After a long night of studying followed by an early morning wake-up call and rush to the bus stop, teenagers can often struggle to fit a healthy breakfast into their routine. Though breakfast is important for all family members, it’s particularly critical for teenagers who need lots of energy throughout the day to remain alert, support their busy growth and keep their head off their desk. With as many as a third of teenagers skipping breakfast, according to a 2008 U.S. News & World Report article, health and wellness problems are on the rise. There are a number of effects skipping breakfast have on teenagers.
1. Weight and Obesity: You may think that skipping breakfast will make you lose weight. On the contrary, you add fat when you skip breakfast. How counter-intuitive! Study shows that when teenagers skip breakfast, they deprive themselves of nutrients and energy needed to function optimally for the day. They eat snacks in order to fill the gap. Snacks give fast energy boost and fill you in no time but at the same time, you accumulate fat because of their high fat and sodium content. Eating breakfast reduces the likelihood of snacking between meals.
2. Nutrients Deficiency: Breakfast delivers much-needed nutrients to your body after you haven’t consumed anything in several hours of sleep, and teens who skip breakfast are missing the nutrient boat in a big way. Teens who skip breakfast are more likely to be calcium and iron deficient. You become tired and less focused when your body lack nutrients. This begins to tell on your grade.
3. Physical Side Effects: Not eating breakfast increases your risk of hypoglycemia or low-blood sugar. This condition can bring on physical symptoms such as shakiness, dizziness, weakness, headaches, tingling and a rapid heart rate, according to the National Institutes of Health.
The situation is not a helpless one. You can do something about it. Review your early morning routine and fit a breakfast into it, develope a weekly breakfast menu which may have options such as fruits, sit-down meals or grab-and-go meals. Just ensure you eat something healthy and light as breakfast. The health implications of skipping breakfast can be avoided by just taking 5 – 10 mins to have a meal in the morning.
Related Article: Eating A Big Breakfast Fights Obesity and DiseaseStudy Reaveals
