Eating cereals 'boost concentration power'

Eating cereals for breakfast may never be the same again — now, they will add some crackle to your concentration power, say researchers.  A new study by King's College London has revealed that having a bowl of cereal for breakfast could cut the inevitable decline in performance throughout a day by more than half, and in certain cases, it can prevent attention deficit completely.  

"Breakfast cereal consumption has a potentially significant role in improving morning cognitive performance. Consuming breakfast cereal reduce the deficit to attention and for some aspects of memory prevents the deficit," said lead researcher Katrina Campbell.  

The researchers came to the conclusion after carrying out a review of scientific journals on cereal consumption. 

The study found it is not just eating in the morning, but it also helps people in improving their concentration power.  They pinpointed a research of schoolchildren who were given a cereal breakfast and were compared over four days with those who had a glucose drink or no breakfast. The decline in attention and memory of the children who ate cereals was found to be "significantly reduced".

The researchers also highlighted data showing that a decline in performance throughout the morning, measured by ability to pay attention and secondary memory, can be reduced by consuming a low glycaemic index (GI) wholegrain breakfast, such as porridge, muesli or bran enriched cereal, versus a high GI breakfast, such as white toast.  

Skipping breakfast altogether was found to reduce the ability to recall a word list and a story read aloud. It also cut performance on visual perception and spatial memory, verbal fluency and academic performance, the study found.  

The review showed a general agreement in the literature that breakfast can have a positive effect on "brain performance" when compared to not having breakfast.