HEALTHY BREAKFAST FOODS

Healthy Breakfast for Kids

A Healthy Breakfast For Your Child
Executive Summary about Healthy Breakfast for Kids by Carolin Joana

Breakfast is usually the time when you’re busiest - what with packing your kids off to school, looking after the house and rushing to work too. Often moms give a ready-to-serve breakfast with sweet cereals and cereal bars which do not have much of a nutrition profile to boast of.

Children certainly need a hearty breakfast to restore blood sugar levels after the overnight fast, to take them through the morning. No way should children be allowed to skip breakfast, or remain happy with cereals high in sugar, as they might not perform as well in aptitude tests, both verbal and non-verbal, when compared to children who eat slow-releasing complex carbohydrates and protein.

So what are the healthy breakfast choices? Always include a piece of fruit, or a vegetable such as mushrooms or tomatoes. Always provide a drink, and aim, also, to give some complex carbohydrates and some protein. Ensuring that protein is included makes for more morning brain-power than carbs alone.

Some time-to-spare breakfasts

1. A bowl of old-fashioned porridge made with milk or soya milk. Sweeten with mashed banana and raisins.

2. Boiled egg with wholemeal bread.

3. Grilled bacon sandwich (using unsmoked, lean bacon with fat trimmed) with sliced tomato. Preferably using wholemeal bread.

4. Grilled tomato and mushrooms with melted mozzarella on toast.

5. Bowl of muesli (check the label for sugar content) with grated apple and sunflower seeds moistened with milk or calcium-enriched soya milk.

Some in-a-rush breakfasts

1. Toasted cinnamon and raisin bagel with cream cheese. Glass of diluted orange juice.

2. Some oatcakes spread with nut butter and jam. An apple.

3. Low-sugar instant cereals. Serve with milk, or calcium-enriched soya milk or rice milk, chopped nuts and chopped dried apricots.

4. Yoghurt with sliced fruit and toast with hummus.

5. A slice of ham or cheese, wrapped in a slice of bread or added to a rye cracker with a chunk of cucumber. Glass of diluted mango juice.

Tips for Scheduling Time to Feed Kids a Healthy Breakfast

Studies conducted have proven that children who eat a healthy breakfast do better in school than those who either skip breakfast or fill up on sugary foods each day. Eating breakfast not only helps encourage proper growth and well being in kids, but will enable them to achieve better grades and all round performance.

Although with our fast paced lives it’s tempting to do without breakfast or pop in a sugary toaster pastry and go, there are ways to make the morning dash easier and leave time to offer your kids and yourselves a healthy breakfast each day. Here are some morning scheduling tips that may help.

1. Layout your kid’s clothing for the next day before you go to bed and make certain that their shoes are easily accessible.

2. Make sure your kids finish all their homework and have everything ready to go in their book bags the night before.

3. If you find you don’t have enough time to get everything ready and breakfast made in the mornings, even with careful planning, then perhaps you simply need to get up 15-20 minutes earlier each day.

4. Keep the kids off the computer/video games and turn off the television. Time spent playing can be better used eating a nice healthy breakfast.

5. Make positive breakfast food shopping choices at the grocery store. Buy healthy fruits and grains so that you always have a good option available for the kids to eat in the morning.

6. Big and little kids can make their own breakfast.

7. Many good breakfast foods can be prepared in the microwave, usually within 5 minutes. Look for healthy, microwavable breakfast foods at your local store.

8. Now, if you have no issue with this final tip, then by all means use it to help get the day going and still get some breakfast in the kids before they go off to school.

What are some easy, yet healthy breakfast choices for kids? My kids love toast, so we offer them cinnamon toast, jelly toast and toast with peanut butter.

The next time they say they don’t’ have time for breakfast; remind your kids that they’ll feel so much better throughout the day if they eat something healthy.

See this idea for breakfast.

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