breakfast can be a daily struggle, getting your kids to actually eat a solid meal before leaving for school is a challenge for many parents. Mornings can be rushed, kids are tired and often they’re just not hungry yet. Poor breakfast habits are well known to create health problems, especially if it continues into adulthood. Still, many kids aren’t getting a balanced breakfast, or are skipping it altogether.
Studies show that Adolescents who ate a morning meal daily had a lower body mass index than teens who never ate in the mornings or only on occasion. But it’s not just general health that benefits from a nutritious start to the day, An educational study has found that students who eat breakfast are twice as likely to get good grades than those who skipped the morning meal.
An Article at Care2.com highlighted this issue:
“Researchers at Cardiff University in Wales studied 11-year-olds at 100 elementary schools to better examine the power of breakfast. Participating students were asked to fill out food journals each day to track their breakfast consumption. Prior to their lunch break, all students took tests, with the scores later split into two groups: breakfast eaters and breakfast skippers. In the end, the results showed that those who had breakfast were two times more likely to score above average on the tests.”
The research also showed that WHAT is being eaten matters significantly as well. Healthier foods like whole grains, fruit and dairy led to better overall test performance when compared to students that ate something full of sugar. Just because they are eating doesn’t mean they are getting the correct vitamins and nutrients to power their day.
So how do you get your child to sit down and eat right in the morning? Start by setting earlier bedtimes, this will help your child get up in time to eat something. Make having a solid morning meal a priority in your home. Hopefully, the entire family can sit down together, a practice that should start early in life. If mornings are too difficult to for a sit-down meal, try to have some quick healthy foods available. If you’re looking for something simple and quick like cereal, make sure to scanning the shelves for products made with whole grain and those that contain the correct nutrition your child needs.
Leave a Reply