Diet and behavior

This recent 2019 study provides a novel look into the importance of breakfast intake on cognitive development in primary and middle school students. Yao and co. (2019) used the academic quality monitoring data of basic education students in Jiangsu Province to measure the academic performance of the students. Skipping breakfast was found to be common in students in primary, secondary and middle school. Many factors are involved in determining whether a student has breakfast or not. The analyses demonstrated positive associations between the frequency of breakfast intake and student achievement. Those students in primary school who had breakfast every day in a week scored 31.322 points higher in academic performance than those who did not. The trend continues into middle school; as a 31.355 points difference in performance was observed between the students who had breakfast each day of the week and those who did not, in favour of those who consistently ate breakfast. It is evident in these results, having breakfast every day has a significant effect on cognitive development of young school students in China.

Of the students of Qazvin University of Medical sciences in Iran, 541 academics took part in this study evaluating the association between well-being and breakfast consumption, and fruit and vegetable intake. The web-based questionnaires completed assessed the students’ happiness, breakfast, fruit and vegetable consumption, and socio-economic and demographic information. The results showed a statistically significant improvement in happiness of those science students who were eating breakfast, consuming a greater number of meals, and more fruits and vegetables. The people who reported the highest satisfaction scores were those who: ate breakfast each day; consumed more than 8 portions of fruits and vegetables daily; and had 3 meals as well as 1-2 snacks per day. The researchers concluded a higher happiness score can be associated with a healthier diet behavior pattern in science students in Iran.

As one of the first reports of its kind, Matsumoto et. al (2020) investigated whether there was a link between skipping breakfast and the intake of adequate amounts of nutrients in junior high school female students. A self-administered diet history questionnaire was completed by each student (total 516) to identify dietary habits, while a cut point method was used for the nutrient intake adequacy where each diet was assessed based on estimated requirement for 14 nutrients (as per dietary reference intakes for Japanese, 2015 version) and on dietary goal values for 5 nutrients. The study sample was split up into 2 groups based on breakfast consumption frequency: breakfast daily consumers; and breakfast skippers (0-6 days/week). It was found that breakfast consumers ate more vegetables, fruit, dairy products and more frequently consumed the adequate levels of calcium, iron, zinc, potassium, and vitamins A, B1, C, compared to breakfast skippers. The results from this study suggest that skipping breakfast was related to insufficient vitamin and mineral intake among Japanese junior high school students.

Since most adolescents eat at least one snack per day and snacking becomes very important in dietary counseling and public health strategies for obesity prevention, this study examined how snacking behaviors can be linked to diet and weight status among 2793 school pupils. The students underwent anthropometric measurements, in addition to completing food frequency questionnaires and surveys on snacking behaviors to analyse intake of energy-dense snack foods, total number of snacks consumed, frequency of eating snacks prepared away from home, and how often the adolescents snacked while watching television. The results showed an average intake of 2.2 energy dense snack servings per day, averaging 4.3 total number of snacks daily and 3.2 average occurrence of eating purchased snacks during one week. Two-thirds of the young subjects reported that while they watch television they occasionally, usually or always have a snack. These measures of snacking behaviors were directly associated (p<0.01) with higher energy, lower fruits/vegetables, and more frequent eating at fast food restaurants, but daily servings of energy dense foods were not found to be associated with daily servings of sugar-sweetened beverages. Snacking behaviors were inversely related to BMI z scores although a direct relation between BMI z scores and daily servings of energy dense snacks was found. From these findings, it can be suggested that snacking is a risk factor for poor dieting in US adolescents but unless energy dense food products are consumed, snacking may not consistently contribute to becoming overweight.

How do children make food choices? Using a think-aloud method to explore the role of internal and external factors on eating behaviour

Adherence to the Mediterranean diet among school children and adolescents living in Northern Italy and unhealthy food behaviors associated to overweight

Breakfast intake and factors associated with adherence to the Mediterranean Diet among Lebanese high school adolescents

Variation of adolescent snack food choices and preferences along a continuum of processing levels: the case of apples

Ultra-processed foods are not "real food" but really affect your health

Adolescents perceive a low added sugar adequate fiber diet to be more satiating and equally palatable compared to a high added sugar low fiber diet in a randomized-crossover design controlled feeding pilot trial

Minimally processed foods are more satiating and less hyperglycemic than ultra-processed foods: a preliminary study with 98 ready-to-eat foods

Eating behaviour of university students in Germany: dietary intake, barriers to healthy eating and changes in eating behaviour since the time of matriculation

Eating attitudes and barriers to healthy eating and physical activity among a sample of university students in Egypt

Changing trends in nutritional behavior among university students in Greece, between 2006 and 2016

Dietary intake, food addiction and nutrition knowledge in young people with mental illness

Multicontextual correlates of energy-dense, nutrient-poor snack food consumption by adolescents

Assessment of selected nutritional behaviours among college adolescents from Pomerania Province

Examining food intake and eating out of home patterns among university students

Food consumed by high school students during the school day

College students and eating habits: a study using an ecological model for healthy behavior

Identifying perceived barriers and enablers of healthy eating in college students in Hawai'i: a qualitative study using focus groups

A longitudinal intervention to improve young children's liking and consumption of new foods: findings from the Colorado LEAP study

How we eat what we eat: identifying meal routines and practices most strongly associated with healthy and unhealthy dietary factors among young adults

Food choice priorities change over time and predict dietary intake at the end of the first year of college among students in the U.S

Skipping breakfast and a meal at school: its correlates in adiposity context. Report from the ABC of Healthy Eating Study of Polish Teenagers

Is snack consumption associated with meal skipping in children and adolescents? The CASPIAN-IV Study

Association of fruit and vegetable intake with meal skipping in children and adolescents: The CASPIAN-V Study

Association of meal skipping with subjective health complaints in children and adolescents: The CASPIAN-V Study

Examining the correlates of meal skipping in Australian young adults

Hippocampal-dependent appetitive control is impaired by experimental exposure to a Western-style diet

Associations between habitual school-day breakfast consumption frequency and academic performance in British adolescents