Beyond breakfast

Beyond breakfast
A EUREST WHITE PAPER • APRIL 2016
Working with trends to maximise productivity
Beyond breakfast
Here at Eurest, we pride ourselves on creating contemporary foodservice solutions
for the workplace — from the tearoom to the boardroom and everything in between.
And it all starts with breakfast.
We bring exceptional culinary creativity
and flair, style and hospitality to employee
restaurants, cafés and executive dining
rooms around the UK.
We know that adding real value comes from
truly understanding each client’s business
and consumer needs. The working day
doesn’t have to be 9-5, so we offer our
customers a flexible approach to breakfast,
making sure there are always options
available that are convenient to them.
Time is precious, and we know people
don’t always find the time to eat breakfast,
which is why we have a range of options
available — whether it’s a healthy
grab-and-go muesli pot or our smoked
salmon, poached egg and avocado breakfast
pots to sit and enjoy, there’s something to
suit all lifestyles.
Consumer eating habits are changing.
People are eating breakfast away from
home more, and they’re changing the
foods they eat to look for healthier choices.
We understand this, and are constantly
developing new recipes that meet the
nutritional and lifestyle needs of
our consumers.
Evidence shows that regularly eating
breakfast is an important part of
maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and we
aim to help people achieve this. It’s our
role to give our customers the means
to set themselves up for the day ahead,
and a good way to do this is by getting
the right amount of nutrients at breakfast.
Our breakfast solutions are quick, easy,
flexible and nutritious — as well as
delicious — so we can get more people
eating breakfast. Join us in realising the
great benefits breakfast can bring.
Let’s talk breakfast
Introduction
Despite the fact that eating early in the
day is an important part of maintaining a
balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle, up
to a third of us skip breakfast entirely
(British Dietetic Association, 2016).
So what effect does this have on our health
and wellbeing? And how do we encourage
more people to eat breakfast regularly?
In this white paper, we’ll look at:
• current breakfast trends
• the importance of eating a healthy
breakfast every day, particularly in
terms of productivity
• why people skip breakfast
• how organisations can encourage
people to get breakfasting.
The history of breakfast
The concept of breakfast as we know it
today was created by a change in working
habits. Before the 16th Century, many
people’s ‘work’ centred on subsistence,
working on tasks that needed doing with
no formal timings. These labouring people
didn’t have to start their day at dawn, so
they didn’t bother with breakfast — they
stuck with a mid-morning meal at
around 10:30am.
During the 16th Century, however, this
labouring segment of society began to
work for other people — gaining
employment for a set number of hours
each day. This would often see them
working from 5am until 7 or 8pm, with a
break of an hour and a half for a meal
later in the day(Mason, 2015). This change
created a nine-hour gap between the first
meal of the day and dinner — too long for
most to productively go without food.
So, due to the new working habits, people
pushed the mid-morning meal back to
around midday, and breakfast emerged as
a common way to prepare workers for a
morning of hard toil (Mason, 2015).
Breakfast today
We’re eating breakfast
away from home
more often
Over nine million people now eat out for
breakfast each day — and one in three
eat breakfast away from home at least
once a week (Garrahan, 2015). This
means that, on average, UK adults now
eat out for breakfast as often as they
do for dinner each month (M&C Allegra
Foodservice, 2015).
This trend towards eating out for breakfast
is growing rapidly: the average number of
visits made to restaurants for the first meal
of the day leapt by a third between 2014
and 2015, and it continues to rise (M&C
Allegra Foodservice, 2015).
one in three eat
breakfast away from
home at least once a week
And eating breakfast out of the home is set
to become even more popular as young
people get older and gain greater spending
power. Currently, adults in the 18-24 age
group eat out for breakfast the most each
month — visiting restaurants almost twice
as often as the total average for everyone in
the UK (M&C Allegra Foodservice, 2015).
Breakfast today
Socialising and relaxing
over breakfast
is big business
Breakfast has become another chance
to socialise, in much the same way as
lunch or dinner. More than a quarter of
us eat breakfast out for leisure or as
part of a social occasion (M&C Allegra
Foodservice, 2015).
One in ten make the trip to a restaurant
for breakfast as a form of relaxation and
13 per cent do it to treat themselves
(M&C Allegra Foodservice, 2015).
A fast-food breakfast
is appealing
Breakfasting out has become an
aspirational event for many of us,
replacing the functional meal we might
have had at home.
Restaurants have reacted quickly to this
trend. Many of the places you’d previously
have only thought to go for dinner are now
offering a breakfast menu. And this has
led to British people spending £76 million
every day on eating out for breakfast
(Garrahan, 2015).
However, eating breakfast out of the
home doesn’t guarantee improved health
and wellbeing. When eating breakfast out,
a quarter of people head for the nearest
fast-food restaurant — with McDonald’s
attracting 17.3 per cent of them (M&C
Allegra Foodservice, 2015).
The content of breakfast is changing
Although breads and cereals still make up
the bulk of breakfast food — forming up
to 89 per cent of all breakfasts in the UK
— people are looking elsewhere for variety
(AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds, 2016).
