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Breakfast and Lunch on the Go
Kick the Day off Strong and Keep Going All Day Long
By Christina Pirello
Today's parents are busier than ever. Between work, home, school, volunteer commitments, family and friends, we're juggling more than ever before. Oftentimes something has to give, and more often than not, it's good nutrition that gets lost in the shuffle.
Our mothers were right, at least about this one. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. When we wake in the morning, our blood sugar is on the low side and what we choose as our first meal of the day determines how our blood sugar fluctuates and regulates itself throughout the day. If the first food that we feed our children is sugary and sweet, we set them up for a day in which they lack focus and experience erratic energy, irritability and fatigue.
So what's a parent to do on those mornings when we have about one minute to get out the door? Whole-wheat toast or English muffins with natural peanut butter and some fruit-sweetened preserves can work nicely, as can a quick bowl of oatmeal or fruit-sweetened cereals with milk. Natural, grain-sweetened energy bars can serve on those totally impossible mornings. And on those mornings when we have more time, try a whole grain pancake mix to make delicious pancakes with cooked fruit or pure maple syrup.
Lunch at school is quite different than when we were children. In many schools, our kids have only minutes to eat, so they gulp down whatever they have at their fingertips and rush back to their day. They don't always make the right choices or they skip lunch completely.
That's where parents must serve as role models. The responsibility comes back to how we eat on a daily basis at home. It is vital that we instill the foundation of good eating habits in our kids. How is that accomplished? By spending time in the kitchen with our kids, preparing meals with them and showing them that food is the fuel our bodies need.
