Does skipping breakfast hurt intellectual performance?

We’ve all heard that little children do better in school when they’ve had a good breakfast.

Have there been any studies that show that this also applies to adults and their performance at mentally challenging jobs? Does it still apply if the person is genuinely not hungry, as opposed to skipping breakfast due to lack of time or to dieting?

I don’t know of any studies, but it makes sense. You’ve fasted all night (hence" break-fast"). Blood sugar levels are usually taken before your breakfast to get fasting levels. Since you’ve fasted for at least six hours (hopefully), your blood sugar levels are low. Your brain requires sugar for its activities. Sugar is the only chemical it can use for energy. It is unable to break down proteins or fats for its metabolic activity. Low blood sugar could mean low brain ability to perform tasks.

It has been said that breakfast is your most important meal, and if you looking to lose weight, it is imperative that you have a good breakfast (so that you don’t overeat later in the day).

The brain runs almost exclusively on glucose. While muscles can produce glucose from glycogen and self-oxidize interstitial lipids and (to some extent) proteins to keep functioning in a glucose-poor scenario, the brain has essentially no fats and no glycogen. While it is possible for the body to produce a small amount of glucose via gluconeogenesis from carbon substrates, this also produces byproducts that tend to interfere with nervous function. So, from a strictly neuromechanical standpoint, having a low blood sugar level associated with skipping breakfest deprives the brain of fuel to function adequately. There are, of course, a wide array of epidemiological studies that point to the problems with insufficient maintenance of blood glucose and the impact of cognitive function, but this just goes to provide correlation to what we already know from basic biological principles.

Stranger