The Importance of Cooking a Balanced Breakfast

In today’s fast-paced world, people wake up and get ready to go to work without giving a balanced breakfast a second thought.  Breakfast is considered by most diet experts to be the most important meal of the day.  Eating right and giving your body enough energy sets the tone for the rest of the day.

How It Affects Adults

It is important to have a thorough understanding of how the body works and how skipping breakfast affects it.  When a person wakes up to start the day, blood sugar levels will be low due to the extended 7-8 hour ‘fast’ during sleep. This is why you may feel listless and groggy when you wake up. Breakfast restores order in the body by refuelling both muscles and brain. If you skip breakfast, you deprive your body of essential nutrients that it needs to get you through the first part of the day until lunchtime. This can cause a lack of energy that causes fatigue and possibly a poor disposition or mood.  In order to remain focused throughout the day, every individual should consume a well-balanced breakfast that is both wholesome and adequately sized.

How It Affects Children

Children should also understand how important it is to eat breakfast on a regular basis.  Many kids mimic the actions of their parents, so when a meal is skipped by a parent, it is more likely that they will follow your example.  When preparing a balanced breakfast is not taken seriously, it can affect a child’s ability to concentrate and do well in school. If children for some reason have to miss or skip breakfast, make sure you slip an apple, banana or grain-bar into their bag. They are sure to become ravenous long before the lunch-bell sounds… causing their mood and grades to take a temporary dive. Small things like setting their alarm 15 minutes early can make the difference between a great day in school and a grumpy, grouchy one.

Parents and children need to have breakfast in order to function properly throughout the day.  Taking the time to eat nutritious and good tasting food benefits a person’s entire body, from head to toe.  A healthy lifestyle depends on eating right and making good choices.