26% of girls aged 14-15 admitted eating nothing for breakfast (the most important meal of the day). 20% of 12-13 year old girls had also skipped breakfast.

22% of girls aged 14-15 and 14% of 12-13 years olds didn’t have lunch. The survey sensibly checked if the same group were missing breakfast AND lunch and found that 10% of 14-15 year olds did indeed have neither breakfast NOR lunch. How these girls can expect to perform well at school, with literally no food for their brains, is staggering. Girls also outperform boys at school at every age – think how much more they could excel if they ate enough to be able to concentrate, let alone think clearly!

The majority of teenage girls and 40% of 10-11 year olds thought that they needed to lose weight, whereas, only 10% of the 14-15 year old girls were overweight or obese. Hence there was a clear mismatch between those who did need to lose weight (1 in 10) and those who thought they needed to lose weight (nearly 6 out of 10 teenage girls).

I developed anorexia as a 15 year old and it was far too easy a progression from a bit of teasing, discovering calorie counting, losing weight (as everyone does on their first starvation experiment) and then suddenly you think – why not skip breakfast? surely I don’t need lunch? and, before I realised what was happening, I was having one meal a day, 400 calories a day in total and in a seriously bad state. It is frighteningly easy to get caught up in the obsession of dieting and it is awful that so many of our teenage girls are in this trap already.

Parents and friends – the best advice is to lead by example and not to obsess about food ourselves. We can’t tell others to eat healthily and regularly if we don’t. There is such a fine line between helping a teenager who does have a weight problem (because this is highly likely to lead to obesity in adulthood) and developing a healthy attitude to food and weight in a young person of normal weight. It is a really difficult role for friends and parents to play, but we must try.

Come on girls – whatever happened to girl power and taking up the room to which we are entitled in this world? Surely Beyonce is a better role model than Posh Spice?! Boys – shout louder that you like a bit of meat on the bones. As Guy Ritchie allegedly said of Madonna – it’s no fun cuddling gristle! Please tell girls this – they don’t believe it and need to hear it again and again.

Regular readers of this blog will know I have little regard for parents who don’t give their children the most important thing they can give them – health. Being a great parent is not about being able to provide branded trainers, it’s about inspiring your offspring to be the best people they can be. They can’t even start to achieve in this increasingly demanding world, without basic health.

To send a child off to school without a decent breakfast inside them is negligent. On the other hand, this survey was commissioned by Kelloggs – no doubt looking to see if they can get the 30% of girls and 20% of boys, who don’t have breakfast at home, to have a bowl of sugary cereal instead. This is just as bad as sending the child out for the day with an empty stomach.

Great breakfasts for children are bacon and eggs, omelettes, whole meal toast and marmite (if they love it), fruit, natural yoghurt, and/or sugar free cereals like porridge/shredded wheat (there aren’t many). Frosties, Cornflakes and other sugary cereals are not the best start to the day.

The smoking bit came from the fact that many parents are giving children money to get breakfast on the way to school and some kids are getting cigarettes instead. If your child comes home smelling of ciggies, no more breakfast money!