Breakfast is the most important meal of the day but did you know that if your child is not getting the right start to their day it can adversely affect their health?
 
According to the Irish National Children’s Food Survey (2003 - 2004) 21% of girls and 15% of boys living in Ireland are overweight and this is due to the bad dietary habits that many children have fallen in to.
 
There is one simple way to instantly improve your child’s diet and that is by providing them with a healthy breakfast. Breakfast is a low fat meal and it makes a really positive contribution to the daily diet. The problems in the overall daily diet are not coming from breakfast, however by eating breakfast your child is far more likely to eat well and be more active throughout the rest of the day.
 
The good news is that 96% of children are eating breakfast every morning. The benefits children are getting from eating breakfast are immense as almost 20 per cent of kids energy intake is coming from breakfast. This energy intake is high quality and reduces the need for snacking on empty calories later on in the day.
 
The problems of not eating breakfast appear as a child reaches their teens and this is when obesity issues really take off.
 
Margot Brennan, Irish Nutrition and Dieticians Institute said: “We know that younger kids are eating breakfast but this is not necessarily continuing through to the teenage years where there is less parental control and where we know ‘skipping’ meals is an issue, I would encourage all parents to pester their teenagers to make sure they are getting breakfast before they go out the door in the morning, otherwise they are ‘running on empty’, which  will hamper their performance  through the rest of the day.”
 
John Flahavan, Chairman of the Irish Breakfast Cereal Association says “This research confirms that breakfast is making a really positive contribution to the diet in the nutrient contribution it is making, relative to other meals, if we could reduce snacking outside of meal occasions and reduce the consumption of empty calories we would be truly helping our children to have a better quality of life.”
 
Of course not only does a healthy breakfast improve your child’s health, but it can also improve their performance in school. Having a good start to the day will improve your child’s concentration and energy levels, enabling them to pay attention in class. So make sure before your child leaves the house every morning, they have a healthy breakfast inside them to set them up right for the day.
 

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