By TAMMY HUGHES: Eating breakfast is dangerous and forcing children to eat it is ‘child abuse’, according to a leading biochemist.
Professor Terence Kealey says it puts people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes and obesity.
His claims fly in the face of received wisdom that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Prof Kealey, the former Vice-Chancellor of Buckingham University, was a type 2 diabetic but managed to reverse the condition after he stopped eating breakfast.
‘Lots of kids don’t want to eat breakfast’: Professor Terence Kealey said if parents are worried to give their children an apple instead
The biochemist, who was formerly an academic at Cambridge University, claims that studies which show children getting better exam results after being given breakfast at school are misleading.
He added that the free breakfasts given to pupils by some schools in deprived areas do not help students’ brain function, but rather reduces truancy rates.
Asked what parents should do about giving a child breakfast, he said: ‘I would let the kids decide for themselves if they want breakfast. Lots of kids don’t want to eat breakfast.
‘If you’re worried, give them an apple or something, but the idea that you should force them to eat breakfast is a form of child abuse.’
But his advice to shun the meal doesn’t just apply to children. He believes that eating in the morning also puts adults at risk of developing type 2 diabetes and obesity.
Professor Kealey, also a former vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham, claims he managed to reverse his own type 2 diabetes after he stopped eating breakfast.
He now believes that it is a dangerous meal, because it increases blood glucose levels when they are already very high.
Prof Kealey, the former Vice-Chancellor of Buckingham University, was a type 2 diabetic but managed to reverse the condition after he stopped eating breakfast
His theory is that the human body is naturally nauseous in the morning because of high levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the body, and that eating breakfast will just encourage us to eat more during the day. He also said that most studies on breakfast have been ‘funded either by Kellogg’s or General Mills’ and are biased.
Professor Kealey made his claims, which fly in the face of perceived wisdom, at the Oxford Literary Festival on Thursday.
He said: ‘There is a scientific community that for a hundred years has determined we should all be eating breakfast, and in a sense, it has fooled itself as much as fooled anyone else in the data it has collected.’
However, paediatric nutritionist Jennifer Rosborough was sceptical of the academic’s claims. She said: ‘Our recommendation is that it is helpful to eat breakfast.
‘Our point of view is that it helps people be a healthier weight because it stops them from becoming over-hungry throughout the day. If what [Professor Kealey] is saying is true, it’s the first I’ve heard of it.’
But she added: ‘I don’t think you should force children to eat breakfast.’ (www.dailymail.co.uk)
