A nutritious breakfast should contain high-quality protein, carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables, and should be cooked in a healthy way, but too many Chinese fail to eat this kind of meal, an expert said at the kickoff for the 2016 China Nutrition Communication Conference and Amway Nutrilite Nutrition China charity campaign, which runs through November and will involve nutrition education events in cities all over the country.

The ceremony, held in Beijing on Oct 25, featured a forum on nutrition education, and was attended by top nutritionists, including Yang Yuexin, director-general of the Chinese Nutrition Society, and Ding Gangqiang, director of the National Institute for Nutrition and Health, an arm of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

"A balanced diet means three balanced meals a day, and breakfast is very important to achieving that goal," Ding says.

Skipping breakfast causes damage to health, apart from hurting work performance, he says, adding that studies have showed that if a person does not eat breakfast regularly, he or she will be at a higher risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood lipids, stomach disease and gallstones.

Skipping breakfast also has a negative impact on a person's cognitive ability and speeds up aging, he says.

Yet many people do not eat breakfast, Ding says, citing a recent survey showing that 8.6 percent of people do not eat breakfast daily. The situation is even worse in poverty-stricken areas and among children between 6 and 12 years.

While most people do eat breakfast, the quality of the meal is in question. About 25 percent of people don't have a homemade breakfast, and for more than 80 percent the meal is not very healthy - the survey showed.

Children, women, and people living in poverty are the most at risk when it comes to eating unhealthy breakfasts, Ding says.

Among children age 6 to 12, 82.2 percent do not eat healthy breakfasts. Among children 13 to 17, the percentage is 80.7.

Among adults, 80.9 percent of those between 18 and 44 do not eat healthy breakfasts, and for those aged between 45 and 59, the percentage is 81.4.

As for those who do eat a healthy breakfast, those older than 60 years topped the charts at 80.1 percent, making them the largest population group that was eating properly in the morning.

Ding credits this to the fact that older people, who are mostly retired, have the time and patience to cook breakfast for themselves.

liuzhihua@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 11/11/2016 page20)