By Kevin Kirshner

This is the first of a three-part series about Breakfast, Obesity & Juvenile Diabetes. Please take the time to write a comment or relate some personal experience -- help us make a connection through your stories.

So, Why is Breakfast So Important?

Confused? Well you're not alone. Over 50% of people regularly skip eating breakfast. At one time or another everyone reading this has done it, and left home for school or work without taking just a few minutes to start the day properly, with a nutritious breakfast.

We're not talking 3 course meal – how long does a bowl of granola take to eat? Even a piece of fresh fruit on the go would be a good start – yet alarming numbers of people skip breakfast every day. One can make the case that breakfast not only shouldn't be missed, to take things even further breakfast is believed by some nutritionist and dietitians to be the most important meal of the day.

To properly understand the total dynamics let's first establish what are the immediate and positive effects of eating an easy and nutritious breakfast:

• Improves Concentration and Focus
  
• Weight Control (more on this later)
  
• Better absorption of vital nutrients
  
• Helps boost energy levels
  
• Sustainable Strength and Endurance
  
• May help lower cholesterol levels
  
• Promotes a Positive Mental Attitude
• Blood Glucose Management for everyone not just Diabetic
• 
  

For children, eating breakfast dramatically affects their abilities with regards to concentration, problem solving skills, better focus, creativity, and their immune system. Imagine being a teacher and dealing with the possibility that 1 in 2 children sitting in a classroom come to school without having eaten breakfast, and are therefore being ill-prepared to learn.