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Background and Objective: breakfast is recommended as the most important meal of the day, but not all studies show positive effects of breakfast consumption on the cognitive performance. Differences in breakfast composition may account for some of the contradictory results reported so far. There are limited studies investigating the effect of breakfast composition on cognitive performance. This study was designed to compare the effect of two common Iranian breakfasts (high-carbohydrate vs high-protein) on the cognitive performance of elementary school children Materials and Methods: Fifty-one well-nourished children (27 girls, 24 boys) aged 9-11 years participated in the this study. They consumed one of 2 breakfasts (60%carbohydrate or 25%- protein), or took no breakfast, as controls (the fasted state) in a randomized cross-over design with one week apart as the wash-out period. The breakfasts were similar with regard to the energy and fat contents, but differed in carbohydrate and protein composition. Cognitive performance was assessed prior to, and 30 and 120 minutes after, taking breakfast, using the standard computerized CDR assessment tests. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS (version 15), and P<0.05 was considered as the level of significance. Results: No statistically significant differences were observed among the 3 groups (high-carbohydrate breakfast, high-protein breakfast, and control) with regard to most of the tasks. However, the high-carbohydrate breakfast significantly impaired the simple reaction time (P<0.023), the choice reaction time (P<0.018), and the power of attention (P<0.013) in girls. The choice reaction time improved in the control boys (P<0.003). Conclusion: Breakfast composition had no effect on the healthy boys' cognitive performance, but a high-carbohydrate breakfast reduced the power of attention in healthy girls. It is recommend that the effect of quality and quantity of breakfast on the mood of the children be also assessed in future studies.

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Background and Objective: Breakfast, considered to be the most important meal, is skipped more ferquently than other meals by children and adolescents. ‏This study aimed to determine breakfast consumption and its predictors among Qom school girl students based on the Pender`s health promotion model constructs. Materials and Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was carried out on 100 secondary school girl students selected by classified random sampling from among secondary schools of the City of Qom, Iran. The Pender`s health promotion model (HPM) constructs were used as the theoretical framework. Data were collected using questionnaires. Statistical analysis of the data was performed by SPSS (version 17) software, the statistical tests being correlation and regression analysis. Results: The average number of breakfasts consumed per week was 3 (± 1.5) . Body mass index, time of waking up in the morning, and interpersonal influences had no significant correlations with the average number of breakfasts consumed per week. On the basis of the Pender`s health promotion model constructs and personal factors having a potentially significant correlation with behavior, 69% of the variability in breakfast consumption by the girl students (R2 =0.69, F =12.68, p< 0.0001) was predicted by the folowing variables: prior related behaviors, perceived barriers, self-efficacy, and competing demands and preferences. Conclusion: In designing nutritional interventions aiming at increasing breakfast consumption in school girl students, it is better to put more emphasis on strategies to promote self-efficacy and reduce perceived barriers. Also, paying due attention to prior related behavior and competing demands and preferences can be beneficial in designing effective interventions. Keywords: Breakfast, Pender's health promotion model, School students

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Background and Objectives: Due to faster growth of physiological factors, adolescence is one of the most critical periods of human growth. Proper nutrition can considerably help to increase the quality of growth in the teenage population. This study aimed to determine the status of breakfast and snacks among the students of five Iranian ethnicities in winter 2015.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 2444 students aged 12-14 from 5 Iranian ethnicities (Arab, Kurdish, Sistani and Baluchi, Turkish and Turkmen) using multistage stratified and random sampling method. Data collection tool included a researcher-made questionnaire containing demographic variables and dependent variables with 17 questions. Validity and reliability of the questionnaire were approved. All breakfast and snack foods consumed recorded for the current and the previous days.

Results:  The mean type of food at home was 2.2 for breakfast and the mean amount of snacks at school was 1.8. 17.3% of the students at home breakfast and 16.2% of students at the school did not consume any food. The least nutrition content group was the group of fruits and vegetables, and the highest nutrition was from the miscellaneous group. The quality of 16% of the received foods was poor. There was a significant relationship between the quantity and quality of foods consumed and the ethnic groups (p<0.001).

Conclusion: The results showed that the status of breakfast and snacks among the students in the studied ethnicities groups was different, and all ethnicity groups in need of improvement.

Keywords:  Consumption of breakfast, Consumption of snack, Students’ nutrition, Iranian ethnic

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Background and Objectives: Breakfast-chocolate is high in fat and calorie; hence, its consumption is limited for people suffering from certain diseases such as obesity and diabetes. Therefore, replacement of fat and milk powder with compounds based on carbohydrate and protein with low digestibility can decrease calories of this product and made it consumable for patients with lactose intolerance.
Materials and methods: Therapeutic diet breakfast-chocolate was produced by replacing maltodextrin and guar-xanthan gum with cocoa butter at 0–100% levels and replacing sesame and sweet almond meals with milk powder at 0–100% levels. Then, physicochemical, textural, rheological and microbiological characteristics of this product were compared with those of the control sample (containing cocoa butter and milk powder) during 60 d of storage using SPSS Software.
Results: Results showed that maltodextrin and guar-xanthan replacement included significant effects (p < 0.05) on decreasing calories and fat content of diet breakfast-chocolate. Complete replacement of sesame and sweet almond meals with milk powder caused significant increases (p < 0.05) in the protein content of the final product. All samples of diet breakfast-chocolate on the Day 1 of production and Day 60 after storage included higher elastic modulus (G' ) values than the viscous modulus (G") within the temperature range with no significant differences, compared to the control sample.
Conclusions: Results of this study verified effectiveness of using fat substitutes such as maltodextrin and guar-xanthan gum and sesame and sweet almond meals as substitutes for milk powder in production of therapeutic diet breakfast-chocolate with similar qualities as commercial samples.