Eggs Are Best For Filling Up Kids at Breakfast: Study

• comments
• 
• 

A new study, published in the journal Eating Behaviors, suggests that breakfast with egg is more filling than cereal or oatmeal.

For parents out there who are confused what to prepare for their kids on breakfast, you do not need to wonder anymore. Give them eggs and you will keep your kids fuller for a longer time.

Yahoo News! reported that giving children a protein-riched breakfast like eggs make them feel fuller for hours over the grain-based breakfast such as cereal or oatmeal.

The researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing examined the best breakfast that will keep children fuller longer. They recruited 40 children with ages 8 to 10. They asked the children to eat one of the three 350-calorie breakfast that includes eggs, cereal and oatmeal. The experiment lasted for three weeks, CTV News reported.

The children consume all the breakfast and played with the researchers afterwards. During lunchtime, they were allowed to eat as much or as little as they wanted.

In the morning, they were asked with questions like, "How hungry are you?" and "How much food do you think you could eat right now?" The children's food consumption in the remainder of the day was recorded in a food journal by their parents.

After three weeks, the researchers examined the results and found out that those children who ate eggs for breakfast (scrambled eggs, whole-wheat toast, diced peaches, and one percent milk) ate less at lunchtime. Thereby, reducing their energy intake by 70 calories, roughly equal to a small chocolate-chip cookie and a percent of child's daily caloric needs.

The study notes that eating more than the caloric needs regularly, even by a small amount may result in weight gain that could lead to obesity.

The researchers note that, although protein-rich egg breakfast made the children feel fuller for longer and eat lesser at lunchtime, the protein-rich meal only affected what the children consumed at mid-day and not later on in the day.

Despite eating less at lunchtime, the children did not report less hunger, which surprised the researchers. "I'm not surprised that the egg breakfast was the most satiating breakfast," said Tanja Kral, lead author.

"What does surprise me is the fact that, according to the children's reports, eating the egg breakfast didn't make them feel fuller than cereal or oatmeal, even though they ate less for lunch," she added. "We expected that the reduced lunch intake would be accompanied by lower levels of hunger and greater fullness after eating the high protein breakfast, but this wasn't the case."