How important is breakfast for good health? Answers from Sandrine Zerbo, Nutritionist Dietician

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Extract from the article: There are two kinds of people in life: breakfast pros who wouldn't miss their morning ritual for the world, and those who skip this meal altogether. Yet breakfast is essential for a good start to the day.

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There are two kinds of people in life: breakfast pros who wouldn't miss their morning ritual for the world, and those who skip this meal altogether. Yet breakfast is essential for a good start to the day.

When should you eat breakfast?

After a fast of 8 or 9 hours, which corresponds to the night, the body needs a meal containing sufficient carbohydrates, lipids and proteins. So breakfast should be eaten between 0.06am and 08.00am. During my consultations, I'm often confronted with patients who don't eat breakfast, either because they don't have the appetite, or because they don't have the time, or because they don't understand its many benefits, or because they don't know what it's made of.

What are the benefits of breakfast?

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. This is no myth.It alone accounts for 25% of our daily energy intake. This means that if you don't eat breakfast, you're already leaving with an energy deficit of a quarter of your needs.  It provides the body with the energy and nutrients it needs to start the day.It rehydrates you after a night of fasting. It fuels the muscles to start the day, climb the stairs to get to the office and walk around the company. It helps maintain good physical and intellectual performance throughout the morning. It also avoids morning nibbles, which are often compulsive and therefore unbalanced. It also helps you keep your weight under control.

What are the consequences of skipping breakfast?

When you don't eat breakfast, your body is forced to draw on its reserves. What's more, it's not uncommon to experience certain unpleasant effects, such as hypoglycaemic attacks, concentration problems, feelings of tiredness and malaise.

What should breakfast contain?The menu for a balanced breakfast.Here are the foods that are essential for a balanced breakfast: a dairy product (milk, yoghurt, fromage frais), a piece of fruit or fruit juice: they provide you with your vitamin C and sugar requirements, a cereal product (bread, cakes, croissants, rusks, millet, maize or rice porridge), a hot or warm drink (water, coffee, tea to rehydrate), proteins (eggs, fish, white meat such as chicken).

It is quite possible to include products containing fat and/or sugar, such as butter, which will help to meet some of your vitamin A requirements, spreads, honey or jam.But they should be eaten in reasonable proportions.

Tips on how to stop neglecting breakfast

If you can't eat in the morning, take a small snack of fruit, dairy products and a cereal (not too sweet) with you and eat it before 10am.Prepare the breakfast table the evening before.Vary your breakfast menu regularly.Get up a little earlier so that you have time to eat calmly and without stress.Start by drinking a glass of cool water to whet your appetite.

Interview by Abel OZIH