Your mother always told you that breakfast was the most important meal of the day. Believe it or not, research shows that she was right! Breakfast means "breaking the fast," or refueling your body after going without food all night. Food is the fuel that keeps your body going, and refueling at breakfast helps you perform and feel better.

To replenish blood sugar: Because it’s been eight to 12 hours since your last meal or snack, your body and brain need more food to replenish their blood sugar, or glucose. Eating breakfast provides fuel after a night of fasting and improves your brain’s ability to function. Morning is the time of day when you have peak energy demands, yet you have the lowest energy reserves.

To energize the body: Eating breakfast energizes you, enables you to be more productive in the late morning, and helps you feel less tired throughout the day. It gives you more endurance and strength, muscle coordination, better concentration and memory, as well as better problem-solving ability.

To Perform Better at School and Work: Studies have shown that when children have breakfast, they are more alert, participate more fully in school activities, and they usually are on their best behavior. They have longer attention spans, score better on tests and improve their grades, are tardy or absent less often, and make fewer visits to the school nurse. They also are not as easily distracted and are less fidgety, irritable or tired. (This applies to adults in the work place, too!)

To achieve healthy weight: Eating breakfast provides fuel to jump start your metabolism after fasting all night. This is one of the reasons that eating a nutritious breakfast when you wake up is an effective way to control your weight.

Another key to weight control is to establish a regular eating pattern, which typically means eating every three or four hours throughout the day. To decrease snacking and overeating, start your day with a nutritious breakfast, and have set meal times. Breakfast eaters seem to need fewer snacks and consume less fat all day.

To get adequate nutrition: Breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day, yet hectic schedules make it hard to choose nutritious foods. Breakfast skippers may not get the missed nutrients at other meals and snacks during the day. On the other hand, the eating patterns of people who eat ready-to-eat cereals for breakfast usually include more vitamins and minerals and less total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and calories.

To reduce risk for heart disease: Breakfast helps provide adequate nutrition that decreases the risk of developing chronic diseases, including heart disease. In general, breakfast eaters tend to eat less fat during the day, while breakfast skippers tend to have a higher blood cholesterol level, which puts them at risk for heart disease.

To get enough fiber: Without breakfast, it is hard to get adequate fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Look for a cereal with at least 5 grams of fiber per serving. A high-fiber, whole-grain cereal topped with fruit and served with milk is a better choice than a high-fat, high-sugar pastry or a biscuit made with white (processed) flour.

Fiber-rich breakfast food choices include items such as: bran cereal; whole-bran muffins; whole-wheat waffles; fiber-rich breakfast/cereal bars and cooked cereals (e.g. oatmeal, cream of wheat, grits, brown rice, and whole-grain couscous). To add flavor and nutrition to cooked cereals:

• top with fresh fruit
• blend in chopped fruit (fresh or dried), nuts or grated low-fat cheese
• use 100 percent fruit juice, low-fat or fat-free milk as the cooking liquid
• add dry milk to fortify with extra calcium
• jazz up with spices (e.g. cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice or cloves)
• ready-to-eat cereals, fresh fruit
• low-fat yogurt with fruit or granola
• raisin toast with peanut butter