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Suzannah Olivier, author of Healthy Food for Happy Kids lets us in on a few breakfast secrets
Children certainly need to 'breakfast like a king' (or a queen). This essential meal is needed to restore blood sugar levels after the overnight fast, to provide fuel for the morning. Children who skip breakfast, or who consistently eat cereals high in sugar, do not perform as well in aptitude tests, both verbal and non-verbal, when compared to children who eat slow-releasing complex carbohydrates and protein.
Unfortunately, breakfast is also the time when parents are often at their busiest - packing children off to school and themselves off to work - and the nourishing breakfast has got lost somewhere in the hurly-burly. The quick breakfast has been highjacked by cloyingly sweet cereals and cereal bars, all targeted specifically at children. Many cereals and cereal bars have a worse nutrition profile than chocolate bars and sweets and you wouldn't give your kids these for breakfast, would you?
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. By ensuring that protein is included, it makes for more morning brain-power than carbs alone.
Five time-to-spare breakfasts
- A bowl of old-fashioned porridge made with milk or soya milk. Sweeten with mashed banana and raisins.
- Boiled egg with wholemeal bread soldiers. Orange segments.
- Grilled bacon sandwich (using unsmoked, lean bacon with fat trimmed) with sliced tomato. Preferably using wholemeal bread.
- Grilled tomato and mushrooms with melted mozzarella on toast.
- Bowl of muesli (check the label for sugar content) with grated apple and sunflower seeds moistened with milk or calcium-enriched soya milk.
Five in-a-rush breakfasts
- Toasted cinnamon and raisin bagel with cream cheese. Glass of diluted orange juice.
- Some oatcakes spread with nut butter and jam. An apple.
- Low-sugar instant cereals such as Ready-Brek, corn-flakes or Weetabix. Serve with milk, or calcium-enriched soya milk or rice milk, chopped nuts and chopped dried apricots.
- Yoghurt with sliced fruit and toast with hummus.
- 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.
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