Joe’s Jotter: The Importance of Breakfast for Students
Students, You have heard your parents and other adults say many times that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” and that indeed is a hard fact. A decent breakfast will give you the energy to start each morning, help balance your weight and allow you to complete the tasks and challenges you face every day more efficiently. Breakfast is equally as important for children as it is for adults and a healthy one is a vital part of our health and wellbeing. The importance of breakfast as the first meal of the day has been scientifically proven; so your parents are actually correct.
Imagine food is the fuel for your daily activity. During exams and indeed school time, your body will demand good quality clean fuel and regular refuelling in order to nourish itself and maximise your concentration, starting first thing in the morning. I’ve had my own experience in relation to eating breakfast. In my early career, I didn’t eat anything in the morning until my first small break at work (eleven o’clock). During the early morning, I found myself regularly on edge and low in energy. I noticed that just before this break, my body was actually craving food. Basically, what was happening was my blood sugar levels had dropped too low and my concentration was poor during my first two hours teaching, and I knew it.
Morning Habits
As a teacher, I am familiar with students’ poor eating habits in the morning. It seems that sometimes students don’t feel like food or their stomach is unsettled early in the morning. Having eaten late the previous night, their stomach may be telling them that their body is still living off those energy stores. That’s OK. But students, please just eat something, no matter how small, to kick-start your system again. If you think about it logically, the body has not fuelled up for eight to ten hours during the night, so denying it any longer makes no sense at all, especially from a blood sugar and energy point of view.
There are hundreds of good breakfast options that aren’t that time consuming to prepare. These include: Smoothies containing fruit, plain yoghurt or chopped fruit with whole grain cereals and milk. A mixture like crushed nuts, a small dollop of organic honey and plain yoghurt can be quickly made and eaten. Homemade granola bars are great for when you’re on the go and better than the sugar-packed store-bought ones. Personally, I would recommend the following foods for breakfast: Oats, Muesli, Grapefruit, Watermelon, Greek yoghurt, Smoothies, Wholemeal bread, Scrambled eggs, Bananas, Low sugar cereal, Actimel, Low sugar orange juice and Low sugar multivitamin juice. If there are healthy wholesome foods you find hard to consume for breakfast, put other foods on top so that their unpalatable taste is masked. An example of this is to put bananas, fruit, yoghurt or honey on your porridge (cooked oats). I have found that my performance, energy, and concentration has improved greatly in school during the day now that I have introduced porridge into my diet. I recommend you try it for just three weeks and see.
Your Role as Parents
Parents, if your child skips breakfast before school, they are more likely to be tired throughout the day and will have reduced concentration levels. Preparing and encouraging them to consume a breakfast that is packed full of fibre, carbohydrates, grains, and protein will help boost concentration levels, improve memory and will stop complaints of hunger as the morning progresses. If breakfast is a busy time of day in your house, then feeding your children what they need quickly might be a daunting experience, but it doesn’t have to be. By stocking up on all the ingredients you need beforehand, you can deliver quick healthy breakfasts that they will enjoy. By preparing breakfast the night before, or getting them to prepare their own, you can cut wasted time in the morning. Here are my:
My Top Six Reasons to Eat Breakfast
- The Gap: Breakfast is the first meal you eat after sleeping through the night. You may not feel it, but your body is actually craving food and needs refuelling.
- Fighting Sickness: Skipping breakfast weakens your immune system and may increase your chances of becoming ill quicker as a result.
- Concentration Levels: A correlation between concentration and our ability to perform tasks has been proven through research. Food is known to enhance concentration.
- Serotonin Boost: Eating breakfast boosts levels of serotonin (a mood enhancer chemical).
- Increased Variety: Breakfast foods like whole grain cereals, eggs and porridge contain plenty of vitamins, minerals and fibre, and add great variety to your diet.
- Good Start: A scheduled healthy breakfast will help your body run like a well-oiled machine all day. It is a good start to any busy day. Joe
To view last weeks feature on ‘Tips on Preparing for any Maths Exam’, click here.
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© Joe McCormack 2021
Joe’s Jotter: The Importance of Breakfast for Students
Joe’s Jotter: The Importance of Breakfast for Students
Joe’s Jotter: The Importance of Breakfast for Students
