A new study has confirmed that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, at least if you want to do well in school.

Researchers from Cardiff University looked at 5,000 children aged between nine and 11, who were attending over 100 different primary schools. They wanted to investigate the link between breakfast quality and consumption, and educational attainment in key tests six to 18 months later.

The study, which is thought to be the largest of its kind to date, found that children who ate a healthy breakfast performed better academically.

In fact, those who ate breakfast were up to twice as likely to record an above average educational performance compared with children who did not eat breakfast.

However, eating unhealthy foods for breakfast, such as crisps and sweets, did not appear to have a positive impact on educational attainment. Around one in five participants admitted to eating these types of foods for breakfast.

The researchers believe this represents the strongest evidence to date of a meaningful link between dietary behaviour and educational attainment.

"While breakfast consumption has been consistently associated with general health outcomes and acute measures of concentration and cognitive function, evidence regarding links to concrete educational outcomes has until now been unclear.

"This study therefore offers the strongest evidence yet of links between aspects of what pupils eat and how well they do at school, which has significant implications for education and public health policy," commented the study's lead author, Hannah Littlecott.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Public Health Nutrition.