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In Russia, a commonly accepted "brosience" fact was that people (or at least children) should eat hot types of food for breakfast (e.g. that oatmeal or fried eggs are better than a sandwich or cereal).

Is there any sort of research/scientific evidence to support or refute such belief? (Assuming that all the other nutrition parameters are held equal.)

Sklivvz
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user5341
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    Semi-related: [Does drinking warm or hot water aid in digestion?](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/1803/does-drinking-warm-or-hot-water-aid-in-digestion) – Jason Plank Apr 24 '11 at 14:33
  • Sure... My mother said it would "stick to my ribs". About 55 years ago... Food is food, calories are calories. Much of the world gets by on simple, "cold" fare for breakfast; a lot of folks just don't feel like eating a lot first thing in the morning. Others enjoy a big cooked spread. – M. Werner Apr 24 '11 at 14:41

1 Answers1

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There is this study that suggests

Cold Breakfast Cereal Better for Kids Than a Hot Breakfast

A study [using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2006] shows that kids who eat cold, ready-to-eat cereal in the morning have a lower risk of obesity than those who eat a hot breakfast.

[...]

Researchers studied the breakfast eating habits of almost 10,000 children between the ages of 9 and 18 to see how what they ate in the morning affected their total nutritional intake for the day - and their risk for obesity.

They looked at kids who ate standard breakfast cereals, those who skipped breakfast, as well as kids who ate a non-cereal breakfast - such as a hot breakfast.

[...]

The kids who skipped breakfast completely were the most likely to be obese - but the cereal eaters had a lower risk of being overweight or obese than the kids who ate a hot breakfast or any other type of breakfast.

The research was funded by the US Department of Agriculture and Kellogg's Corporate Citizenship Fund.

Oliver_C
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    What about a cereal hot breakfast (such as oatmeal)? – Kathy Van Stone Apr 24 '11 at 16:18
  • @Kathy - I don't have access to the full text of the study, but I assume the temperature of the cereal isn't important. With 'hot breakfast' they probably mean things like eggs, bacon, sausages, pancakes,... – Oliver_C Apr 25 '11 at 11:44
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    was the study actually attributing the differences? Because the most plausible explanation to me would be that the overall diet of the type of people who eat cold breakfast vs. hot breakfast (especially as Americans understand the latter) - would be a significant difference. I'm looking for something that holds all other variables constant – user5341 Apr 25 '11 at 23:43
  • @DVK - I doubt that the "breakfast" was the only variable in this study. But it seems like the choice of breakfast does have an influence on how/what you eat the rest of the day. – Oliver_C May 16 '11 at 11:19
  • A bit surprised this was marked as the answer. It seems to me unlikely that the Russian "broscience" referred to obesity rather than 'energy', performance in school or some other factor(s). – user179700 Aug 05 '11 at 01:48
  • @user - i don't much care about "obesity" angle specifically as opposed to overall health angle. – user5341 Aug 08 '11 at 21:39
  • @DVK and yet you marked a question as correct which is basically an obesity study, which doesn't address the quesiton you asked in any way I can see. – user179700 Aug 10 '11 at 01:21
  • @user - didn't have any OTHER better answers to accept. If one shows up, I might accept that instead. – user5341 Aug 10 '11 at 14:02
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    @DVK So on a skeptics forum you marked a purposely incorrect answer as correct. Sigh. – user179700 Aug 10 '11 at 21:58
  • @user - it's not incorrect, merely not as complete as could be desired for. It IS well researched. Feel free to flag for moderators and/or dowbvote if you think it's so poor. – user5341 Aug 11 '11 at 03:10