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Comment by istjohn | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how these findings can be reconciled with the research on the importance of breakfast for school children. There are obvious differences between the two issues, but nevertheless when I think about how to apply these insights, they seem to conflict, and I'm not sure how to resolve those conflicts.

Edit: The biggest difference is age, but conventional wisdom says adults, too, should eat a good breakfast before an important exam. Should you skip breakfast before your LSAT?

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>I wonder how these findings can be reconciled with the research on the importance of breakfast for school children.

A lot of that research is bogus anyway.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/nov/28/breakfa...

https://priceonomics.com/how-breakfast-became-a-thing/

If you want to ace your LSAT, you're better off getting a good nights sleep and writing the exam fasted. Sleep is way more important than anything else when it comes to memory recall. Also, you should study with a particular type of perfume, and then write the exam with that same perfume. That'll also help memory recall. Breakfast is probably the worst meal of the day, in terms of metabolic health, which is why I haven't regularly had breakfast in over a decade.

I agree, except It would recommend people fast regularly before test day so the body is adapted.

I teach the LSAT and I'm astonished how some people try to do it while sleep deprived. In their regular studying too.

(Day before test nerves can impede that night's sleep, which is really unfortunate)

The simple answer is that children's physical and hormonal makeup is different to that of adults. I've always seen it recommended that children should not fast.

There is really no good evidence that breakfast is "the most important meal of the day", despite what folk wisdom and cereal advertising say. For many people it can easily be skipped.

It's far healthier to skip dinner though. Breakfast is the easiest to skip (for social/practical reasons), but generally your body will digest things better when ingested earlier in the day.

An easy compromise is to get most of your calories around lunch time (or earlier).

>"how these findings can be reconciled with the research on the importance of breakfast"

Research, sometimes, is not what it should be.

"It was a combination of fear of indigestion, religious moralization and advertising that helped push the idea of breakfast as the most important meal of the day – but it was a campaign to sell more bacon that really solidified the idea. [..] Edward Bernays [..] exploited all the moralization and health fears around breakfast to help the company push its bacon."

From: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/nov/28/breakfa...

If I had a big test coming up, I wouldn't experiment with fasting on the day. However, if you've been fasting while studying and you find it to be a help, then fasting the day of the test is probably a good idea.

I know it's anecdotal but I've only managed a few points increase by fasting.

I'm not sure this research applies to kids. Also, you can totally have breakfast and still be fasting, i.e. by following a 16:8 diet (fasting during 16 hours, eating during a 8 hour window).

Oh, come on now, we call that intermittent fasting (or time restricted eating) for a reason! This like saying that you can pronounce the alphabet aloud while being silent. No, but you can pronounce the alphabet while being intermittently silent :) You're not fasting while you're eating breakfast.

I think the breakfast only shows improvement for school children if they are malnourished.

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