70% of Brits forget to eat

By Merill Haseen

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AS OUR lives get busier and busier, and we have more and more to do, it seems that we're not getting our priorities quite right. In an effort to squeeze a little extra time into the day, lots of us are giving up breakfast.

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A survey for supermarket chain Sainsbury's shows that nearly 70% of people questioned regularly missed out on a meal. The reason 59% of these respondents gave They simply didn't have time to eat.

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The worst culprits are aged 16 to 24-years-old - 87% of this age group said they missed out on at least one meal a day.

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Breakfast is the meal most people skip. However, this is a particularly important one. According to Colette Kelly, a nutrition scientist for the British Nutrition Foundation, 'The body needs glucose first thing in the morning after fasting through the night, particularly the brain, which needs it to concentrate.

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'Studies show that a child that has eaten breakfast performs better throughout the day at school than a child that has not.'

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Gill Fine, Sainsbury's nutritionist, said that this habit of skipping meals is becoming a growing concern. 'When we get hungry, because of missing a meal, we are more likely to binge on high-fat or high-sugar snacks.

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'Establishing a healthy eating and fitness regime at a young age offers long term health benefits,' she says. 'And remember, old habits die hard.'

• The Sainsbury's survey, which spoke to 1,000 people of both sexes across the UK, also found that only a quarter of those asked ate the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. Middle-aged and older people ate more fruit and vegetables than younger people.
• The National Food Survey 1999 found that, generally, we're eating less fresh vegetables now than we did ten years ago. Scotland and Northern Ireland have the lowest rates, and the South West has the highest. However, we are eating more fruit -particularly grapes, stone fruit and bananas, especially in the South East.