About this Research Topic

Background

Some say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. While the truism of this statement has been challenged, many people across the world still enjoy this morning meal, which varies considerably across cultures and continents. However, there is a need to examine, in greater detail, the effects of having breakfast on aspects such as academic performance, memory functions, mood, and a range of health-related outcomes. Similarly, the consequences of skipping breakfast as well as the nutritional composition of the breakfast should be addressed more thoroughly regarding phenomena such as subsequent calorie intake, time orientation, and health claims as well as food marketing, healthy eating nudges, and the notion that hunger (e.g., due to breakfast skipping) makes us “hangry”.

This Research Topic seeks submissions that are aligned with the areas above and other related subject matters. Articles on the following topics and similar themes will be prioritized:

• Cross-cultural studies on breakfast habits and customs.
• Experimental studies into the effects of breakfast timing or breakfast composition on emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses as well as health-related outcomes.
• Decision-making about what to eat over the course of the day among people with chronic health conditions or dietary restrictions.
• Decision dilemmas about whether to restrict certain ingredients across meals or balance restrictions between certain meals and/or days (e.g., minimization of sugar and fat intake after lunch and more calories consumed during breakfast or more even meal restrictions) and whole grain/carbohydrate and lean dairy-based breakfast and then focus on minimizing carbohydrate intake later in the day/adding in more fats).
• The role of breakfast composition on subsequent calorie intake.
• Experimental studies into the effects of breakfast skipping (and hunger) on antisocial (e.g., indirect aggression) or prosocial behavior (e.g., donation to charity).
• Meta-analyses or structured literature reviews on breakfast-based aspects.
• Breakfast studies on academic performance among children, adolescents, or adults.
• The impact of various food marketing tactics or healthy eating nudges on consumers’ breakfast preferences and decisions.
• Breakfast in advertising campaigns.
• Behavioral, cognitive, and affective responses to intermittent fasting protocols.
• The role of perceived food unavailability, whether actual or imagined, on food-related outcomes.
• Cognitive and affective predictors of intended breakfast skipping.

Keywords: Breakfast, Culture, Habit, Cognition, Behavior, Health, Timing, Decision, Hunger, Fasting, Breakfast Skipping

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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