After years of research, studies have shown that mother was right. Will we ever hear the end of it? By morning, you have been fasting for about 12 hours, your energy levels are low, and the body needs fuel – thus break the fast. Also, by eating a healthy breakfast, you’ll be less likely to snack during the morning and more likely to end up eating a lot of high-sugar or high-fat foods, which are loaded with calories but light in nutrition. Mom knew you couldn’t concentrate at school on an empty stomach. Hmm, guess we should forgive her for that haircut she gave us in second grade that was forever memorialized in the year book.

If you eat nutritiously balanced meals, you'll not only feel better, you'll think better too. Dietary researchers are just beginning to understand how the foods we eat affect our brains. But it is clear that the nutrients in food can have a positive effect on our intellects by stimulating memory, preventing fatigue, and dealing with stress.

Skipping breakfast reduces your ability to concentrate and perform complex mental tasks in the morning. When blood sugars are low, your brain, which relies entirely on glucose as its fuel, can't function at its peak. Studies also show that breakfast eaters have healthier diets overall and less problems with weight. Eating breakfast also means you're less likely to fall prey to the mid-morning munchies of high-fat pastries or donuts!

Breakfast Makes You Smarter

Children who eat breakfast perform better on standardized achievement tests. They also have fewer behavior problems in school. Research shows that children who attend school hungry often have diminished attention spans and are unable to perform tasks as well as their nourished peers. On the other hand, school breakfast participation has been shown to improve standardized test scores, make kids more alert in class, and improve classroom behavior.

If it works for the kids, it will work for you.

Breakfast Makes You Nicer

First off, it will please your mother. Or at the very least give her one less thing to pick on. When mom is happy, isn’t the world a nicer place? Seriously, “eating breakfast of any kind prevents many of the adverse effects of fasting, such as irritability and fatigue”, according to Bonnie Spring, Ph.D., University of Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School.

You can avoid the highs and lows of mood and energy associated with fluctuating blood sugar levels by choosing foods that are digested slowly. These foods have a low Glycaemic Index and include wholegrain rye bread, oats and basmati rice. High GI foods, which are best avoided, include french baguettes, pastries and bagels.

According to the Food and Mood Project based in the UK, eating regular meals and snacks was found to be 'helpful' or very helpful' for improving emotional or mental health.

Oh yeah, and watch the coffee. Caffeine is a mild stimulant to the central nervous system. It is not addictive, though it can be habit forming. Moderation is the key to caffeine intake. When your caffeine intake is not moderate (2-3 cups), be prepared to experience an upset stomach, jittery nerves and poor sleep patterns.

Good Breakfast Choices

When you are ravenous by midmorning, ask yourself, "What did I have for breakfast?" Was there some protein and heart healthy fat included? These are the foods that are used more slowly by the body and satisfy longer. A breakfast high in complex carbohydrates (whole grains, fruit, and juice) will give you the mental and physical energy to keep going until lunchtime.

Avoid breakfast cereals that contain too much sugar, salt and fat. Also, stay away from refined carbs. These are made of flour, so that means foods like pastries, breads, and bagels. This is flour that has been stripped of its cellulose (fiber) and almost all of its nutritional value and is considered “empty calories.” These calories require vitamins and minerals to be metabolized, but supply none of those requirements. Thus they drain the body of stored nutrients.

Breakfast skippers also have a harder time fitting important nutrients into their diet. Many foods eaten at breakfast contain significant amounts of vitamins C and D, calcium, iron, and fiber.

Breakfast Won’t Cause Weight Gain

When we skip a meal, our bodies go into survival mode. This works for the caveman, who doesn’t know when he’ll see his next elk, but can be quiet frustrating to those trying to lose weight. The human body thinks a fast is a famine. So to save energy and preserve fat-stores, it starts to burn calories more slowly, resulting in a slower metabolism. Also, any weight loss from skipped meals tends to be more water/muscle loss rather than fat loss.

Our bodies store energy in two types of tissue: lean muscle and fat. Lean muscle is much more "active," burning calories at a significantly higher rate than fat does. According to studies by the American Council on Exercise, one pound of lean muscle can burn 35 to 50 calories a day, whereas a pound of fat burns only 2 to 3 calories a day!

Skipping meals often leads to overeating later in the day. Becoming over hungry often leads to a lack of control and distorted satiety signals (meaning it's hard to determine when you're full). This can result in taking in more calories than if one had an appropriate breakfast. As a matter of fact, it's easier to control one's weight by eating smaller meals and snacks more frequently.

Though skipping breakfast might seem like an easy way for dieters to cut calories, the majority of people who are successful at losing weight and keeping it off eat breakfast every day. In a study of nearly 3,000 people, mostly women, enrolled in the National

Weight Control Registry, an ongoing study of adults who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept the weight off for a year or more. The average participant in the new analysis had lost about 70 pounds.

• 2,313 participants (78%) had breakfast 7 days a week,

• 151 (5%) had breakfast 6 days a week

• 136 (5%) had breakfast 5 days a week.

• Only 114 (4%) said they never ate breakfast.

People who regularly skip breakfast are 4.5 times more likely to be overweight. According to a study released by Kellogg, participants who ate breakfast actually had a lower body mass index, so they are less obese than people who don't.

Listen to Your Mother, Already!