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My friend has a 10 year old son that is a little on the husky side. His mom is working on trying to be healthier and making better food choices. Last year, the son had a hunny bun and chocolate milk for breakfast. Then he switched to cereal. However, it got to the point where he barely ate his cereal, and just let it go soggy. So she bought some ego waffles, and now he eat's his whole breakfast. And she posed the question that any breakfast is better than no breakfast, right? And by no breakfast she means that he let's his cereal go to waste.
I am posing this question for kids and adults. I am not much of a breakfast person (coffee is my breakfast). However, I am trying to change. I would never make waffles/pancakes a breakfast standard..but occasionally, would that be better than no breakfast?
I think waffles, cereal, even some toast with jam or PB would be a good start. Having fresh fruit with the waffles or even yogurt. At 10 years old and being husky this mom needs to get on the ball so her son does not become an overweight adult. I was chunky at age 13 and have battled weight all my life. If the parents don't start kids eating healthy then they will only want honey buns and chocolate milk. Helathy eating should start when they are very young like 7 months old.I'll assume that the whole family has unhealthy eating habits hence the sugary breakfast. My brother used to eat 2 hot dogs and potato salad for breakfast at that age,but he has never had a weight problem.
She's creating a sugar addict and an overweight child who could face health issues in the future.
When i was a child we didn't eat junk and sugary stuff because it wasn't in the house.
My mom didn't buy it.
She's caving in to her sons strategies to eat what he wants which is sugar.
If she stops bringing sugar home he won't have any option but to eat other foods that are more healthy.
And cereal, imo, is not the best option. It's incredibly expensive and even if it's not obvious sweet cereal, it's loaded with sugar anyway.
Toast, nut butter, fruit, eggs, etc.. ... he'll eat once he learns that he can't manipulate his mom and gets hungry enough.
I say no, it's not better. Sugar will just cause and insulin response and resulting blood sugar drop which sets in motion a cycle which needs to be continues throughout the day. This creates crankiness, emotional issues, sleepiness and sever cravings. Protein with something non sugary is what they need.
They key is to indulge in the morning, when the body's metabolism is at its most active and we are better able to work off the extra calories throughout the day, say Prof. Daniela Jakubowicz, Dr. Julio Wainstein and Dr. Mona Boaz of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Diabetes Unit at Wolfson Medical Center, and Prof. Oren Froy of Hebrew University Jerusalem.
Attempting to avoid sweets entirely can create a psychological addiction to these same foods in the long-term, explains Prof. Jakubowicz. Adding dessert items to breakfast can control cravings throughout the rest of the day. Over the course of a 32 week-long study, detailed in the journal Steroids, participants who added dessert to their breakfast — cookies, cake, or chocolate — lost an average of 40 lbs. more than a group that avoided such foods. What's more, they kept off the pounds longer.
She's creating a sugar addict and an overweight child who could face health issues in the future.
When i was a child we didn't eat junk and sugary stuff because it wasn't in the house.
My mom didn't buy it.
She's caving in to her sons strategies to eat what he wants which is sugar.
If she stops bringing sugar home he won't have any option but to eat other foods that are more healthy.
And cereal, imo, is not the best option. It's incredibly expensive and even if it's not obvious sweet cereal, it's loaded with sugar anyway.
Toast, nut butter, fruit, eggs, etc.. ... he'll eat once he learns that he can't manipulate his mom and gets hungry enough.
I agree with everything you said. The boy really does have a sweet tooth that the mother enables. He will say he is full from dinner, and 15 minutes later be asking for his dessert.
My mom is very health conscience, so we never had junk at our house either. So I feel pretty good about knowing healthier choices. However, I tend to be too opinionated at times...especially about her husky son. Therefore, I try to hold back on some of my opinions here and there. So when she asked the questions the other day, I was not 100% confident to argue that a surgary breakfast may not be better. So I just kept quiet.
To give the mom some credit, I think it is lack of knowledge about healthier options, and she is trying to learn about now. She was trying to learn what 'sensible snacks' meant the other day, which for me seems almost like common sense.
I agree with everything you said. The boy really does have a sweet tooth that the mother enables. He will say he is full from dinner, and 15 minutes later be asking for his dessert.
My mom is very health conscience, so we never had junk at our house either. So I feel pretty good about knowing healthier choices. However, I tend to be too opinionated at times...especially about her husky son. Therefore, I try to hold back on some of my opinions here and there. So when she asked the questions the other day, I was not 100% confident to argue that a surgary breakfast may not be better. So I just kept quiet.
To give the mom some credit, I think it is lack of knowledge about healthier options, and she is trying to learn about now. She was trying to learn what 'sensible snacks' meant the other day, which for me seems almost like common sense.
Maybe you could find a good book (or a number of helpful web-sites) for the mom ... about children, diet, nutrition, etc..?
There are so many reasons to get the child off of sugar but if she doesn't have good eating habits and isn't that health conscious it's difficult to guide the child.
Hopefully she'll continue to be open to learning for her sons sake.
I find it sad that so many children are growing up on junk food and that so many are overweight.
When i was in grade school (late 60's / 70's) there was always 1 (2 at the most!) overweight child in a class of 30.
I'm amazed at how many overweight children i see these days.
It's really unfair to them because they'll most likely face lifelong weight problems and possibly other health issues.
Also, you mentioned the waffles. Not only are they empty calories and full of sugar (and that's before the corn syrup based artificially flavored maple "syrup" is added) but they're expensive.
If a person knows how, they can eat a healthy diet and save money.
Anyway, breakfast is a must for every human being. Those who skip breakfasts either get way overweight or end up weirdly nourished. You're not cutting any calories. Breakfast is needed to jumpstart metabolism, and most important for laxative purposes as well.... lack of a proper breakfast disrupts large intestines and you're found pushing rocky nuggets out of the rectum at 3pm, about 2 hours after a burger and french fries and gnashing teeth and punching thighs in the process, and also twisting the mouth, breathing hard, releasing noises from the mouth and the rectum in tandem for a lot coz rocky nuggets leave a nice impression on the way out. There's a whole list of other bad effects to the lack of a decent breakfast. Even psychological. Coffee is okay, but it's not good on an empty stomach.
Thank you very much for another reason to get myself out of bed earlier to make time for breakfast. I really do want to improve my digestive flow.
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