Breakfast is celebrated by many as the most important meal of the day.
To keep school-going children happy, it very well might be. According to a study of nearly 150,000 children and adolescents across the world, those who eat breakfast report greater life satisfaction than those who skip the meal.
Participants were between the ages of 10 and 17, and hailed from 42 different nations, including Russia, England, Scotland, Canada, and many other countries in Europe and the Middle East.
In a questionnaire, individuals were asked, "How often do you typically have breakfast (more than a glass of milk or fruit juice)?" They answered for both school days and weekends.
The group was then asked to rate their perceived quality of life on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the 'highest conceivable quality of life' and 0 representing the 'worst imaginable quality of life'.
When the anonymous results were plotted on a graph, where one axis was breakfast frequency and the other was perceived quality of life, a nearly straight line emerged between the data points.
The result was clear after the international team of researchers had controlled for possible contributing factors, like sex, age, socioeconomic status, fruit and vegetable consumption, sweet consumption, frequency of family meals, physical activity, and body mass index.
At the top of the line were participants who said they had breakfast each and every day, no matter if it was a school day or weekend. This group had the highest life satisfaction score with a mean of 6.3 to 6.6 points.
At the bottom of the line were those who never had breakfast. They showed the lowest mean life satisfaction scores with a mean of 5.5 to 5.8 points.
"Results did show some inconsistencies between countries, which might be influenced by diverse cultures and lifestyles and socio-economic factors," notes senior author Lee Smith, an epidemiologist from Anglia Ruskin University in the United Kingdom.
"However despite this, our results show that in all the countries examined, reported life satisfaction is overall higher in those who eat breakfast daily than in those who never eat breakfast."
The findings align with a study in Australia of more than 70,000 children, which found that skipping breakfast was linked to low life satisfaction in both boys and girls aged 8 to 18.
Whether or not that association is derived from missing breakfast specifically, or forgoing all meals, was undetermined. But more specific research has shown that a nutritious breakfast is associated with numerous benefits to mental and physical health, including improved memory recall, cognitive function, and physical activity.
It's important to note that the outcomes are based on association studies, meaning breakfast consumption itself may not necessarily be the cause. It may even be that whatever is causing the breakfast skipping is also behind the other negative consequences.
However, one telling study from Korea found that as a child's frequency of breakfast consumption increases, their 'somatic' symptoms, like breathing rate, tiredness, sleep-problems, nausea, appetite, headache, and fever, also decrease.
And those perks may not just apply to young people.
In 2022, a meta analysis found that skipping breakfast was positively linked to an increased risk of depression, stress, and psychological distress in all age groups, but especially for those under 18.
"The scientific literature has consistently highlighted the relationship between skipping breakfast and negative moods in adolescents," write lead author José Francisco López-Gil and his colleagues.
"Despite this, the association of breakfast frequency with adolescents' perceived life satisfaction has been relatively underexplored."
The result is that no one really knows why breakfast is so closely tied to the mood of adolescents.
"Consuming an adequate breakfast provides the necessary energy and nutrients for optimal cognitive functioning and enhances concentration, memory, and learning ability," explains Smith.
"Another reason could be the mix of vitamins and minerals that we get from our daily breakfast, and not regularly getting those may result in lower life satisfaction over time. A regular routine that includes breakfast can also bring structure and a positive tone to the rest of the day."
This is one meal young people won't want to skip.
The study was published in BMC Nutrition Journal.