Intro and Methods

What does research say about eating breakfast

Allie Wendell

The University of Iowa

Introduction

How does eating breakfast effect your day?  There are many known benefits of eating breakfast that researches have been studying for a long time.  Eating breakfast is important for many reasons. When you sleep you are not eating for about seven to eight hours and since breakfast is the first meal of the day, it helps replenish all the nutrients and glucose you could have lost overnight. Breakfast also can help keep you energized for most of the day, so you are focused and ready for whatever tasks you need to complete.  Not eating breakfast can have some effects on your daily activities.  If you do not eat breakfast, you could be too tired to get through all your tasks for the day or not focused enough for these tasks. Many people think that eating breakfast means eating things like pancakes, bacon, oatmeal, fruits, and potatoes. Even though that is the traditional breakfast, it can really be anything, “breakfast could be a Pop Tart, a Bowl of cereal, Piece of cold pizza, piece of fruit, or a full-blown traditional breakfast” (Phillips, G.).  Anything you eat for breakfast can be beneficial for your day to start off right.

Since this topic has been researched many times in the past a lot of information is already known on how eating breakfast is beneficial.  College students benefit from eating breakfast partially because their brains are still growing. Gregory Phillips did research on college students and how eating breakfast correlates with test grades. The results showed that “65.5 percent self identified they had eaten some type of breakfast. Of those that had eaten breakfast, 72.7 received a “C” or better on the test.” “During the course of the study 188 students made an “A” on the second exam, this includes 17.7% of the students who had eaten breakfast and 9.7% of those who had not eaten breakfast” (Phillips, G.).  The students were asked to check a box indicating if they ate breakfast or not, but they were not asked to write down what they ate for breakfast. After Phillips tallied the votes the data showed that 825 students ate breakfast and 434 students did not.  Through Philips research he discovered that the students that did eat breakfast did significantly better than the students who did not eat breakfast. You can see in this chart below the difference in grades between students who ate breakfast and students who did not.

(Phillips, G.). 

This chart further shows the grade difference between students.  Most student who ate breakfast received around a B and students who did not eat breakfast received around a C or E. There is also research done by the USDA Food and Nutrition services.  The USDA Food and Nutrition services said that “research shows that students who eat breakfast have increased standardized achievement scores, improved attendance and reduced tardiness. Other research shows that students who eat breakfast have improved academic, behavioral, and emotional functioning.” The USDA research implies that students who eat breakfast will overall benefit in their school work.  Not only does eating breakfast help your studies, but it also will also benefit a student emotionally.  Lindsey Boyers research also shows similar effects as the USDA’s research.  It shows that “Students who eat a healthy breakfast tend to have better concentration than students who skip breakfast altogether” (Boyers, L). This means that students who are eating better are more likely to do well in school since their concentration is better and they will have an easier time paying attention in class.  Another study that has been shows the percentage of people more likely to skip breakfast. “The study reported men aging from 18 to 34 are 28 percent more likely to skip breakfast, and females of the same age were 18 percent more likely to skip their morning meal” (Wright, L.). This study shows that men are more likely to skip break breakfast that women are. 

            What is not known about this study right now is the amount of students from The University of Iowa who do not eat breakfast. It is also unknown if The University of Iowa students feel better or accomplish more academically if the eat breakfast. The current research that had been done on eating breakfast and the benefits it has will help fill the gap of knowledge of how eating breakfast effects The University of Iowa students. Another way that will help fill the gap is by creating a survey for The University of Iowa students to take anonymously.

Methods

Participants

            The participants for this study were 40 University of Iowa students.  The students age ranges from 19-21 and both male and female. This helped the study since there were no bias in age or gender. The students who took this survey all had different ways to eat, some had meal plans and some had to cook their own breakfast.

Procedure

            The survey asked six questions all relating to if the eat breakfast, how they feel after they eat breakfast, and if it effects their school work.  The students were also asked what their GPA is to see if it had an effect on whether or not they eat breakfast. For four of the students were allowed to choose from the options strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree. The other two questions the students had to select their GPA range and select the number of times the eat breakfast a week.

Data Analysis

            The results from the survey were put into percentages. Then pie charts were made from those percentages to show the difference between what students answered. The pie charts helped show the differences of eating breakfast or not eating breakfast and how it affected the students’ academics.