GIVE your wake-up a shake-up that's the theme of 2004's National Breakfast Week celebrations.

Many nutritionists consider breakfast the most important meal of the day. After going ten to 12 hours overnight without food, energy reserves are low and your body and brain need fuel. What you choose to eat at breakfast can affect your mood, physical and mental performance, weight and your general and long-term health.

Studies carried out at the University of Wales found that adults who ate breakfast tended to work faster, made fewer mistakes in logic tests and had better memory recall compared with breakfast-skippers.

Glucose is the brain's only fuel, it is also vital for the manufacture of neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is important for memory. After fasting overnight, blood glucose levels are at a low ebb which may explain why people who don't refuel with breakfast have difficulty concentrating and perform less well in the morning.

Studies carried out at the University of Bristol examined the breakfast habits of 126 volunteers between the ages of 20 and 79 and assessed their mental health.

The results revealed that, even taking into account that fact that breakfast eaters tended to have healthier lifestyles, those who ate breakfast every day were less depressed, less emotionally distressed and had lower perceived levels of stress compared with those who skipped the first meal of the day.

And for those who think that by skipping breakfast they can cut calories wrong! It is a false economy. If you miss breakfast you're much more likely to get hungry mid-morning and end up grabbing a snack.

The National Weight Control Registry in America, which investigates the behaviour of people who have lost an average of 32kg and kept it off for more than six years, found that nearly 80 per cent of people on their register ate breakfast. The key message is think breakfast and stop snacking'.

Remember that a healthy balanced breakfast: - Provides energy to help the body function more effectively.

- Can reduce stress levels.

- Can improve your mood.

- Can aid concentration and mental performance.

- Reduces snacking, aiding weight control.