دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی صبحانه: مهمترین وعده ی غذایی؟ - الزویر 2017

ABSTRACT

Stating the obvious, we typically eat different foods at different times of day. But why should that be so? While much of this variation is likely down to cultural factors, the dietitians also have plenty to say on the matter of what we should be eating and drinking when, in order, for instance, to lose weight, or else to help enhance our cognitive performance during the course of the day. In recent years, many of the larger food companies have become increasingly interested in trying either to break into the profitable, not to mention growing, market for breakfast foods, or else to figure out how to convince more consumers to eat ‘breakfast foods’ at other times of day. In this review, I want to take a closer look at the psychological science behind the first meal of the day, highlighting why it may be even more important than most people think – both to the consumer but also the food industry more generally. Finally, I summarize a number of the current trends in the kinds of breakfast items that are becoming more/less popular, and consider what may be driving them.

Conclusions

In conclusion, there really are a number of reasons as to why breakfast should be considered the most important meal of the day. The decision about if and what to eat and drink at the start of the day has been shown to have some profound effects on our health, wellbeing, and cognitive performance. There are undoubtedly significant cultural differences in the kinds of foods that people in different parts of the world want, or think it appropriate, to eat at different times of day. However, beyond these cultural factors, not to mention the latest recommendations from the dietitian׳s (and the suggestions of the future forecasters), there are also a number of more fundamental psycho-physiological reasons as to why consumers may be drawn to different foods at different times of day.

As we have seen in this review, the consumer landscape around breakfast food and drink items is changing rapidly in the west, with sales of more traditional items like breakfast cereals and orange juice in steady and continued decline over the last 15 years or so. At the same time, we are seeing the rise of convenience foods, breakfast sandwiches and drinkable yoghurts, for instance, that are good for those on the go, and for the millennials who can’t be bothered to wash up! And while breakfast has always been more related to food science than to gastronomy, there are some signs that this distinction is starting to change, with top modernist chefs and molecular mixologists incorporating more breakfast cereals into their savoury dishes and cocktails, often with the aim of triggering nostalgia and emotion. The rise of the ‘Breakfastarian’ – the consumer who wants to have the opportunity to eat breakfast items all-day long (see Baertlein, 2015; Leading Article, 2016), is also helping blur to traditional boundary between what we think it appropriate to eat at different times of day. The idea of the breakfast salad (Poulter, 2017), is also doing much the same. Though, it has to be said, not all attempts in this direction have necessarily met with success (e.g., see Cloake, 2017; Gurkan, 2017).