The Sunday Times
London, UK
24 June, 2007


You can’t go to work on an egg - how about ham and cheese?

FORGET about going to work on an egg - the traditional German breakfast of ham and cheese has been found to be the ideal start to the day. Scientific experiments show the combination has the most significant impact on memory, work rate and attention levels. The foods were also far better than the sugared cereal with which millions of British schoolchildren begin their day.

The scientists’ analysis was based on the glycaemic load (GL) of the different breakfasts. This measures the rate at which carbohydrates release glucose into the blood stream.

Sugary foods, such as cornflakes with two spoonfuls of sugar, accompanied by a waffle and maple syrup, had a high GL and led to a slump in performance by late morning.

A breakfast of scrambled egg, bread and jam, accompanied by a yoghurt, had a medium GL score, while ham and cheese, accompanied by a low-fat spread on wholegrain bread, scored best with a low GL.

David Benton, a professor of psychology at Swansea University, led the research, with tests on six and seven-year old children “It is all down to the glucose release of the breakfast into the bloodstream. The slower the release, the better the pupils performed,” he said.

The same principles apply to adults. “Slow-released glucose gives pupils better memory,” said Benton.

His team studied pupils who attended a breakfast club for four weeks, eating breakfasts which had high, medium and low GL on separate days but the same number of calories.

After breakfast, hidden cameras filmed the pupils as they got on with reading, writing and arithmetic. The study found pupils who ate the high GL breakfast were prone to be disruptive, concentrated less on their work and were much more fidgety than those who had the low GL breakfast.

The researchers calculated that the pupils on the low GL spent 26% of their time doing their class-work, while those on the high GL only worked 18% of the time.

Benton also said a low GL breakfast was also good for overall health and helped to curb obesity by discouraging eating between meals.

“The high protein in the breakfast will release into the system slowly, and therefore it will suppress the appetite for longer, and prevent children from snacking,” he said. Benton believes that a breakfast of bacon, egg and sausage – long derided as unhealthy – may be good in moderate quantities, as it also releases glucose slowly.

However, not all nutritionists are convinced. Helen Crawley, a lecturer in nutrition at Kingston University, said that medical science has not shown conclusively yet that food intake can increase attention span.

“We just haven’t got the evidence to say that,” said Crawley. “In such experiments there are so many variables, there is no way of measuring all of them.

“I am not sure giving children ham and cheese is good for breakfast, because there is too much salt in both. Also, there is a lot of research that says it is disadvantageous to have too much protein, and this breakfast is high in protein.”

Last week advertising watchdogs refused to allow a revival of the “go to work on an egg” commercial starring Tony Hancock, because it was said to fail to promote a varied diet*.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/li...icle1977664.ece




* Egg story here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/li...icle1957593.ece

I don't know if this is the reporter doing a lousy job, but this sentence makes the researcher look like he was looking for specific results, and got them.