A worrying number of adults and children don’t eat any fruit or veg for breakfast, recent research from the British Nutrition Foundation has revealed.
The BNF’s Task Force report Cardiovascular Disease: Diet, Nutrition and Emerging Risk Factors found that34 percent of adults, a quarter of secondary school students, and one in ten primary school students didn’t eat anything before starting work or school on the day of the survey.
Of those who did have breakfast, only a quarter of adults (24 percent) and 18 percent of secondary school children reported including any fruit or vegetables.
Dr Lucy Chambers, a senior scientist at BNF commented: “Breakfast helps to get the day off to a good start by providing the energy and nutrients the body needs for good health and it’s also a great opportunity to make a start on your 5 A DAY.”
Eating breakfast and getting five portions of fruit and veg a day are two of the BNF’s five health challenges for its Healthy Eating Week (10-14 June 2019), alongside drinking plenty, getting active and, new for this year, sleeping well.
New research from the BNF revealed that 43 percent of adults slept less than the recommended minimum of seven hours the night before the survey.
Meanwhile, 32 percent of primary and 70 percent of secondary school children reported sleeping less than the recommended nine hours, despite emerging research linking poor sleep quality to less healthy food choices and an increased risk of obesity.
