Too busy for breakfast?

Breakfast is a must to help me care for my disabled son, Elijah

What did you have for breakfast this morning?

You’re not alone if you skipped it. After all, life is hectic. Perhaps you feel like you don’t have time for breakfast or you just don’t fancy eating first thing in the morning.

What did you have for breakfastLooking at my own life, I’m a warrior mother, my son Elijah’s Care Package Manager; I run Elijah’s Hope and organise events such as Elijah’s First International Conference, so I’m always on the go. I’ll be the first to admit that there have been many times when self-care – even just eating breakfast – has fallen to the bottom of my to-do list.

But I’ve realised that this really isn’t OK. How can I be there for Elijah or for the Elijah’s Hope community if I don’t look after myself?

These days, I’m passionate about eating well to support my health and keep my body as strong and fit as possible. Elijah has a ketogenic diet to help minimise the number of seizures he experiences, and this has also underpinned my interest in food for good health.

Many of you know that I’m a Herbalife member; the company is currently focusing on the benefits of eating breakfast through the ‘Ideal Breakfast’ initiative, which has sparked my interest and given me plenty of food for thought (pun intended). The more I learn, the more I’m realising how important breakfast is to our health and well-being.

There’s the famous quote by Adelle Davis, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper” that best seems to sum up the approach we should all be taking to our daily meals.

But how many of us really follow this advice? What did you have for breakfast?

Up and down the country, weekday mornings are a fraught time in UK households. Adults head out for the morning commute, parents and children frantically juggle the school run, carers arrive, shifts change… it’s so easy to skip breakfast.

In 2015, oat producers, Flahavan’s, surveyed 2,000 adults about their breakfast habits. In some regions, up to 50% of adults admitted that they can’t or don’t make time for breakfast (an increase from 20% of adults in 2012).

In a survey of 5,000 adults, BBC’s Good Food magazine found that 42% of people aged 18 to 24 regularly forget to have breakfast, the meal that many dub the ‘most important meal of the day’.

Herbalife’s own figures show 48% of people skip breakfast, while 47% of those who do have breakfast opt for something sugar-based.