The Importance of Breakfast

A real eye-opener, the morning meal charges brain cells to full capacity. Breakfast is the meal most directly connected to school achievement. Kids who skip breakfast have shorter attention spans, do poorly in tasks requiring concentration and even score lower on standard achievement tests.

When researchers compared the diets of children who regularly eat breakfast with those who don't, they found that the breakfast skippers never made up for lost nutrients. Children who ate a morning meal took in far more nutrients over the course of the day.

While scientists can explain the physiology of breaking the fast, teachers can tell you firsthand about the impact breakfast skipping has on late morning behavior and school performance.

Researchers from Harvard Medical/Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston recently verified that hungry kids are more likely to have behavior as well as academic problems than children who are properly nourished.

In a Minnesota program which studied the effects of a universal breakfast pilot program in six schools, participating schools experienced a boost in learning and achievement. Students demonstrated a general increase in math grades and reading scores, increased attention, reduced nurse visits and improved behavior.

Feeding Sleepy Tummies

But knowing the importance of breakfast doesn't make it any easier to convince a child with a groggy tummy to eat. Some kids seem to have stomachs that wake up later than they do!

"It helps to make breakfast last on the list of things to do in the morning versus the first thing out of bed," says Peggy Paul, R.D., director of the Oregon Dairy Council/Nutrition Education Services.

Paul recommends varying the breakfast menu, perhaps with some surprise favorite foods occasionally. Since breakfast is when you eat, not what you eat, try offering non-breakfast foods such as a bowl of soup, sandwich or pasta.

"Sending breakfast along for the bus ride or car commute to school can work on occasion," says Paul. She suggests a hard boiled egg and a bagel, string cheese and apples spread with peanut butter or dry cereal in a bag with a side of banana.

When available, breakfast at daycare or school can offer a nutritious alternative to eating at home.

GOING FURTHER: Check out the following breakfast references:

Pollitt, E. Does breakfast make a difference in school? J. Am Diet. Assoc. 1995;95:1134-1139.

Kleinman, R.E., et al. Hunger in children in the United States: potential behavioral and emotional correlates. Pediatrics.1998;101(1). Available on the world wide web at http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/101/1/e3

TEACHER TIP: Breakfast as a Science Lesson

Educate students about how breakfast can help school performance. Below are ideas for helping students to understand the link between nutrition and learning.

Elementary school students:

To make your point, bring in a human model or poster that shows the brain (the science teacher or the library media specialist can help to locate these). Explain that when you feed your body you also feed your brain. After food is broken down in the stomach and intestines, nutrients from the food are absorbed into the bloodstream and delivered to all parts of the body, including the brain. The brain needs the energy from food so it can function at its very best.

Ask students to list the ways that they use their brains during a typical school morning (ex. to do math problems, read, answer questions, write sentences, etc). Emphasize that a nutritious breakfast can help them to do their best at these tasks. When students have difficulty concentrating or feel sleepy, it may be because they did not eat an adequate breakfast.

Ask students to write a story and/or draw a picture about breakfast using the theme "Take time to wake up your brain."

Middle/High School students:

Begin your lesson with a discussion on hunger. Hunger is the body's message to the brain that more nutrients are needed for growth, maintenance, repair and energy. By the time hunger sets in, the body's energy stores are running low and the ability to focus on tasks becomes difficult.

Ask them to calculate the number of hours that the body goes without food when breakfast is missed (around 18). By this point, the body's energy stores are running low and less glucose will be available to the brain. Eating a balanced breakfast (with at least three of the five pyramid food groups) will result in an increased supply of glucose available to the brain and enhance their ability to think, concentrate and learn. That is why students who eat breakfast tend to score higher on standard achievement tests than their peers who skip breakfast.

Sometimes students in the secondary grades skip breakfast in order to control weight. Emphasize that breakfast does not cause weight gain and that breakfast-eaters actually tend to be leaner because they are not as likely to snack on high calorie foods later in the day.

