ABC's of Breakfast ... E through J

Fast food

While the drive-thru lane may seem like a tempting morning solution, a typical egg, cheese and bacon biscuit has nearly 500 calories – and 31 grams of fat. To cut the calories and the cost, pack a simple to-go breakfast from home. If you do end up in a drive-thru lane, how about a yogurt parfait or small hamburger (one of your best bets for maximum protein and iron with minimal calories)?

Grapefruit

This juicy citrus fruit used to the most popular breakfast fruit – and it is still a refreshing choice. The banana has replaced it, since it’s difficult to eat a grapefruit in a car! For dashboard dining, dried fruit is another delicious option – try dried apricots, cranberries, mangoes, pears, pineapple, or raisins.

Hunger

The scientific evidence is overwhelming: hungry kids cannot learn. For better grades and better behavior, kids need a balanced breakfast. Check with your child’s school to see if they offer breakfast – and the teacher to see if he /she allows healthful snacks in class. Many do, because they see the difference in children’s behavior! For more on school breakfast, visit the Beyond Breakfast blog from the School Nutrition Association.

Iron

Low iron levels (the most common childhood nutrient deficiency in the US) can lead to many problems, including low energy levels and poor school performance. Fortified breakfast cereals are one of the tastiest ways to make certain that your whole family is getting enough iron.

Juice Smoothie

A glass of juice is better than no breakfast, but not by much. You get calories and a few phytonutrients (like antioxidants) – but nothing to ‘stick to your ribs.’ Turn your juice into a smoothie by adding a container of yogurt and some fresh or frozen fruit. You’ll feel better – and the office candy bowl will be much less tempting!

For a super simple, simply delicious Create-A-Smoothie recipe, visit Western Dairy Association’s page.

ABC's of Breakfast ... A through E

Any breakfast is better than no breakfast.

Research results validate the importance of breakfast, especially for children in school. Skipping breakfast seriously affects brainpower and can lead to school ‘daze.’ The benefits are impressive:

Academic success: Kids who eat breakfast regularly have higher grades and better scores, especially on math exams and standardized achievement tests.

Better attendance: School breakfast programs have been shown to decrease absence rates, tardiness, and visits to the nurse’s office.

Classroom behavior: Schools with high participation in breakfast programs report a 40 to 50 percent decrease in morning discipline referrals.

Better breakfasts are as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Even on the busiest days, everyone can enjoy the benefits of a morning meal. Eating a smart breakfast every day of the week is as simple as 1, 2, 3. Simply choose the following:

1. A high-energy carbohydrate from the bread and cereal group

2. A juicy and refreshing fruit or vegetable item

3. A protein source (nuts, meats, or milk group foods)

Cooking is optional for high-octane breakfasts.

Hot, homemade breakfasts are a weekend treat for many families. Fortunately, a ‘cookless’ breakfast can provide all the nutrition needed for work or school. Here are just a few cold breakfast bonanzas for busy families:

For breakfast-to-go, try peanut butter on a bagel with a box of your favorite juice.‘Un-breakfast’ items can be huge hit with kids – like leftover cheese pizza or pasta with a piece of fruit and a glass of fat-free milk.

Be creative with a breakfast parfait – layers of crunchy cereal, creamy yogurt, and your favorite fruit (fresh, frozen, canned, or dried).

Doughnuts

Since hot, fresh doughnuts are hard to resist, enjoy them sensibly. Savor a smaller one slowly (Starbucks has some delightful mini-donuts these days) or eat half a large one. To balance the fat and sugar, enjoy your doughnut with a glass of low-fat milk.

Eggs

These breakfast favorites had a bad rap due to cholesterol in their yolks. Newer research shows that one egg a day has little effect on blood cholesterol in most healthy people. So, enjoy occasional eggs in the AM (unless your MD or RD suggests otherwise, of course).

Sharing the Goodness of Breakfast

I’ve been thinking a lot about breakfast recently. First of all, it is my favorite meal of day, especially when I travel. My top two international breakfast delights have been in Turkey (yogurt, nuts, dried fruit, multiple cheeses, breads, tomato, cucumber, and – best of all – olives) and Central America (mango, papaya, tortillas, and black beans).

