Some schools are providing breakfast to their students before the start of the school day. Anses has looked into the impact of this measure on children’s health.
- 6% of children do not eat breakfast before going to school.
- Some schools have therefore taken the habit of distributing breakfast to their students in the morning.
- ANSES has assessed the impact of this measure on children’s health.
Many children do not eat or eat very little in the morning. In order to avoid their pupils working on an “empty stomach”, several primary schools distribute breakfast before the start of classes. Contacted by the Directorate General of Health, Anses carried out work to assess the effects of this measure on the health of young people.
School breakfast could promote obesity
Anses recalls that the first part of his works dedicated to the nutrition of the French carried out in 2021, had highlighted that only 6% of children do not eat breakfast during the week. And, setting up the distribution of a meal on their arrival at school to encourage them to eat does not seem like a good idea, according to the second part of the studypublished on May 29, 2024.
According to the analysis of the data collected by the researchers, eating an additional breakfast increases energy intake, and could thus “increase the risk of overweight and obesity or unbalance the diet, especially if the foods are high in sugar.” The organization also notes that there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that skipping meals in the morning impairs children’s cognitive performance or increases their risk of weight problems.
Another clarification from the report: in children under 10 years old, calories are absorbed at a rate of 20.4% of total energy intake (TEI) at breakfast, 28.0% at lunch, 16.9% at snack time, 26.6% at dinner, 1% as an aperitif and finally 7.1% on other occasions.
Nutrition: Why don’t some children eat breakfast?
The ANSES scientists did not only look at the impact of distributing breakfasts in schools, they also wondered why children did not eat at home before leaving their homes. The team suggests that their lack of appetite in the morning could be due to “eating too much or too late a dinner, or sleeping too little.”
In view of its results, the Agency considers in its communicated that “The absence of breakfast should not lead to systematic compensation. It should above all alert people to the child’s hygiene or general living conditions, which can be the cause of health problems, particularly obesity.”
