According to a new study, eating breakfast can significantly reduce levels of anxiety and improve mental and physical performance during the day ahead.
Previously a survey of 2,000 people reported that 48 percent of British adults skip breakfast at least once during the working week. Not eating breakfast the research reported lead to lethargy, stress, intolerance and a makeable reduction in productivity.
This new research has found similar effects of skipping breakfast. Participants were asked to complete two days of cognitive tests including 25 different tests of mental and physical tests. Included in the day were arithmetic and English tests and psycho-motor tests. Participants were also asked to complete questionnaires investigating anxiety and stress levels .
On one day, the participants were asked to eat breakfast and the other day they were asked to go without.
The results suggested that eating breakfast saw a 61 percent improvement in English and arithmetic tests. The number of mistakes made in the hand-eye coordination tasks fell by 75 percent when they were preceded by food.
It was also reported that without eating breakfast many of the participants found it difficult to maintain concentration long enough to finish the series of tests.
Finally it was reported that participants who had breakfast before completing the testing day were 89 percent less anxious .
