Launch of First Ever European Breakfast Day

WHO, Teachers, doctors and dieticians call on Europeans to Make Time for Breakfast.

24 April 2012 --- The ‘Breakfast is Best’ campaign launched the first ever European Breakfast Day, which aims to raise awareness of the health benefits of breakfast and make its importance as well understood and accepted as  the “5 a day” campaign.

At a time when lifestyle-related non-communicable diseases are an ever greater threat to public health and wellness, and the pressures of modern life make it ever tougher to make healthy lifestyle choices, making time for breakfast every day can have a major impact. Breakfast contributes to the quality and quantity of a person’s daily dietary intake, and also influences cognition and learning, which may help improve performance at school and at work. Ensuring every European has breakfast every day could potentially have a sizeable impact on their overall health and well-being, as well as increasing national health expenditure.

European Breakfast Day was launched on 24 April 2012 in Brussels,  at an event that brought together leading Brussels decision-makers and the media, as well as high-profile speakers from the World Health Organization, the Scandinavian School in Brussels and [the European Commission] together with teachers, doctors and dieticians involved in the Breakfast is Best campaign. The event focused on the importance of regular breakfast eating in tackling lifestyle-related diseases and health inequalities, especially among children.

Studies show Europeans recognise that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Yet currently, breakfast skipping is far too prevalent across the European Union: according to studies, between 10-30% of European children skip breakfast, with older adolescents and girls most likely to do so. Encouraging more people to make time for breakfast, making sure the importance of breakfast is stressed in national nutrition strategies, and increasing the number and scope of breakfast clubs and other initiatives at national level could have a significant impact in tackling some of Europe’s major health challenges.

Judith Liddell, Secretary General of the European Federation of the Associations of Dietitians, and BIB campaign member commented: “Breakfast can play an important role in improving the quality of the daily dietary intake, balanced metabolism and improved cognitive performance, as well as building positive habits among children that can last a lifetime. We’d like to see the importance of breakfast as part of an overall healthy diet and lifestyle, reflected in nutritional advice right across Europe.”

Attendees were also treated to a dedicated video message from Magnús Scheving, brainchild and star of the  internationally acclaimed  children’s television show Lazy Town, supporting Breakfast is Best and the goals of the European Breakfast Day. Scheving highlighted the importance of breakfast as part of a healthy, balanced lifestyle, emphasized in the context of physical activity.

Alongside the event, attendees were invited to sign the Make Time for Breakfast Pledge, which calls on policymakers to work to encourage regular breakfast eating across Europe. The pledge can be viewed in full online at www.breakfastisbest.eu/pledge. The BIB campaign will continue to drive support for the pledge in the coming months, and work towards implementation of its goals.