The WM Parenting Connection

By Stacey Celaya - Family Health Expert

Can someone please explain to me why when children reach the age of puberty they suddenly decide that eating breakfast is inconvenient and that it is ok to do away with it? I have always made sure my kids eat breakfast before they go anywhere - I always eat breakfast myself. When I was 25 years old I had my gall bladder removed. Since that time, if I don't eat something shortly after I wake up my stomach is angry at me all day!

This is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves! My middle daughter Sarah is 16 and when that girl is hungry or tired the world had better watch out! So why on earth would the girl NOT want to eat breakfast before tackling her very busy day? Beats me! But it has taken many, many arguments and lecture after lecture to get her to eat breakfast without a fight - and even then if she is running late, breakfast is the first short cut she makes to save time. I have made a point to buy easy, on-the-go type of foods for breakfast in addition to sit-down breakfast foods to help make it easier for her to comply with my breakfast requirement. Sometimes this works and sometimes not.

Undoubtedly we have all heard the notion that "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day." But why is that? What makes it so important? What are the benefits to eating breakfast?

There have been many studies throughout the years that have proven that eating breakfast is beneficial in several ways.

• Improves overall health and nutrition. Eating breakfast improves nutritional intake. Cereal and milk often have the biggest amounts of calcium, folate, Vit. B and iron. Eating breakfast helps to control hunger allowing for better food choices throughout the day, improving overall nutrition.
• Improves ability to control weight. Studies have shown that children that skip breakfast are almost twice as likely to be overweight as children who eat breakfast. Children live what they learn and many adults skip breakfast because they are trying to lose weight or keep from gaining weight. This is counterproductive because skipping breakfast actually creates an extreme hunger pattern that extends throughout the day so you end up overeating throughout the day as a result.
• Improves ability to concentrate and performance in school. According to The American Dietetic Association children that eat breakfast perform better in the classroom as well as on the playground. They have better concentration, problem-solving skills and hand-eye coordination.
• Think of your body and metabolism as a furnace. Breakfast is the first chance your furnace has had to replenish its fuel - glucose. Glucose is your furnaces main energy source. It is what feeds your muscles throughout the day. Skipping breakfast can cause a decrease in physical activity throughout the day. Glucose also feeds your brain - without it your brain feels foggy and you lose the ability to concentrate.
• Help ward off type II Diabetes and heart disease. According to a study of 3000 people by Harvard Medical School obesity and rates of insulin resistance were up to 50% lower for people who ate breakfast everyday. Breakfast eaters were also less like to develop heart disease, actually cutting their risk of having a heart attack.

So what are some ways that you can help get breakfast in even when life is crazy?

• Wake up 10 minutes earlier than usual. This is plenty of time to throw some cereal and milk into a bowl or toast some bread and slap some peanut butter on it. Follow that with a glass of milk and an apple and you are ready to rock and roll.
• Buy things that you can grab and go. Granola bars, breakfast bars, bagel with cream cheese, fruit and nuts, yogurt or hard boiled eggs. Try putting some cereal into a coffee mug with milk, drink your cereal and then the milk.
• Try making breakfast the night before. Bake some whole grain muffins you can grab on the way out the door in the morning or cut up some fruit that you can throw into a bowl of yogurt.
  

Breakfast needs to be a priority on everyones list. The benefits far out weigh whatever reasons we might come up with to convince ourselves otherwise. Our bodies and our brains need fuel to get through the day.

Are You a Member of The Breakfast Club??