An eight-month study of dieting women found that eating a large breakfast with plenty of proteins and carbohydrates helped control hunger, reduce their cravings for carbs, and maintain weight losses.

Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University put a group of 46 women on a very low-carb diet of less than 1100 calories per day. Another group of 48 women went on a diet of 1240 calories, with half their calories coming during breakfast.

Four months after going on their diets, the first group had lost 28 pounds and the breakfast group lost 23. However, four months after that, the low carb dieters had regained 18 pounds, while the breakfast group had lost another 16 pounds.

Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz, who presented the study at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society, said low-carb diets are not good ways to lose weight because "they exacerbate the craving for carbohydrates." Only 5 percent of such dieters are successful after two years, she said.

Labels: breakfast, diet, long_term_weight_loss

An Australian study found that teens that eat a balanced breakfast with a variety of nutrients from different food groups show improved moods and behaviors.

Each time a child added a new choice from a different food group, he or she would score higher on tests for mood and behaviors on questionnaires completed by their parents, regardless of family income or the child's weight or exercise routine.

"It didn't matter what they added, just that they added something different like a banana to their cereal to make that meal more complete with vitamins and minerals," said lead researcher Therese O'Sullivan of the Telethon Institute for Child Health in Perth.

She and her colleagues analyzed breakfasts of more than 800 14-year-olds over a three-day period. Many skipped breakfast completely, and the vast majority ate from only one or two food groups.

Labels: breakfast, nutrition, variety