We have all heard it said so many times that it has become a cliché: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If we know this, why is it that so many people are still not taking the time to eat breakfast? More importantly, why are we not making it a top priority to send our children off to school with full tummies?
Some people extremely incorrectly believe that forgoing breakfast for both themselves and their families is a way to cut calories and keep weight under control. Those people are, in a word, wrong. People who eat a healthy breakfast are less likely to have cravings and control the hunger that can cause them to overeat later in the day.
Breakfast makes us smarter
And eating breakfast doesn’t just prevent a rumbling tummy. It helps a healthy, active brain function and develop, which is important for you as you head off to work but is even more important for you little ones as they try to memorize multiplication tables and recall the date of the War of 1812.
Terrill Bravender, Duke University professor of pediatrics, told NPR.org: “Without glucose, our brain simply doesn't operate as well. People have difficulty understanding new information, [they have a] problem with visual and spatial understanding, and they don't remember things as well.”
If your child doesn’t have a healthy breakfast to provide that glucose before heading off to school, how on earth is he or she going to remember the words for that spelling test?
What's being done
Canadians have bought into this idea that breakfast = learning big time. In fact, they are so on board with the idea that Daniel Germain started Breakfast Clubs of Canada to make sure that children whose parents weren’t feeding them a healthy and nutritious breakfast because they simply couldn’t afford to didn’t get left behind, both nutritionally and in the classroom.
To date, they have served almost 30,000,000 breakfasts, and teachers are reporting that they have seen not only more energy and concentration out of children who eat breakfast but also better behavior.
If you want to help a child in need eat breakfast while you are feeding your own child, check out www.breakfastclubscanada.org to find out how you can help.
Now that you know why to feed your children breakfast, you need to know how. And, no, as you might have guessed, spilling some Froot Loops out of the box isn’t going to cut it. For more on healthy and nutritious breakfasts for busy families, stay tuned…
Some people extremely incorrectly believe that forgoing breakfast for both themselves and their families is a way to cut calories and keep weight under control. Those people are, in a word, wrong. People who eat a healthy breakfast are less likely to have cravings and control the hunger that can cause them to overeat later in the day.
Breakfast makes us smarter
And eating breakfast doesn’t just prevent a rumbling tummy. It helps a healthy, active brain function and develop, which is important for you as you head off to work but is even more important for you little ones as they try to memorize multiplication tables and recall the date of the War of 1812.
Terrill Bravender, Duke University professor of pediatrics, told NPR.org: “Without glucose, our brain simply doesn't operate as well. People have difficulty understanding new information, [they have a] problem with visual and spatial understanding, and they don't remember things as well.”
If your child doesn’t have a healthy breakfast to provide that glucose before heading off to school, how on earth is he or she going to remember the words for that spelling test?
What's being done
Canadians have bought into this idea that breakfast = learning big time. In fact, they are so on board with the idea that Daniel Germain started Breakfast Clubs of Canada to make sure that children whose parents weren’t feeding them a healthy and nutritious breakfast because they simply couldn’t afford to didn’t get left behind, both nutritionally and in the classroom.
To date, they have served almost 30,000,000 breakfasts, and teachers are reporting that they have seen not only more energy and concentration out of children who eat breakfast but also better behavior.
If you want to help a child in need eat breakfast while you are feeding your own child, check out www.breakfastclubscanada.org to find out how you can help.
Now that you know why to feed your children breakfast, you need to know how. And, no, as you might have guessed, spilling some Froot Loops out of the box isn’t going to cut it. For more on healthy and nutritious breakfasts for busy families, stay tuned…
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