Teens who Start the Day with Breakfast, Especially Foods with Protein, Eat Better Overall

A new study of teens around age 18 who tended to skip breakfast showed that consuming breakfast increased their overall intake of important nutrients such as fiber, iron, zinc and choline.

The researchers also found that eating breakfast reduced the intake of high-fat and high-sugar foods throughout the day when compared to those who didn’t eat breakfast. Participants who consumed higher-protein breakfasts saw even stronger benefits.

“This is one of the largest and longest tightly controlled breakfast trials in adolescents,” said Emma Rose Brown, a doctoral student under the mentorship of Heather Leidy, professor and chair designate in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. “Our findings suggest that adding breakfast, particularly one rich in protein, may be an effective way to improve nutrient intake and diet quality among older adolescents.”

Brown presented the findings at NUTRITION 2026, the flagship annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, held July 25–28 near Washington, D.C.

“Although most Americans think that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, there isn’t a lot of evidence to support this idea,” said Brown. “We wanted to see whether consuming a high-protein breakfast would increase nutrient intake and promote healthier eating throughout the day.”

The study included 128 adolescents who were between 14 and 21 years old and skipped breakfast at least six times a week. Participants were randomly assigned to eat either a normal-protein breakfast, a high-protein breakfast or to continue skipping breakfast. 

For the groups eating breakfast, the researchers prepared and packed over 18,000 meals that included breakfast foods commonly consumed by adolescents such as burritos, quesadillas, egg scrambles and smoothies. Meals for the normal protein group contained around 15 grams of protein, and meals for the high-protein group contained 30 grams of high-quality protein.

At the start of the study and again at 3 and 6 months, study participants in the breakfast-eating groups received a food cooler containing the prepared foods. They could eat as much or as little as they wanted to over three days. This approach allowed the researchers to precisely track intake while allowing the food to be consumed at home. Participants consumed the provided meals more than 90% of the time.

Researchers assessed what participants ate by asking them to recall everything they consumed over a 24-hour period and by weighing the food coolers before and after consumption. Food intake was entered into nutrition software for analysis.

The researchers found that although all the groups consumed around the same amount of calories throughout the day, those eating breakfast took in more fiber, iron, zinc and choline overall. Participants in the high-protein group also consumed more protein, iron and choline compared to those in the normal protein group. 

The study also showed that both groups who ate breakfast consumed fewer desserts, sweets and candy compared to participants who skipped breakfast. Additional benefits were observed with the high-protein group, who ate even less added sugar compared to the other groups.

Next, the researchers plan to look at how increasing dietary protein at breakfast might affect people’s thoughts and cravings about food, specifically in young adults and adults stopping GLP‑1 medications. A better understanding of how breakfast protein affects what people eat and how much they think about food throughout the day could help inform practical strategies that support long-term, healthy weight management.

Adapted from a press release from the American Society for Nutrition.