5 Steps to Keep Your Kids Healthy and Focused in College Part 2: Eating a Healthy Breakfast

It’s a Well-Known Fact . . .

College students often skip eating a healthy breakfast. A healthy breakfast provides physical and mental well-being. Breakfast supports a healthy body, mental alertness, and emotional stability. A healthy body and brain depend and thrive on proper nutrition. Speculation even suggests a healthy breakfast makes us smarter. Studies actually prove eating a healthy breakfast helps students perform better in school. Focusing will no longer be a problem for your kids. A healthy breakfast is even given credit to improving moods.

What to Look for in a Breakfast Food

When a college student wants a healthy breakfast, he should look for foods that are high in fiber and whole grains, some protein, a little good fat, and very little sugar. Moderation and balance are the key words for a healthy breakfast. There should be a culmination of carbohydrates, good fats, and protein. Fiber and protein are known to keep the stomach full for hours.

Healthy Breakfast Foods

For the college student that’s on the run first thing in the morning, he should consider some of these healthy breakfast tips:

Bagels
Bran muffin
Celery with peanut butter
Cheese sticks
Cottage cheese, low-fat
Cream cheese on low sodium, whole grain crackers
Eggs, hard-boiled travel well
English muffins, whole grain
Fruit, fresh and frozen
Juice
Lean meat
Nuts or raisins in cold cereal, hot cereal, oatmeal, or low-fat yogurt
Peanut butter on toast
Smoothies
String cheese

If an on-the-go breakfast doesn’t appeal to your kids, remind him to get up just 15 minutes early to go to the cafeteria to enjoy a sit-down healthy breakfast.

What Happens if Your Kids don’t get a Healthy Breakfast?

Without a healthy breakfast, the body and brain slow down and tire mid-morning. A vicious cycle is started when a college student skips breakfast and then chops on a sugary snack or a caffeinated beverage. It’s true he will feel a boost of energy, but when it’s gone in a matter of minutes, he will feel hungry again. By the time lunch comes, he’s so hungry he makes poor choices for lunchtime.

College and Weight Gain

It’s been proven that skipping breakfast actually leads to weight gain. The reason for this is because our body fasts and slows down during the night, which means it burns fewer calories. When we eat breakfast, it kick-starts our body’s metabolism, which means it burns more calories, which promotes weight loss.

Extra weight gain can lead to diabetes, heart disease, or heart attack. There’s no reason why your kids should graduate as an overweight or obese student from college.