A study on breakfast consumption patterns and its contribution to total energy and macronutrient intakes, in adolescent boys and girls (11 to 13 years) belonging to different socio-economic groups.

Breakfast is one of the main meals of the day that affects the physical and psychological state of a person and is also known to enhance the physical fitness and the cognitive ability of an individual (Pandey & Vora, 2015) . A study carried out in Spain compared breakfast consumption and skipping among the adolescents and concluded that eating breakfast has better contribution towards health than not consuming it (Ferrer-Cascales et al., 2018). Abnormal meal patterns in children and adolescents, end with obesity and overeating and is mostly related with skipping of breakfast (Keski Rahkonen et al., 2003, Niemeier et al., 2006).  Breakfast consumption pattern and the type of food groups included in breakfast varies from person to person. The variations maybe , due to one’s choices, time availability , one’s preferences, socio economic status, parental breakfast eating, family structure, number siblings, and working mothers (Levin and Kirby, 2012;) Several children attend school daily without having breakfast in both rural and urban areas. (Durgannavar & Vijayalakshmi, 2021). The breakfast preferences of the school children of different socio-economic status (SES) in twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, India, reported that the majority of children preferred traditional breakfast preparations like idly and dosa and most of the low socio-economic students tend to skip breakfast (Vijayapushpam et al.,2003). When these two studies were compared it was found that the most common reason for skipping breakfast among breakfast skippers was lack of time.The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 2014) found that with the increasing number of physical activities and by not skipping meals, especially the breakfast, there are less chances among the children of being obese or overweight (Keast et al., 2009) Moreover, regular breakfast consumption has been associated with overall dietary quality and nutritional profiles in adolescents  and they have shown to have improved cognitive performance in them.(Timlin et al., 2008).Of the total calories consumed in a day the breakfast should meet 25% of the total . A study on breakfast patterns in India, found that the proportion of adolescents skipping breakfast regularly was over 50% (Chitra and Reddy, 2006 ). Adolescents who skip breakfast daily are at higher risk of having varied meal pattern, snacking behavior and low levels of physical activity and are thus prone to obesity and overweight (Utter et al., 2007).

In view of the above, it was considered of interest to find out the breakfast consumption patterns and factors such as the socioeconomic status, sleep pattern, number of hours spent on virtual media, play hours, snacking patterns, food preferences and anthropometric measures, among Indian adolescent school children. This age group was selected since adolescence is an important and final growth phase with increased nutritional requirements, especially of protein, calcium, iron, folic acid as well as increased energy demand. Smith, 2009 in his study observed that the regular frequency of breakfast among children has several health benefits which includes better weight management, low levels of LDL cholesterol, low risk of metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease and better digestive functioning and low chances of respiratory illness.