health policy - pertinent in light of rumours that free school meals may be scrapped following George Osborne's November spending review."

The results of the study confirm what school teachers have observed. A teacher in a primary school in Ystalyfera told BBC that they know when kids have not had breakfast yet.

Pupils who have gone to school hungry often start flagging or fall asleep by 10 am. This study will help encourage schools to provide healthier meals in schools.

Professor Chris Bonnell is University College Institute of Education's Professor of Social and Social Policy. He complimented the group for their findings saying, "This study adds to a growing body of international evidence indicating that investing resources in effective interventions to improve young people's health is also likely to improve their educational performance."

"This further emphasises the need for schools to focus on the health and education of their pupils as complementary, rather than as competing priorities."

The Guardian says almost half of all schools in England already have a breakfast club while the Welsh government provides free breakfast for kids in primary school. There are also charities such as Magic Breakfast which deliver free breakfast meals to 22,000 kids on a daily basis.

The results of the study have been published in the journal Public Health Nutrition.

See what the rest of the world eats for breakfast by watching this video.