When you were a kid, did your Mum tell you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Mum was right. Yet many children, (and even many of us big kids) either skip this meal, have food that is minimal or food that is not nutritionally balanced. This should be our biggest meal of the day. We have just slept for at least 8 hours (hopefully) therefore fasting, and we are about to expand a lot of energy for a long period of time. We have to set up our energy levels and concentration to perform at it’s maximum potential.
Gone are the days where we should just have a piece of toast or sugary cereal. This does not sustain our energy, keep our hunger at bay for long or do anything for our brain function. Our brain is made up of fat and we burn fat for energy, so believe it or not we need to start the day with some fat as well as protein and carbohydrates. Protein is essential for the development of muscles, hair, skin and bones. Carbohydrates fuel your body, help build energy and produce insulin to stabilise your blood sugar for your brain and muscles to work properly. This in turn assists your metabolism to burn these foods. Therefore protein and carbohydrates are both very important to growth, development and energy.
Eating a balanced meal at breakfast helps your body with this process. If we have our large meal at night and then go to sleep we are store this energy and not burning it off. It also puts pressure on our digestive system that should be resting not working over time. Having that larger meal at breakfast keeps you full for longer and prevents you from snacking too much on the wrong food.
So a good and balanced breakfast is essential for the growth and development of our children. How hard is it to concentrate at school with the wrong food?