Health is higher
up the agenda
It’s noticeable that people now eat more
foods that they perceive as being healthy
for them (AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds, 2016).
This is partly down to growing awareness
of how unhealthy some packaged cereals
are — with many containing more than
eight teaspoons of sugar per 100g
(Consensus Action on Salt & Health, 2015).
some packaged
cereals contain
more than eight
teaspoons of
sugar per 100g
The content of breakfast is changing
Juices are growing
in popularity
Cooked foods are
on the up
General food trends have
a impact on breakfast
There is also interest in drinking rather
than eating nutrients at breakfast. Sales of
‘breakfast drinks’ — from fruit smoothies
to cereal-based protein drinks — have
risen by 4.9 per cent in the UK (North, 2015).
Fruit juices, in particular, have become a
popular choice for diners eating breakfast
out. They’ve seen an 8.8 per cent increase
in consumption, with almost a fifth of people
ordering one to go with their meals (M&C
Allegra Foodservice, 2015).
The trend towards eating breakfast out
sees us eating more cooked foods, with
eggs and bacon the most popular choices
by quite some distance. Almost 40 per cent
of breakfasts eaten at a casual restaurant
during the first quarter of 2015 included
eggs, while bacon featured in more than a
third (M&C Allegra Foodservice, 2015). The
traditional cooked breakfast also remains
a favourite, with a quarter of people
choosing this when eating at a restaurant
(M&C Allegra Foodservice, 2015).
Trends from main-stream cuisine are
crossing over into the breakfast market.
Some are short-lived and others have the
potential to become a more permanent
addition to our diets. Current hot trends
include artisan doughnuts, appearing at
street-food markets or on restaurant menus,
and the ‘burgerisation’ of cooked breakfast
ingredients — serving them up in a bun.
And some foodservice operators now offer
breakfast pots — mixing together breakfast
elements to boost convenience, such as
combining eggs and baked beans.
The importance of breakfast
Breakfast is an important meal that
has a huge impact on our health and
wellbeing — as well as on our
productivity throughout the day. People
who eat a regular breakfast:
•
find it easier to maintain a healthy
weight (British Dietetic
Association, 2016.)
•
reduce their risk of developing a
cardiovascular disease (British
Dietetic Association, 2016.)
•
have a lower body mass index
(BMI) than those who regularly
skip it (Clayton, Barutcu, Machin,
Stensel,& James, 2015).
Early eating
boosts productivity
Breakfast and weight loss
Eating a meal first thing every day can have
a dramatic effect on our long-term health
and wellbeing. For starters, breakfast
kick-starts our metabolism, providing all
the nutrients our bodies need to keep us
going — whatever we do (British Dietetic
Association, 2016.).
There’s a common assumption that missing
the first meal of the day is a good way to
lose weight — and that skipping breakfast
causes you to overeat for lunch and dinner.
But there’s no hard and fast rule for either.
Eating a good breakfast makes us more
productive. Even if we eat a larger lunch
to compensate for skipping breakfast,
our productivity throughout the day is
reduced (Clayton, Barutcu, Machin,
Stensel, & James, 2015). We might not
feel like eating until lunchtime, but our
bodies say it’s wise to eat breakfast.
Overweight people skipping breakfast
every day for four weeks are likely to lose
weight (Geliebter, Astbury, Aviram-Friedman,
Yahav, & Hashim, 2014), but there’s also
research to suggest that eating breakfast
can have a positive effect on weight loss
by leading us to take part in more physical
activity (University of Bath, 2016).
However, skipping breakfast regularly
does also have other negative effects.
It’s not just about weight loss — going
without breakfast increases the risk of
developing type 2 diabetes (Bi, et al., 2015).
The importance of breakfast
Disrupting our
natural rhythm
So it’s clear that the choice to eat
breakfast in a morning (or not) can have
massive implications for both our short and
long-term health. But why? What is it that
causes our bodies such problems if we
don’t eat early in the morning?
Much of it is down to the way our bodies
react in particular ways at certain times
during the day. Circadian rhythms dictate
how our bodies process meals, depending
on when we eat them (Morris, et al., 2015).
These are physical and mental changes
(closely related to our biological clocks) that
follow a roughly 24-hour cycle, responding
to light and dark (National Institute of
General Medical Sciences, 2012).
Early habits count
And our circadian rhythms mean that our
glucose tolerance is higher in the morning
than in the evening (Morris, et al., 2015).
So just after we wake up is the best time
for us to eat, because our bodies process
the nutrients more efficiently, giving us
more energy for the day ahead.
It’s essentially like stopping to fill up your
car with petrol in the morning. You can
drive further and faster on a fuller tank
than if you constantly have to pull over
to top up in small amounts.
It’s important to develop a habit of eating
a healthy breakfast each day while young.
Poor breakfast habits in adolescence
increase the likelihood of developing
metabolic syndrome (a mixture of diabetes,
high blood pressure and obesity) in
adulthood (Wennberg, Gustafsson,
Wennberg, & Hammarstrom, 2015).
Why do people skip breakfast?
Britain is a nation of breakfast skippers.
Nearly half of all British people miss
breakfast at least once a week (North,
2015). And only a quarter manage to eat
breakfast every day (Atchley, 2015).