Encourage students to keep a breakfast diary with a space to record how they feel and perform in school each day. Follow up on the journals and encourage students to analyze whether there is a relationship between what they eat and how they do in school.

FOR KIDS ONLY: Take time to wake up your brain!

Did you know that kids who eat breakfast do better in school? That's because breakfast feeds both your body and your mind. If you are too busy to eat a healthy breakfast, try one of the following ideas:

____ Eat breakfast at school.

____ Get up 15 minutes earlier.

____ Pack your breakfast in a bag and eat it on the bus.

____ Your ideas:______________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

Can you plan three easy, nutritious breakfasts that you can fix by yourself? HINT: You don't have to eat "breakfast foods" in the morning. Sandwiches, leftovers or soup are perfectly OK too!

Try for at least three different food groups in each breakfast plan:

1.__________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

2.__________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

3.__________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

NOTE: This activity is taken from the Leader/Activity Guide: A hands-on guide filled with delicious learning! (order info below).

ASK CONNIE: Finding a Dietitian

A few months ago, I took the "Ask Connie" link off of my website. While I was pleased to see the great interest in children's nutrition, I was literally *swamped* with questions and I couldn't begin to keep up with the volume. The major reason for my decision, though, was that many of the questions were beyond the scope of what a "virtual" internet dietitian can ethically do (my opinion of course -- the pace of technology could soon change this!).

Some examples:

Q. My beautiful daughter is 12 years old and 25 pounds overweight. She is unhappy and keeps talking about "becoming anorexic." Can you help me?

Q. My three year-old is already 10 pounds overweight. What kind of diet should I put him on?

Q. My son eats next to nothing. If it weren't for donuts and french fries, he would be starving right now. Do you know of an internet site where I can plug in my son's diet and come up with a complete nutritional analysis?

While my heart goes out to all of the parents who write to me, my answer to these types of questions was similar: Find a registered dietitian in your local area who has experience working with families and children. A registered dietitian is a highly trained professional who is qualified to do a thorough nutrition assessment, looking at many parameters including diet history, medical history, growth data, laboratory results and factors related to lifestyle. He/she is trained to provide medical nutrition therapy, counseling and referral to other allied health professionals when needed.

Just as you wouldn't take a complex legal problem to an "ask the lawyer" that you found on the internet, you shouldn't rely on the internet as your sole source of nutrition information. This can be especially dangerous since there are a large number of sites that give dubious nutrition advice from "experts" with questionable credentials. And even the best sites can't provide face-to-face individualized nutrition assessment and counseling. (As an aside, an excellent rating service for nutrition sites is the Tufts University Nutrition Navigator which can be found at http://navigator.tufts.edu)

To find a qualified nutrition expert or to get answers to your nutrition questions, The American Dietetic Association recommends:

• Talk to your doctor, health maintenance organization (HMO) or local hospital for a referral.
  
• Contact your local or state dietetic association, public health department, extension service or the nutrition department of an area college or university.
  
• Call The American Dietetic Association's Consumer Nutrition Hot Line at 800-366-1655. Ask to be referred to a registered dietitian in your area (9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Central time, Monday through Friday) or to listen to recorded messages in English or Spanish. You can also access referral information through the ADA website at <http://www.eatright.org>

 

©1999, by Connie Evers, All Rights Reserved. There is a modest reprint fee for reproducing the material in this newsletter in either print or electronic publications. Please send an email to reprint@nutritionforkids.com for details and rates.

The information contained in this newsletter is not intended as a substitute for medical and/or nutrition advice. See your physician and/or registered dietitian for individual health and/or dietary concerns.

Connie Evers, MS, RD, is the author of How to Teach Nutrition to Kids, the companion LEADER/ACTIVITY guide and a number of additional resources located at http://nutritionforkids.com.

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• Did you know that Connie is available to speak at state and national conferences on child nutrition topics? Email her at connie@nutritionforkids.com to discuss.

 
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