High School Students Skip “Most Important Meal”

Box of General Mills Honey Nut Cheerios, a popular cereal and an easy morning breakfast option.

Box of General Mill’s Honey Nut Cheerios, a popular cereal and an easy morning breakfast option.

In regards to how most high school students start the day, there is a common pattern. They wake up, while feeling perpetual tiredness, freshen up, get dressed, brush teeth, and head out the door. This seems normal and healthy; however, one key aspect is missing. Researchers and nutritionists (from sites such as The Huffington Post, The New York Times, and  Mayoclinic.org alike) agree that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That being said, how come high school students at Arrowhead, as well as throughout the nation, are skipping out?
“I guess I’m in kind of a struggle for time. I like to get as much sleep as possible in the morning and taking out breakfast doesn’t seem to make that much of a difference in my day,” says senior Connor Bergersen.
“I do [eat breakfast] on weekends. It’s just on school days, it doesn’t seem worth it to me. Not only would I need to wake up ten or so minutes earlier, but I [also] feel like I wouldn’t get to enjoy it. I’d be constantly watching the clock and always feel like I need to scarf it down. That can’t possibly be healthy,” says senior Garett Evans.
In a survey of 20 Arrowhead students, only eleven reported to eating breakfast everyday or virtually everyday.

According to Kellogg’s, the renowned cereal/food producer who also has a team of scientific analysts, a reported 36 percent of teenagers eat breakfast on a daily basis. This statistic was released last year.

Although there were nine in the Arrowhead survey who are part of that 36 percent, there was still eleven who were on the other side.
“I think that breakfast is really important because if I didn’t eat it every morning, I feel like I’d be super hungry throughout the day and my lunch wouldn’t be enough to satisfy my hunger,” said senior Eli Audley.
“I work out in the mornings so making sure I got the needed nutrients after that is crucial. If I didn’t eat in the mornings after workouts, I’m sure my body would go through some sort of reaction that would make the work out essentially pointless,” says senior Bronson Esteves.
It’s not just the students who are lacking in consuming the morning meal, it’s teachers as well. According to the Huffington Post, nearly 31 million adults skip out on breakfast as well. As for Arrowhead, two out of five educators surveyed said they didn’t eat breakfast on a regular basis.
“I do not eat breakfast consistently. It really depends on the day and how much time I have,” said math teacher Nick Brengosz.

All reasons aside for why breakfast is skipped out on, the majority of those surveyed say they do believe that eating breakfast is important. Even if they themselves don’t find time for it everyday. Furthermore, according to healthychildren.org, there are other factors that come into play that are inspiration for not eating in the morning.

“Teens often wake up too tired or too nauseous to eat,” says Marcie Beth Schneider, M.D. Schneider from healthychildren.org. “Some kids, especially girls, may be also bypassing the morning meal in an effort to control weight gain.”

The contradictory element presented from skipping breakfast to avoid weight gain is that by doing so, you’re more likely to gain weight, according to a study done by the journal Obesity. This report revealed that after tracking a group of male health professionals over the course of ten years, the ones who ate breakfast on a daily basis were 13% less likely to be prone to weight gain. That being said, although some teens see skipping the meal as a means of weight loss, they are bound to end up hurting themselves in the long run by eating more excessively throughout the day.