Forget the eggs, how about Ham 'n' Cheese?

We’ve already reported on the recent failure of attempts in the UK to revive the old ‘Go To Work On An Egg’ campaign, featuring legendary comedian Tony Hancock. British watchdogs decided that the British public may be pressured by the classic advertisements to abandon a diverse diet in favor of an ‘eggs only’ breakfast. Well....new research is giving the good old egg another slap in the yolk this week as David Benton, a professor of psychology at Swansea University, has announced that his tests on six and seven-year old children, prove that a breakfast of ham and cheese is by far the perfect start to the day. Apparently its all down to the glucose release of the breakfast into the bloodstream. The slower the release, the better the kids performed and the scientist says the exact same principle applies to us adults. He says his experiments show the combination of ham and cheese accompanied by a low-fat spread on wholegrain bread had the most significant impact on memory, work rate and attention levels of all of the breakfast combinations tested including scrambled eggs, toast and jam, and yoghurt. Benton says the high protein in the ham and cheese breakfast will release into the system slowly, and therefore it will also suppress the appetite for longer, and prevent us from snacking. I have to say my first concern on reading this is the amount of salt in ham and cheese, and I remember reading many reports years ago on the possibilities of processed ham being linked to stomach cancer, so the idea of ham and cheese for brekky every day doesn’t excite me that much . Not surprisingly many nutritionists are not impressed by this new research and warn that medical science has not yet shown conclusively that food intake can increase attention span, add to that the fact that the jury is still out as to the full extent of the dangers of a high protein diet and I’d say think carefully before you ham it up!