Many nutritionists around the world consider breakfast to be the most important meal of the day. Research also shows us that people who regularly eat breakfast cereals tend to have better diets overall and make better food choices over the rest of the day. Skipping breakfast is not a good start, as most people usually don’t make up the missed nutrients later in the day. People who skip breakfast regularly may opt for less healthy snacks during the morning when energy levels drop.
 
In Australia and New Zealand, breakfast is generally based on breakfast cereals, fruit and bread. The average breakfast supplies up to a quarter of our daily fibre intake but a much lower proportion of fat intake. Children especially benefit when breakfast is eaten – breakfast can give children nearly half of their daily needs of many essential vitamins and minerals.

• People who ate breakfast had much better overall diets than people who skip breakfast
• People who ate breakfast regularly were more likely to meet the recommended dietary intake (RDI) for some nutrients than those who didn’t
• Regular breakfast eaters generally had a lower fat intake and a higher dietary fibre intake than breakfast skippers

• are usually high in carbohydrate
• are mostly low in fat
• can be a source of fibre
• are satisfying (especially the higher fibre cereals)
• can be sources of vitamins and minerals, including folate, B vitamins, vitamin C, iron, zinc, calcium and magnesium
• are convenient and therefore make it easy to obtain the benefits of breakfast
• encourage milk consumption, which provides calcium, protein and other nutrients