THE VAST majority of Irish children are eating breakfast and the problem of skipping the meal does not begin until the teenage years, new information gleaned from the last major survey into the dietary habits of children indicates.
Prof Albert Flynn of the Irish Universities Nutrition Alliance had a team of researchers mine the seven-year-old Irish National Children’s Food Survey for data on the breakfast habits of children and will present the findings at the launch of the first “Back to Breakfast Week” this morning.
Describing the results of the research as surprising, Prof Flynn said it was a clear signal that the problems of the “overall daily diet are not coming from breakfast, in fact breakfast is a protection against what is happening elsewhere in the day”.
Repeated surveys have shown childhood obesity is becoming a significant problem in Ireland,with 13 per cent of girls and 9 per cent of boys classified as obese.
“The statistics on childhood obesity are worrying,” Prof Flynn said. “We now know that most kids are eating breakfast every day and we need to make sure that this good habit is extending into the teenage years, so that teenagers are also getting a good start to the day,” he said,
A separate survey carried out last year found 56 per cent of teenagers regularly skipped breakfast. “The benefits kids are getting from eating breakfast are immense as almost 20 per cent of kids’ energy intake is coming from breakfast. It is high-quality energy intake and reduces the need for snacking on empty calories,” he said.
Back to Breakfast Week is an initiative of the Irish Breakfast Cereal Association. The chairman of the industry lobby group John Flahavan will tell the launch today that convincing people to stick with the breakfast habits acquired as young children was vital to protect people “from a life sentence of obesity”.
He said the research confirmed that breakfast was “making a really positive contribution to the diet in the nutrient contribution it is making, relative to other meals. If we could reduce snacking outside of meal occasions and reduce the consumption of empty calories we would be truly helping our children to have a better quality of life”.
The breakfast cereal industry in Ireland has come in for much criticism for targeting young children with foods that are high in sugar and low in nutritional value but, according to Prof Flynn, the most popular breakfast choice of Irish children – cereal and milk – is low fat and nutritionally sound, contributing a major portion of daily calcium, iron and B-vitamins. He said the sugars with main meals were “not a concern for health”.
