A vast majority of primary and middle school students are not only bored but also malnourished by their breakfast, according to the latest survey of Chinese students' eating habits.

The results of the survey, conducted by the Institute of Child and Adolescent Health under Peking University and Shanghai Second Medical University's Nutrition Department, were released last week.

The survey shows that some students skip breakfast, and some only eat a limited selection of foods.

The survey covered 4,692 pupils aged from six to 11 from seven schools in Beijing and 4,300 pupils from five schools in Shanghai.

Of those students surveyed, 25.8 percent in Beijing and 11.4 percent in Shanghai fail to eat breakfast every day.

"Skipping breakfast confuses the dietary cycle and wastes the chance to replenish nutrients used up during sleep," warned Chen Chunming, a professor at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Experts agree that breakfast is supposed to provide 30 percent of the day's total energy.

But if they fail to eat breakfast, teenagers, who are usually occupied in the mornings with physical and mental activities, will see their blood sugar levels drop. This can cause tiredness and an inability to concentrate, which have a negative impact on their learning.

This sort of malnutrition can have a long-term impact on young people's health and development.

The primary and secondary reasons students gave for failing to eat breakfast were lack of appetite and time.

The survey, sponsored by Nestle, found that there is a limited choice of breakfast foods.

The survey also found that in Chinese cities, the average teenager's breakfast mainly consisted of grains, meat and eggs.

In Beijing, children and teenager's breakfasts mainly consisted of grains, including bread, steamed stuffed bun, noodles and dumplings. Meat, eggs, milk, soybean milk, vegetable and fruits were also popular.

A decent breakfast should contain all four types of food, including grains, meat, milk products and vegetables and fruits.

But statistics show that only 0.9 percent of students in cities and rural areas eat four or more types of food every day, and the percentage of those eating only one or two types of food was as high as 87 percent.

The researchers believe that students' nutrition has improved as a result of the rapid economic development and better standard of living.

But poor knowledge of nutrition and an unbalanced diet has led many children to be malnourished, rather than undernourished.

(China Daily December 12, 2002)