Then last week was National School Breakfast Week. On School Meals That Rock, we celebrated by showcasing three beautiful breakfast baskets from Newport, RI, and a simple, but critical, breakfast in the classroom from PS 146 in the Harlem section of New York. Please check out the photos, as well as the link to Big Sky country school breakfast on the School Nutrition Foundation (SNF) Beyond Breakfast Blog. According to Solange Morrissette, Director in Newport, “The muffins are made from scratch right in our High School kitchen by our head cook Scott Gleason. Scott takes great pride in baking these muffins made from wheat flour, sweet potatoes, and local fruit such as strawberries when available. They can also be made with commodity apples, peaches, and blueberries. We served them warm and they have completely replaced any processed packaged products.”

Finally, I spent Wednesday in a NYC studio doing a Satellite Media Tour to support Kellogg’s new Share Your Breakfast campaign, a partnership with Action for Healthy Kids. In over 30 interviews, I was able to deliver key messages about the importance of breakfast for school children – and explain the charitable goals of Share Your Breakfast. For every breakfast photo or description uploaded to www.ShareYourBreakfast.com, or sent via text with the word “Share” to 21534, from now until July 31, 2011, Kellogg will help increase participation in school breakfast programs. Each time a photo or description is shared, Kellogg will donate the monetary equivalent of a school breakfast. Kellogg will donate up to $200,000 – the equivalent of one million breakfasts.

The goal is to help share one million breakfasts by the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year. You can help spread the word on Twitter by using the #shareUrbreakfast and changing your Facebook profile picture to what you had for breakfast and encouraging your friends to share as well. Share your breakfast today to help Action for Healthy Kids increase participation in school breakfast programs.

So, to keep the breakfast momentum going, I am going to spend this week on the ABCs of Breakfast, especially COLORFUL breakfasts to continue the celebration of National Nutrition Month 2011.

Making it EASY to put COLOR in your plate

(Many thanks to Sandra Frank for her whimsical Nutrition Month collages of children and food. See more at Dietitians Online. )

Nutrition experts agree that vibrant, brightly-colored, whole foods are often the healthiest bargains in the grocery store. They tend to be nutrient-rich - meaning that more nutrition is packed into every calorie.

Processed and packaged foods tend to have more fat, sodium, and added sugars (with bright artificial colors rather than natural goodness). These items also tend to come with higher price tags since you pay for fancy packaging and advertising.

PLAN

Savvy shoppers know that planning ahead is the best way to get the most delicious nutrition for your grocery dollar. Smart shopping isn’t necessarily more complicated or time-consuming - it is just more deliberate and thoughtful.

• Make a list: Take a few quiet minutes to make a careful list, based on your family’s schedule for the week and what you already have available in your kitchen.
• Check specials: Take advantage of store sales and lower prices on seasonal produce items to save big. Check newspaper ads, in-store circulars, or online specials.
• Snack smart: Seriously! When you’re hungry, you’ll make more impulse buys that are expensive and higher in calories. Eat some string cheese or fruit before shopping.

SHOP

• Concentrate on the perimeter of the store: In most grocery stores, the most healthful, freshest foods are along the outside walls - in the meat/fish/poultry, dairy, produce, and sometimes bakery departments. Do most of your shopping here.
• Stroll the canned, frozen, and cereal aisles: There are plenty of nutrient-rich choices on the aisles too, especially on those with cereals, rice, legumes (dried and canned beans/peas), canned fruits in juice, and frozen vegetables and berries.
• Skip the candy, cookie, snack, and soft drink sections: It’s no secret that the packages and displays in these aisles are designed to tempt you into buying things that you don’t really need. Keep them out-of-sight and out of your shopping cart.

ENJOY

Fill your shopping cart with the colors of good health, like green broccoli, purple grapes, yellow peppers, orange cantaloupe, black beans, brown rice, pink salmon, lean red meat, and low-fat white milk. Your family will eat better and feel better.