Building a Nutrition-Packed Day

A Beneficial Breakfast

The rushed morning scene is all too familiar for many families with children. It’s hard enough to make sure everyone manages to get out the door with both shoes on their feet, so breakfast isn’t always given the attention it deserves. But breakfast can play a protective role for a child’s well being that is just as important as the protection shoes provide for their feet.

A nutritious breakfast is important for everyone no matter their age, but it is especially critical for children and teenagers. The first two decades of life are ones of remarkable growth and change, and proper nutrition is essential to fuel this transformation from babe-in-arms to adult.

Eating breakfast should be an essential part of your morning routine because:

• Studies have shown that children who regularly eat breakfast are more likely to meet their recommended dietary intake for vitamins and minerals.
• When children skip breakfast, they do not typically make up the lost nutrients at other meals of the day.
• Children who skip breakfast also tend to fill up on nutrient-poor snacks at school and they are less likely to consume the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables.
• Research strongly supports the fact that breakfast positively affects cognitive function and academic performance in children.
• Evidence also seems to suggest that eating breakfast is associated with less likelihood of being overweight.
• A good breakfast not only contributes to physical health, it also supports emotional stability and mental alertness.
• Breakfast also helps promote regular meal patterns and consistent energy intake.

Building Your Ideal Breakfast Menu

The ideal breakfast should have lots of fiber and whole grains, some protein and good fat, and as little added sugar as possible. In other words, a good balance of healthy carbohydrates, protein and good fats. The typical American breakfast usually includes the same foods over and over again every day. Try to rotate foods as much as possible because variety is better for meeting dietary needs and maintaining normal weight.

Tips for a nutrition-packed breakfast:

• Include a protein.
• Scrutinize your breakfast cereals and choose those with high fiber and low sugar.
• Choose whole grain cereals, such as muesli or oatmeal, and look for cereals with added nuts or seeds.
• Add protein to your cereal with nuts, yogurt or milk.
• Save sweet breakfasts for the weekend. Non-sweet breakfasts promote more stable blood sugar levels throughout the day.

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Make or Break Lunches and Snacks

Thinking Outside the Lunch Box

A kid-friendly lunch doesn't have to mean a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Not only can dishes such as fruit kabobs, pizza quesadillas and noodle bowls be just as easy to make as a sandwich, you may be surprised to discover how popular and kid friendly such healthy choices are.

According to a 2005 study by market research firm The NPD Group, fresh fruit is the favorite snack among American girls and boys ages 2 to 12. (Interestingly, for adults participating in the study, fruit took a backseat to gum and chocolate candy. Maybe we should be learning from our kids!)

Ideas for spreading the lunch love:

• Give kids something they can assemble themselves. They love dipping, stacking and rolling up their food into fun treats.
• Serve kids anything "mini" like mini bagels, potstickers or cheese cubes. They’ll feel like they're at their own little party.
• Make food into fun shapes. Colorful or interestingly shaped pasta, sandwiches cut into shapes with cookie cutters, or fruit cut into triangles, circles, etc.
• Try to expose your children to at least one new flavor each week. This could be an item they've never eaten before or one they haven't had in awhile.
• Include a fun container, special note, napkin, cartoon or joke in the lunchbox.

Children's eating habits are much easier to change than those of adults, and they're more likely to try and enjoy nutritious new foods than they're often given credit for. A fun way to get children interested in new fruits and vegetables is to engage them in the shopping process or play a game in the aisles. For instance, bring them to the produce department and ask them to find one item in each color of the rainbow. Or, if their favorite color is red, their mission might be to find a new red fruit or vegetable they've never tried before.

To give kids a sense of control and a vested interest in eating their lunches, involve them in the prep-work and the decision-making process about what goes in the bag. Best to do this on the weekend or the night before to avoid morning meltdowns.

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Snack Smarts

For energetic, on-the-move kids, snacks are just as important as meals. They provide another opportunity to pack nutrition into a child’s day, and they help maintain a child’s seemingly endless desire and energy to explore their world.

Unfortunately, snacks are often viewed as a time to abandon healthy choices in favor of easy-grab chips, cookies and other less ideal foods. It is possible to enjoy the convenience of munching foods without all the refined sugar, hydrogenated fats and artificial additives.

One way is to shop in our store, where you won’t find any hydrogenated fats or artificial ingredients in anything. There are plenty of wholesome alternative finger foods that will satisfy kids’ desire for sweet, salty snacks to eat on the go. Whenever possible, it’s ideal to substitute a whole food option like fresh veggies and fruits or nuts and seeds, for conventional, packaged foods.

