BREAKFAST: Don’t Start School Without It!
§ A complete breakfast includes complex carbohydrates, a source of Vitamin C and protein.
§ Breakfast should provide approximately 1/4 to 1/3 of these essential nutrients and calories for the day.
§ If breakfast is missed, it is difficult for children to make up those nutrients at lunch, dinner, or in snacks.
§ Children need calories for growth and development. If deprived of adequate calories, the first effect will be reduced energy for activities not directly related to survival.
§ Listless, apathetic, inattentive and disruptive are used to describe a child who is not getting enough calories.
§ If breakfast is not eaten, blood sugar levels get low by mid-morning. Results are hunger, fatigue, less efficient, and poorer attitudes toward schoolwork.
§ Children who skip breakfast tend to be overweight, exercise less and consume more salt.
§ Eating breakfast results in improved work rate and output, improved classroom behavior, higher scholastic attainment and lower absence rates.
