Breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day, especially for children who are growing up and need all their energy to face a school day. However, more than half of the children do not make a good breakfast.
Specifically, 54% of schoolchildren between the ages of three and twelve do not eat breakfast daily, including the ideal formula recommended by experts and which is made up of a dairy, a piece of natural fruit and carbohydrates (cereals, which they can be from bread).
These are data extracted from the study "Healthy Life", carried out by ARAMARK among almost 6,000 Spanish families from all Autonomous Communities in order to educate in healthy habits based on knowledge of children's routines.
In addition, other important results are extracted, such as that almost 10% of schoolchildren can remain fasting for almost six hours, that is, they do not eat anything in the middle of the morning, between breakfast and lunch, which can harm your blood glucose levels and regulation of insulin secretion. These bad habits later follow in many teenagers.
The conclusions also reveal that 22% of schoolchildren are overweight (15%) or obese (7%) and that the highest prevalence of these problems occurs in the age range of six to nine years.
Snack It is another of the pending subjects, because very few children take a piece of fruit, which reduces the chances of reaching the five servings of fruit and vegetables recommended per day. In fact, it is surprising to know that only 6% of children drink a fruit daily.
The excess consumption of soft drinks and packaged juices, or the lack of fish or legumes, which contributes to poor nutritional quality, are also evident according to this study. To all this is added the sedentary rise, the little physical activity performed by children.
These are worrying data, even if they are not new, because in the blog we have often talked about these problems. The most important thing to prevent health problems and deficiencies in the organism of children, which can affect their physical and intellectual development, is healthy habits education.
Making a correct breakfast (and with enough time, which is not always easy first thing in the morning) allows children to start the day with energy and greater performance, both physical and intellectual.
In short, the body needs energy after sleeping, so breakfast is essential. The fact that more than half of children do not make a good breakfast It reflects how little we are aware that we are older about this need.
