The Importance of Breakfast: Kickstarting Your Child’s Day with Nutrients
Are you a parent or carer of a child? It’s such an important role in life, and it is a mixed bag. Our kids can frustrate us at times and worry us at others. However, you wouldn’t trade it for the world, as your child or children bring you so much joy, love, and warm fuzzies that you can put up with some malarkey here and there.
Part of being a parent means ensuring that your child stays healthy, happy, and well-fed. Breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day. But how do you ensure a healthy breakfast each day? Thankfully, preparing healthy food doesn’t take being a nutritionist or healthcare professional with qualifications like those from online FNP programs. It’s important to kickstart their day with a nutritious breakfast. Still, with so many breakfast options available, it can all be a bit overwhelming. Especially if you have to attend to responsibilities like getting them to school before you get to work. That’s why we’ve prepared this helpful article, so read on to learn more.
Why Breakfast Is So Important
You might be wondering why breakfast is the most important meal of the day. We’ll explain why now.
Research has proven that kids who don’t have a wholesome, healthy morning breakfast may be restless at school, sluggish, and lose focus in class. This means their ability to learn is hindered, which could sometimes lead to behavioral issues.
A healthy breakfast meets nutritional needs and provides sustained energy to support concentration, cognitive function, and memory retention. It also supports hand-eye coordination, improved problem-solving abilities, and better behavior.
As you can see, a healthy breakfast is important to keep your child healthy, happy, engaged at school, learning to the best of their ability, and remaining focused, attentive, and behaving well.
What to Avoid
Let’s spend some time about what breakfast foods to avoid.
Sugary cereals are one, and most mainstream cereals are packed full of sugar and simple carbohydrates. These provide an immediate boost of energy followed by an abrupt crash, which would be during morning class for your child or children.
Bagels, white bread, and croissants are some other breakfast foods that are mainly simple carbs. All of these don’t provide enough sustained, long-lasting energy for a big morning at school and will leave your kid or kids tired, sluggish, and faded by mid-morning.
Fruit juice, while marketed as healthy, is packed full of sugar and lacks fiber because the juicing process has removed the skin from the fruit. So, a drink of fruit juice is likely to cause an energy spike followed by a crash, especially if it’s combined with other sugary foods like the ones mentioned above. The same applies to energy drinks, soda, and other fizzy, sugary drinks, as well as breakfast and muesli bars, pop-tarts, or other sweet-baked breakfast foods.
Healthy Options for Kids
As a general rule of thumb, anything that you make at home is better than store-purchased, highly processed foods. This way, you know exactly what’s in the food, including how much sugar, fat and other nasties.
Porridge made of steel-cut oats is a great option and one you can prepare in a large batch. You can then reheat it and serve it with some fresh fruit, a drizzle of honey, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and some nuts, pumpkin, or chia seeds. This healthy, filling breakfast is packed with protein, complex carbohydrates, and fiber. The health benefits of such a breakfast are many, such as providing long-lasting energy and brain fuel and helping to keep your kid or kids regular.
Another option is a low-fat, low-sugar yogurt with chia seeds, berries, and maybe some granola added for that satisfying crunch. This can be prepared the night before to save time and served when your child or children are getting up and getting ready for school.
If your kids are particular about what they eat, some other options, such as cottage cheese, hard-boiled eggs, or a fruit smoothie blended with yogurt, milk, berries, and oats, will provide sustained energy over time.
If they like toast, wholemeal bread is better than white bread. Digesting takes longer and won’t spike blood sugar as much as white bread. You can spread some healthy toppings on it, like peanut butter or avocado.
Another option is to make tasty wholemeal muffins and add grains, berries, or other sources of fiber and protein. This makes for an excellent grab-and-go breakfast for those hectic, rushed mornings when there’s barely time for anything.
In Conclusion
As you can see, we’ve explained the importance of breakfast and how it can kickstart your child’s day with some much-needed nutrients. We’ve listed some popular breakfast options and why you should avoid them, and we’ve also provided a wide range of healthy, nutritious options that will provide your child with the long-lasting energy and benefits to see them through a big morning at school. How will you be switching up your breakfast menu at home now?
