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Brighter, Brainier Breakfasts

By Dr. Christine Wood

Does your daughter ever skip breakfast because she’s in a hurry or just not hungry? While 99 percent of third graders say they eat breakfast, the number drops to 85 percent when these students reach the eighth grade. Breakfast feeds the brain and has been proven to enhance school performance. Remember that after sleeping all night, your daughter’s body and brain has gone without food for probably 10 or 12 hours. If her next meal isn’t until lunch, it can affect her 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.

Here 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 hummus or low-fat cream cheese and thinly sliced apples.
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 and fresh or frozen fruits.
Add a tablespoon of peanut butter or a tablespoon of flaxseed oil for more of those healthy omega-3 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 breakfast when you first roll out of bed, start the night before and get out what you can to make morning preparation easy. If your daughter is absolutely crunched for time, pack an energy bar and a piece of fruit in her backpack to eat on the way to school. Also, talk to her about what types of food choices she’d prefer. Remember, eating good food helps develop healthy minds and bodies!

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