Back To School Nutrition Tips: Good Nutrition Can Mean Good Grades

It is back to school time. The summer sure passed by fast!

This may not be new news but certainly worth reminding. I know already blogged about this but here is a new statistic released by the American Dietitic Association

40% of girl and 32% of boys who are school age, skip breakfast on a regular basis

So I think we may need to hear this message again. 'Cause that is a lot of boys and girls.

Eating breakfast is first and foremost extremely important. It gives your child the necessary fuel that the brain needs to concentrate, absorb information and retain information. ...that means better learning, better test scores, better grades.

According to a study done by Boys Town Pediatrics in Nebraska: -- providing energy needed to start the day -- eliminating hunger symptoms such as headache, fatigue and restlessness -- helping them to think faster and to respond more clearly to teacher questions -- increase mental performance -- making them less likely to be irritable -- causing them to be calmer and less anxious

It makes sense. Children's last meal is usually 9 or more hours. By the time they wake up their fuel from the previous day's snack or meal is now used up by the body. Kids are growing so that makes their bodies very different than us adults. They need fuel to not only function but also to grow; every organ, tissue, cell is changing and growing. The brain can only use glucose for fuel. That means any food eaten has to be broken down or transformed into this fuel source so the brain can use it. Breaking down food uses up energy so these kids bodies are in a high state of work all the time!

So, help them off to a good school year with a healthy breakfast. To read more on breakfast, here is an article written by our dietitian.

In general,

• try to have at least 3 food groups represented in the breakfast.
• Look for high fiber cereals, 4+ grams
• include fruit and of course low fat or non fat milk (milk products)