Health-conscious Britons are swapping traditional fry-ups for a nutritious breakfast of cereal, croissants and toast in ever increasing numbers, a study published today reveals.

　　Five times more people now prefer a carbohydrate-based breakfast to the waist-line bulging combination of bacon and eggs, according to research by the Grain Information Service (GIS).

　　Even at the weekend, the cooked breakfast lost out to its Continental counterpart in the popularity stakes.

　　Look here too...Skip gossip links to more articles GI diet: Good for your heart and waistline

　　Only 23.8 per cent of women and 41 per cent of men treated themselves over the weekend to a fry-up as the majority stuck with cereal and toast.

　　The study found Londoners were the most constrained over Saturday and Sunday, as just 19.5 per cent gave into temptation and tucked into bacon and eggs.

　　The survey, which looked at the population's breakfast eating habits, also found that almost three quarters of people (71.5 per cent) did manage to eat breakfast before work.

　　Attitudes to the importance of what nutritionists have often claimed is the most important meal of the day varied dramatically with age.

　　The study found a quarter (25 per cent) of 18 to 24-year-olds admitted they never ate breakfast, compared to less than 10 per cent of people aged 35.

　　Nearly half (42 per cent) of those who skipped breakfast blamed a lack of time.

　　Over a third (36.7 per cent) of people claimed that eating breakfast gives them more energy. GIS said their research had shown that Britons were moving away from what it described as "faddy diets" like Atkins and going back to basics.

　　Eating breakfast has been shown to have a number of significant benefits. Researchers have found that breakfast boosts your health, controls hunger pangs, and can also boost your brain and energy levels making you alert in the morning.