Brighter, Brainier, Breakfasts
April 22, 2009 by admin
Filed under How to get Kids to Eat Great
By Christine Wood, MD
www.kidseatgreat.com
Do you ever skip breakfast because you are in a hurry or just not hungry? While 99 percent of 3rd graders say they eat breakfast, the number drops to 85% when these students reach the 8th grade. Breakfast feeds the brain and has been proven to enhance school performance. Remember that after sleeping all night, our body and brain has gone without food for probably 10 or 12 hours. If your next meal isn’t until lunch, it can affect your school performance.
Did you know?
- Children who skip breakfast exhibit poorer attention and concentration and perform lower on tests than those who ate breakfast.
- Children who skip breakfast are often more deficient in their total nutrient intake of essential vitamins and minerals.
Following are some quick and easy breakfast ideas:
- Layer fresh fruit, low-fat yogurt, and cereal for a breakfast parfait with some nuts like almonds or walnuts. These nuts have healthy fats, called omega-3 fats that help brain function.
- Stuff a whole-wheat pita with cottage cheese and fresh fruit.
- Put yogurt and berries in the middle of two whole-grain toaster waffles.
- Spread peanut butter on whole-wheat bread and top it with slices of banana.
- Top a bagel with low-fat cream cheese and thinly sliced apples or hummus.
- Melt a slice of low-fat cheese over a scrambled egg on top of an English muffin.
- Top a whole-wheat tortilla with scrambled eggs and salsa and roll it up for a breakfast burrito. Add some black beans for more fiber.
- Make a batch of low-fat, whole-grain muffins and freeze them for breakfast on the go.
- Try a healthy smoothie with soy protein powder, fresh or frozen fruits. Add a tablespoon of peanut butter or a tablespoon for flaxseed oil for more of those healthy fats.
- Find healthier cereal choices by examining the nutrition label. Features of a healthier cereal to look for are: less than 6 grams of sugar, fiber content over 5 grams and protein content over 3 grams per serving. You may not find all of these in one cereal, but the more you can strive for the better. You may combine a current less healthy cereal with the better choice to get used to a healthier variety.
If you have a hard time planning your breakfast when you first roll out of bed, plan your breakfast the night before and get out what you can to make it easy for you to prepare in the morning. If you are absolutely crunched for time, take a bar and a piece of fruit with you to eat on the way to school. Talk to your parents about what type of food choices would be easy for you in the mornings and ask for their help to keep them available for you in the house. Remember, eating good food helps develop healthy minds and bodies!
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