Before going onto my post about breakfasts, just a quick apology to my regular readers for being missing in action for the last month. The past month has been absolutely crazy with my brother’s wedding and some personal issues leaving me no time to blog. However, everything is back on track now, so onto my post for today!!
The Best Breakfast for Your Kids
Recently, a nutritionist from my home town, Perth, presented a research paper at the Dietitians Association of Australia National Conference that suggested that increasing the number of food groups in your child’s breakfast will increase their mental health. Therese O’Sullivan stated that having a high quality breakfast, with at least three different healthy food groups, was linked to better mental health in the 800 teens that she studied.
Most of us are aware of previous research that has shown that eating breakfast has been linked to increased attentiveness in class, better memory retention and more interest in learning. However, this is the first time that a study has shown that variety at breakfast is also important.
The study suggests that most teens ate bread/cereals and dairy as their breakfast. By simply switching to whole grains and low fat dairy, and adding in another food group such as fruit, nuts, eggs or legumes, you will be setting up your child for the day.
Some quick and easy suggestions:
- wholemeal toast with low fat cheese and tomato slices
- add a spoonful of sunflower seeds or LSA mix (ground linseed, sunflower and almond) to your whole grain cereal
- top your multigrain toast with ricotta and sliced banana or strawberries
- add some canned fruit to your Cheerios
- toss some berries (fresh or frozen) with some rolled oats and top with low fat Greek yogurt