So what’s stopping people eating
breakfast regularly?
Not enough time
in the day
Almost 40 per cent of people skip
breakfast due to a lack of time
(Atchley, 2015). And when we’re
working to a tight schedule in the
morning — perhaps factoring in the
time for a commute — breakfast is
often the easiest thing to sacrifice.
Working habits
are changing
It’s no wonder people struggle to prioritise
a healthy breakfast when time is short —
especially for adults of working age.
Working hours are longer than they were
a decade ago, with a 15 per cent rise in
the number of people working more
than 48 hours a week (TUC, 2015), which
is the UK Government’s own maximum
(UK Government, 2015).
It’s a particular problem amongst young
adults, with a tenth of people in the 18-24
age group working more than 20 hours of
overtime each week (Dann, 2015).
This has an impact on work-life balance,
cutting into downtime and making unhealthy
eating — such as missing breakfast —
more likely.
Why do people skip breakfast?
Longer commutes
push out breakfast
Flexible working
changes our meal times
Another time pressure is the fact that many
of us now have to live further from our place
of work. Average UK house prices are set
to rise by six per cent this year (Osborne,
2015), and by 50 per cent over the next ten
years (BBC, 2015).
Working flexibly is an attractive prospect
to many of us, particularly in the face of
increasing travelling time. Remote working
has increased by 37 per cent in the UK —
and 60 per cent of employers believe it
makes people more productive (FM World,
2016). In fact, a third of workers would
prefer to work flexible hours than have a
three per cent pay rise (Frith, 2016).
This means we’re less likely to be able
to afford housing within any sort of proximity
to our workplaces (Rodionova, 2015) —
especially if we live and work in the UK’s
cities. This results in longer journeys,
beginning earlier and earlier, making
breakfast less of a priority.
Also, the unstructured nature of flexible
working fosters a snacking or ‘grazing’
instinct that keeps dangerous stress
hormones at persistently high levels
(Jowit, 2016).
Unfortunately, flexible working can have a
negative effect on our health and wellbeing.
The ‘always available’ nature of working
away from the office pushes out regular
meal breaks.
Almost 40 per cent of people
skip breakfast due to a lack of time
How to get more people eating breakfast
We like breakfast; we just don’t have
time for it as much as we used to.However,
given the strong link between breakfast
and productivity, it’s in the interests of UK
organisations to encourage people to make
time for breakfast.
Longer working hours (at varying times)
an increased travelling distances mean
that — similar to the labourers of the Middle
Ages — we’re shifting to eating our first
meal of the day mid-morning. Organisations
have to adapt to these changes to get the
best from people.
1. Encourage early starts
By heading out for work that little bit
earlier in the morning, people can avoid
the stress of sitting in traffic and set
themselves up for the day by taking the time
to enjoy breakfast.
2. Hold breakfast
meetings
4. Offer a range of
healthy choices
Getting teams together over a shared
breakfast catches people at their most
productive, and gives them the fuel they
need for the day ahead.
Organisations need to ensure easy access
to nutritious food options. And offering a
variety of choices will encourage people to
eat breakfast
throughout the week.
3. Make meals easy
and convenient
Organisations need to provide access to
quick and easy ways for people to get the
sustenance essential for productivity. And
with more people taking advantage of
flexible working practices, they need to have
breakfast available well beyond 9am.
5. Show people they
have value
When organisations make the effort to
provide a selection of food and drinks
throughout the day (including breakfast),
their employees feel more valued and work
more productively.
How to get more people eating breakfast
Meet for breakfast
As we’ve mentioned, one way
organisations can harness the
productive power of breakfast is to
start scheduling their meetings for
first thing in the morning.
Nearly two-thirds of workers find it easier
to concentrate on meetings held earlier
in the day, rather than later (meetpie.com,
2014). For many, between 10:00am and
10:30am is the most productive period of
the day (Taylor-Smith, 2014), making it the
ideal time to book meetings.
Sharing a breakfast during your morning
meeting can also boost productivity in
people. Almost three-quarters of workers
found themselves to be more alert and
enthusiastic at breakfast meetings, while
85 per cent felt more productive
throughout their day after eating together
in the morning (meetpie.com, 2014).
So by providing a wide range of
nutritious food options for breakfast
meetings, organisations can make their
get-togethers as productive as possible
while setting their people up to work more
efficiently throughout the day ahead.
Breakfast needs to be a priority for organisations
Breakfast is important to our health and
wellbeing. It provides the energy to keep us
going each day and reduces our chances
ofdeveloping long-term health problems.
Eating an early-morning meal regularly also
improves our productivity throughout our
day — more so than if we skipped it and
filled up at lunch.
So it’s good that the number of people
eating breakfast is rising. And we seem
to be seeing a culture shift in the way we
eat breakfast, with many of us eating out
regularly and looking for new (often
healthier) foods to enjoy. This change is
a positive, in that it makes consuming an
early-morning meal more appealing to all.
It’s in the interests of organisations to make
sure we have access to the nutrition we
need to be productive.
The healthier we are, the happier we
are — and the more energy we’ll put into
everything we do.
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