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Dr Alison Tedstone is from one of the many organisations around the world that tells us breakfast is a good thing, and she points to surveys presenting people who skip breakfast tend to be bigger, which we already know is an association.

But Dr Tedstone, chief nutritionist at Public Health England, agrees that the “evidence is by no means conclusive on having breakfast”.

However, she tells it is the easiest meal of the day to get right, that skipping it risks snacking on something unhealthy later on and that it can be a struggle to get the right balance of nutrients without starting the day well.

“It’s an easy meal to get a healthy meal, it’s an easy meal to get control over.”

What makes a healthy breakfast?

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There is no such thing as a perfect breakfast, but Dr Tedstone advises people to “think fibre” in the mornings.

“Overall we’re not getting enough fibre in our diet and it’s easy to incorporate fibre into breakfast.

“Take porridge – it’s cheap, it’s cheerful, ” she said.

As well as porridge, high fibre breakfasts include fruit, wholegrain toast and some breakfast cereals.

But some of the more palatable high-fibre cereals can be loaded with added salt and sugar.

Prof Susan Jebb, a nutrition scientist at the University of Oxford tells: “It is very difficult, I guess breakfast cereals are very challenging.”

She tells it’s necessary to check the labels as some have less added sugar and that fresh, stewed or dried fruit could be used to make it more palatable.

“I’d encourage people to have a piece of fruit with breakfast – much better to have fruit than fruit juice as then you get the fibre from the intact fruit.”

NHS: Healthy Breakfasts

Brain fuel

The other big case constructed for breakfast is that it improves children’s performance in school.

A study in 2015 by the University of Cardiff was the latest to present an association between a healthy breakfast and educational performance in the classroom.

These surveys are now coming in for the same criticism as those that discovered a is connected with breakfast and weight.

“It seems very plausible that missing breakfast as a kid is simply a marker of a poor home background – that household is unable to provide breakfast for a child – which is probably the cause of them not performing well at school, ” argues Prof David Rogers at the University of Bristol.

So how do we make sense of all this?

Prof Jebb argues: “If you’re currently feeing breakfast I think you should make it the healthiest breakfast you can.

“If you’re a breakfast skipper, I’m surely not going to say you must eat breakfast, but I would encourage you to think about it.”

While Prof Allison indicates people who are worried about their weight should dedicate both eating and skipping breakfast a go to see what works best for them – merely make sure you’re not snacking on sausage rolls by 11:00.

The science behind the benefits of breakfast does not support the absolute vehemence with which it is advocated, at the least in adults.

That said I’m still going to have my bowl of breakfast cereal.

It is a good start to the day for me personally otherwise I’m distractingly hungry. I might even try chucking in a bit of extra fruit.

Follow James on Twitter.

Read more: www.bbc.co.uk