Better breakfast with Make Mine Milk campaign

The Milk Marketing Forum (MMF), through its ‘make mine Milk’ campaign, has launched a new initiative called ‘Better Breakfast’, to help promote healthy eating in British schools. The project is based on the results of research which shows that more than a third (34%*) of teenagers in the UK are consuming unhealthy morning meals of fried foods, energy drinks and calorific snacks. The research found the top five ‘bad breakfast’ habits: fry-ups – over a third (34%) of teenagers confessed to eating fried foods to start their day; crisps – the second most popular ‘bad breakfast’ is eaten by nearly one in seven (15%) teenagers; chocolate bars/sweets – chocolate bars and sweets are enjoyed by 14% of teenagers of a morning; cake/biscuits – a tenth of teenagers have either of these items as their first food intake of the day; and energy drinks – one in 20 (5%) of young people replace their morning meal with drinks such as Red Bull. According to the research results, two fifths (40%) of teens admitted to skipping breakfast altogether in a bid to lose weight.

Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, and Olympic gold medalist cyclist Dani King – who also won The Milk Race in 2013 – are fronting the campaign. Both athletes spent time in secondary schools talking to students about the importance of a healthy breakfast. Grey-Thompson says, “As a former athlete and mum to an 11 year old daughter I know just how important a healthy diet is. You are what you eat and that all starts every morning with a well-balanced breakfast. I’ve seen some schools successfully set up breakfast clubs to help combat the problem of teenagers not eating properly – it would be great if this could be standard practice across the country.”

The ‘Better Breakfast initiative is part of a year-long partnership of activity between the ‘make mine Milk’ campaign, and BeatBullying, the charity which aims to make bullying unacceptable.