It is 6 am. Your morning alarm sounds. You get up, hit the snooze button, and doze off again. After sometime, the alarm sounds again. And you know, you have to rush else you will be late. So, you hurriedly brush your teeth, take a bath, dress up for the day, skip breakfast and rush out of the door. Sounds familiar?
If yes, then blame yourself the next time you score less marks, or experience stomach cramps/ headache. For skipping breakfast, can not only cause these problems but also increase your weight.
Why breakfast is important?
Being the first meal, it is considered to be the most important meal as it gets the body going for the rest of the day.
Benefits of having breakfast:
1. Increased Concentration
Eating a healthy breakfast compromising whole grains, low-fat protein and dairy and fruits and vegetables can improve concentration and focus. Researchers believe that students who eat low-glycemic, balanced breakfast show fewer signs of frustration when handling complex tasks, have better concentration, focus and memory than students who eat a carbohydrate-laden breakfast.
2. Improvement of Grades
Eating breakfast every day is said to improve mental performance thus helping students improve their tests grades, esp., their maths scores. Moreover, children who eat breakfast are believed to be more participative in class discussions.
3. Physical Benefits
Many schools conduct their sports classes during mornings. Breakfast provides students necessary energy to actively participate in physical education classes or other extracurricular activities.
4. Staying Fit
Hunger can lead to weakness, mood swings or medical conditions like acidity resulting in stomach discomfort or headaches. Bad moods in turn leads to poor concentration and alertness. Students who eat breakfast regularly are less prone to illness and are generally in better health overall.
5. Maintain a Healthy Weight
As we age, there is a tendency to skip meals for losing or maintaining our weight. But skipping breakfast may actually do more harm than good. A few more hours of starving after going several hours without eating overnight can lead to overeating or cravings for poor food choices. This can derail our weight loss efforts by increasing our body mass index, or BMI. Also, going without food for too many hours on regular basis increases the production of insulin in the body, thus forcing the body to store more fat.
6. Nutritional Requirements
Depending upon our age and gender, the nutritional requirements of our body varies. Eating breakfast however, gives us a jump-start on meeting our nutritional requirements of the day. It gives an opportunity to take in essential nutrients; and many vitamins and minerals that our bodies need.
Important to Remember
While eating anything is better than skipping breakfast altogether, it is important to make healthy choices. Plan a meal which contains a balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates like a toast with peanut butter or fruits or cereals with milk. Also, replace your morning cup of coffee/tea with a glass of juice or milk.
Some easy-to-make breakfast ideas:
• Fruits, milk or milk products (e.g, yogurt, low-fat milk)
• Omelette with cheese and vegetables
• Oatmeal with a handful of walnuts
• Scrambled eggs with spinach and a sprinkle of cheese.
• Some quick foods like granola bars, dried cereal, fresh fruit and dried fruit.
Not just kids, eating a healthy breakfast should be a practice among all the family members. After all, it is only a matter of few minutes for a healthy start to a day.
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