THE VALUE VS THE PRICE OF BREAKFAST

“Each murder is one too many.” - Jürgen Habermas

I’ve blogged before about the importance of breakfast as a meal in terms of good metabolism and maintenance of health. We all know this and there are numerous options for healthy breakfasts around. One would think that this message is now well-entrenched in the community, but then again perhaps not. Survey results that were recently published about the dietary habits of Australians proved the latter point.

Apparently one third of Australians skip breakfast altogether, and more than half eat their breakfast on the go. Retail workers and students were the worst offenders for missing the most important meal of the day. On the other hand, bankers, lawyers, financiers, accountants and media workers were more likely to say that they couldn’t last the day without a good breakfast. Women were more likely to skip breakfast, often substituting a healthy breakfast for just a cup of coffee. Also, it appears that the younger survey responders were more likely to miss breakfast, with less than half of those aged 18-24 regularly eating a good breakfast. On the other hand, 60% of those between 25-44 years ate breakfast.

Something that I can certainly attest to, is the huge number of people that have breakfast on the go. About 60% of Australians eat breakfast on the train, in the car, while getting ready for work or at their desks at work. The number of people eating breakfast on the train each morning is increasing, I think. This is not bad, at least it is not as bad as skipping breakfast. Having something substantial first thing in the day kick-starts the metabolism and provides a source of energy preventing us from getting very hungry later in the day. This way, people that eat good breakfasts are less likely to become overweight as the appetite is controlled through the day.

It is disappointing that younger people do not eat good breakfasts, especially these days when we are seeing an epidemic of childhood obesity. Younger people often stay up late, sleep in the next morning and consequently end up being in a rush, sacrificing breakfast. It is also unlikely that these same young people will pack a good, healthful and nutritious lunch from home, opting for take away food, fat-rich snacks throughout the day and junk food.

**********************

On the subject of breakfast, a youth in England went to extremes in order to have a good breakfast. Apparently, after a bet with his friends, 16-year-old Joshua Davies was promised a full cooked breakfast if he carried out his threat to murder 15-year-old Rebecca Aylward. Unfortunately, this is an abominable story and Davies has already been found guilty and is facing a life sentence for murdering the girl.

The two adolescents had been seeing one another but then broke up. Davies bet his friends that he would kill Aylward for a cooked breakfast. He planned the murder, considering deadly foxgloves to poison her, drowning her in a river and throwing her off a cliff. What actually happened was even more brutal. He lured Aylward to a rendezvous in the woods. She accepted, believing he was trying to re-establish their relationship. Tragically, the girl was killed by Davies, her head battered with a rock until she was dead…

This is a deplorable murder and hair-raising considering its context. The reason for it being largely a dare, a bet. The girl’s life was wasted in a brutal and coldly premeditated manner. The breakfast issue is proof of the trivialisation of the murderous act and the callous way in which the young murderer carried out the killing in order to “win the bet” and prove himself… The image of the young girl’s body found in the woods, face down in the rain, after the day of the murder is a horrific one. I cannot place myself in the shoes of the family who have to cope with this terrible end of their young daughter and who can only imagine the terror of her last moments, as she received blow after blow, six all together, from the young murderer’s hands. What is the world coming to?