Breakfast Consumption versus Breakfast Skipping: The Effect on Nutrient Intake, Weight, and Cognition

: Breakfast has long been promoted as the most important meal of the day. However, the lack of standard definitions of breakfast, breakfast consumers, and breakfast skippers, and the lack of a description of how "important" the meal is, especially compared with other meals, has hampered the ability to confirm this long-held belief. This review discusses potential definitions of breakfast and breakfast skippers, and how these definitions can affect how researchers, nutrition educators, and policy makers interpret data and make recommendations. Overall, breakfast, especially meals including ready-to-eat cereal, contributes to overall nutrient intake and diet quality. However, the association of breakfast consumption and weight parameters or cognition in children is controversial. Finally, challenges, opportunities, and research gaps with breakfast studies are discussed. The question of whether breakfast is the most important meal of the day remains unanswered.