When you crave	try this instead	even better	best choice!
chips fried in cottonseed oil & with artificial preservatives	chips fried in food-grade oils & no MSG	pretzels lowfat or baked chips mini rice or popcorn cakes	organic popcorn raw vegetable sticks
candy bar with artificial flavors	candy bar with real flavors & organic chocolate	fruit leather nut butter crispy rice treats	fresh fruit dried fruit
cookies with hydrogenated oil	cookies with real butter or non-hydrogenated oil	granola bar graham crackers fruit bar cookies	raw or roasted nuts & seeds
soda pop with artificial colors	soda pop with all-natural flavor & organic sugar	juice drinks flavored soy drinks	100% juice mixed with sparkling water
ice cream made with milk from cows given hormones	ice cream made with organic milk	non-dairy frozen dessert	fresh fruit smoothie

Many of these great snacks are available in the bulk foods section so you can purchase exactly what you think your kids will eat to get a great value and ensure freshness. To make snack time even more fun for kids, purchase a variety of items and let each child make their own "snack mix" each evening for their snack the next day. Favorites include: cereal, yogurt almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dried apricots, raisins, dried cranberries, toasted soy nuts, mini pretzels, mini rice cakes, almonds, peanuts and yogurt- or chocolate-covered pretzels.

Snacks should be easy and fun, with minimal time invested in making them. With these strategies and a well-stocked healthy pantry, your kids will get just as much instant gratification from healthy, natural snacks as they would from a bag of greasy chips—and parents will get more peace of mind.

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Dynamic Dinners

The final meal of the day is about much more than rounding out your nutritional requirements. It’s a time when families come back together, regroup, catch up and talk about their day.

Research by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University consistently finds that the more often children eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs. A 2004 study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found the same and also that teens who eat dinner with their families are likely to have higher grades and lower incidence of depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts. And evidence suggests that parents who eat dinner with their teens have closer relationships and know more about their teens’ friends and teachers than those who don’t dine together.

The family dinner table also provides a place for parents and older children to model good eating habits and table manners for younger children. Some studies suggest that children who eat meals with their parents have healthier eating habits than those who don’t. Families that eat together at home tend to consume less fast food and more fruits and vegetables, and preparing meals at home gives parents control over both the quality and quantity of food. With childhood obesity on the rise in the United States, many experts also recommend that parents do the following:

• Provide sensible portion sizes so kids know that “supersized” isn’t normal.
• Help kids understand how to eat until they are comfortably satisfied, but not full.
• Let children serve themselves as early as age 5 so they begin to regulate portions themselves.
• Don’t pressure kids to clear their plates; encourage them to judge fullness by physical rather than visual cues.

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Sometimes a dinner with the whole family may seem like an impossible task. How can you get everyone to show up? Good food may be incentive enough for some, but others may need a little more motivation to shift their priorities. Try these additional ideas to make it easier and more fun to work dinner into hectic schedules:

• Allow each family member to choose the menu on a regular rotation.
• Have family members check out cookbooks and choose a few new recipes.
• Set a specific time for meals and stick to it. If something comes up, make it into a family event so you still end up sharing a meal. For example, if your daughter’s championship game is scheduled on a family dinner night, everyone goes together to the game and eats together afterwards.
• Take pride in your table. Set the table more elaborately, or have one of the kids set it for the whole family. Add cloth napkins, placements, flowers.
• Learn to cook with a pressure cooker or slow cooker to make meal prep easier on everyone’s schedule. You’ll return at the end of the day to a dinner that’s ready to serve.
• Cook several meals over the weekend and refrigerate or freeze them to be reheated later during the week.
• Mix prepared and homemade foods to save time and still provide complete nutrition at each meal.
• Turn off the phone, television and other distractions. Play soothing music or light candles to set the ambience if you choose.

For many families, the dinner table becomes the household communication hub. If you need to, bring your calendar. Talk about everyone’s activities and discuss other opportunities for the whole family to get together.

If dinner conversation seems to be a lost art in your family, try these ideas for getting a more lively conversation started:

• Ask everyone to share their favorite part or biggest challenge of the day.
• Think of a question of the day for each meal. Or come up with specific questions you can ask your kids about their day that will elicit more than a one-word response.
• Do some research about the foods being served and share it at the dinner table.
• Allow each family member to invite a guest to dinner on a regular basis.

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