I’m sure you’ve heard it many times in your life, “Make sure you eat your breakfast.” Especially when you’re a university, or even a high school or elementary student, having breakfast in the morning isn’t something that’s necessarily easy. But, when you’re rushing to class, it might be beneficial to hear about why breakfast is so important and why you shouldn’t skimp on it.

Bottom line, you need to eat breakfast. If you’re busy spending time studying or cramming for a reading you didn’t finish, you need it even more than you think. Breakfast provides glucose levels, which is an essential carbohydrate for memory and concentration levels, according to shakeupyourwakeup.com’s report on results from several studies. They also reported that it can even make us happier and lower our stress levels. Consumer Reports also published an article in August of last year specifying the benefits of breakfast. Quoting James Betts, Ph.D., and lead researcher and senior lecturer in nutrition and metabolism, “eating breakfast seems to have a ‘second-meal effect.’ It primes your metabolism to maintain stable blood sugar levels after subsequent meals.” The article went on to say that, according to Eric Rimm, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, skipping out on breakfast will have such negative impacts as encouraging you to eat more during lunch, which will cause spikes in your glucose levels.

Similarly, The Washington Post published an article in August of 2015 discussing how the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee discovered through their research that skipping breakfast may in fact lead to weight gain. Reported as being found in the committee’s 2010 Dietary Guidelines, The Washington Post quoted, “eat a nutrient-dense breakfast. Not eating breakfast has been associated with excess body weight, especially among children and adolescents. Consuming breakfast also has been associated with weight loss maintenance.”

There are tons of things for you to eat that are healthy for you and can also help you in the morning- not only to wake up but also to keep moving with your busy schedule. Health.com recently released a list of the best breakfast foods to have, which include things like oatmeal, Greek yogurt, wheat germ, grapefruit, bananas, and almond butter, to name a few. Basically, you don’t really have any reason not to be eating breakfast and given all the benefits you can reap from it, would you really want to skip it?