WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS
Great health begins with a great breakfast. So what exactly is a great breakfast? It is the meal that sets the tone for your
day, breaks the fast after not eating all night, and gives your brain and body the
energy, focus, and power for a day of learning and activity.
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| Great Breakfast Idea: Toast that meets THE NANCY RULE topped with peanut or almond butter and sliced strawberries. |
Planning great breakfasts for your kids means learning the basics
about carbohydrates, protein, and fats.
Loading the kids up with bowls of refined sugar, found in most
breakfast cereals, will doom them to a day of hyperactivity followed by blood
sugar crashes and the inability to concentrate.
Whenever I see kids on
their way to middle and high school in the morning stopping by the 7-11
convenient store to purchase one of those monster energy drinks or an Arizona
Southern Style iced tea, I wonder why the parents of those kids let them out of the house without their most valuable meal of the day. All sugar = empty calories and no nutritional value.
Here are three great breakfast ideas:
1.
Steel cut oats with blueberries, cinnamon, and
agave nectar plus almond, rice, or soy milk
2.
Toast made from whole grain bread that meets THE
NANCY RULE* plus a hard-boiled egg or a fried egg plus half an orange, peach, or pear.
3. Whole grain waffles (try the Van's brand in the freezer section to make this an easy choice) topped with fresh strawberries,
blueberries, and/or bananas and yogurt.
*THE NANCY RULE is something I created to make it easy to remember what kind of bread to buy:
- (1) 4 or more grams of dietary fiber per slice AND
- (2) the first ingredient includes the word “WHOLE”.
Set the example and make sure YOU are having breakfast, too. It may mean getting up 10 minutes earlier in the morning but it will pay great dividends - today and the rest of your life! Why? Because preventing obesity means not skipping meals. Losing weight means not skipping meals.
For more great healthy breakfast ideas for kids, go to: http://www.cookinglight.com/food/recipe-finder/kids-breakfast-recipes-00412000072277/
In gratitude,
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.
