Association of breakfast styles such as Japanese, Western, and cereals with sleeping habits, eating habits, and lifestyle in preschool and elementary school children

Mai Kuwahara; Yu Tahara; Lyie Nitta; Akiko Furutani; Seiko Mochida; Naomichi Makino; Yuki Nozawa; Shigenobu Shibata

doi:10.3389/fnut.2023.1131887

Association of breakfast styles such as Japanese, Western, and cereals with sleeping habits, eating habits, and lifestyle in preschool and elementary school children

Front Nutr. 2023 Jun 30:10:1131887. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1131887. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Mai Kuwahara¹, Yu Tahara², Lyie Nitta¹, Akiko Furutani¹, Seiko Mochida³, Naomichi Makino³, Yuki Nozawa³, Shigenobu Shibata^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Physiology and Pharmacology, School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.
² Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan.
³ Benesse Education Research and Development Institute, Benesse Corporation, Okayama, Japan.

Abstract

Introduction: In Japan, breakfast styles are categorized into five groups; Japanese breakfast (JB; rice and miso soup), Western breakfast (WB; bread and milk), Japanese-Western breakfast (J-WB; alternative daily serving), cereal breakfast (CB), and breakfast skipping. In our recent studies, breakfast style was highly associated with the daily sleep-wake phase (chronotype), and healthy eating habits. In contrast with other breakfast style consumers, JB-consumers were positively associated with the morning chronotype and healthy eating habits such as a high consumption of a variety of protein sources, vegetables, and dietary fibers, and low consumption of sweetened juices. These previous studies included only adult participants; hence, in the current study, we investigated whether similar observations can be made in children.

Methods: Preschool (aged 3-5 years) and elementary school children (6-8 years) (N = 6,104, 49.87% boys, 50.13% girls, mean body mass index 15.39 ± 0.03 kg/m² for preschoolers and percentage of overweight -2.73 ± 0.22 for elementary school children) participated in this cross-sectional online survey on lifestyle, including eating and sleep habits, through their mother's responses.

Results: The results showed that the morning-evening type index values (chronotype indicator, smaller indicates morning type) were negatively correlated with JB intake (-0.05, p < 0.01) and positively correlated with WB (0.03, p < 0.05) and CB intake (0.06, p < 0.01), suggesting that the JB group exhibited the morning chronotype and the WB and CB groups exhibited the evening chronotype. The JB group consumed a variety of protein sources (mean ± SE; days/week) with more frequency (fish 2.95 ± 0.038 p < 0.001, soy 3.55 ± 0.043 p < 0.001, egg 3.82 ± 0.044 p < 0.001) compared with the WB group (fish 2.58 ± 0.033, soy 3.00 ± 0.038, egg 3.49 ± 0.039). On the other hand, the JB group consumed snacks (5.48 ± 0.042 p < 0.001) and sweetened juice (2.50 ± 0.050 p < 0.001) less frequently than the WB group (snacks; 5.80 ± 0.037 and sweetened juice; 2.74 ± 0.049).

Discussion: JB-eating children with a morning chronotype exhibited better sleep and eating habits than WB-eating children with an evening type pattern. The results suggest that JB eating habits may be associated with good eating and sleeping lifestyles, even among preschool and elementary school children.

Keywords: Japanese breakfast; Western breakfast; cereal; eating habits; evening type; morning type; protein sources; sleep.