'Lunch is for wimps' was the yuppie catchprase of the Nineties but in the Noughties it is breakfast which workers are skipping, a study has revealed.

IN our increasingly time-deprived lifestyles, breakfast is often the last thing on people's minds as they rush to catch their train.

Workers, especially commuters, are lucky if they can squeeze a slice of toast into their schedules.

Brighton, Haywards Heath and Crawley are awash with commuters who make the daily trek to London with rumbling stomachs and an absence of energy.

A report by market analysts Datamonitor says office workers skip breakfast completely or eat in front of their screens, while retailers cater for this new trend with snacks to be eaten on the hoof.

Datamonitor's Yasmeen Khan said factors such as increased labour mobility and longer working hours meant commuters did not have time for a traditional breakfast.

Cafes around Brighton station sell croissants by the hundred to people waiting for trains each morning.

Caterers a little further into the city are largely bypassed by commuters but pick up their trade from nearby office employees equally unable to fit in a bowl of cereal first thing.

Alastair Gourlay, owner of The Real Patisserie in Trafalgar Street, Brighton, said: "Products such as croissants and pain au chocolate lend themselves to eating on the move."

Julian Engelsman, owner of Bagelman in Bond Street, Brighton, said: "People are more into snacking and grazing than they ever used to be and I attend to that market. I've eaten at my desk for years and I'm in pretty good shape because bagels are nutritious and filling."

A slump in energy levels and concentration spans are often induced by an empty stomach.

Carly Witt, 26, commutes from Hove to London each day.

She said: "I have to get up so early, I prefer to eat when I get to the office, where I have a bowl of cereal at my desk. I'm starving by the time I get to London and always seem to have no energy first thing in the morning."

By missing breakfast, essential nutrients used up by the body in the night aren't replenished and the body becomes so desperate for sugar people tend to eat unhealthy snacks instead as a quick-fix.

Katie Clarke, nutritionist at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, said: "Breakfast gives you energy and helps concentration."

She suggested people nibble a piece of fruit, a bagel or a cereal bar on their way out if they don't have time for cereal.

Matthew Linder, a nutritionist and gym manager at the University of Sussex, said: "Eating at home is better because when someone snacks at their desk they tend to eat anything bar the essentials.

"Eating on the run is bad for you because your digestive process takes a bit longer."

The Datamonitor study suggests workers make up for their abstinence in the week by indulging at the weekend.