How important is breakfast for kids?
Dr. Timothy Hendrix from Florida Hospital Centra Care shares his thoughts on getting students fueled up before school.
YBETH BRUZUAL: No one likes the feeling of starting the day and your stomach is making noises because you're so hungry as we get our kids ready to go back to school, tell me about some the basic food items that we can get our kids out the door fast, but feeling nourished.
DR. HENDRIX: Well you want to concentrate on the high protein, high fiber type of foods. Things that will sustain them throughout the morning by the time they get to lunch.
So try to avoid the sugary sweet cereals and danishes, things like that because when you look at those types of foods, they're not going to sustain. Your blood sugar is going to go up, then it's going to drop and it's going to drop very fast.
If you're ever been in a classroom of kids around 10 a.m. that's when they're bouncing off the walls. That's because there blood sugars have dropped, they're releasing adrenaline literally to try and get the blood sugars back up and that adrenaline causes all that activity and agitation.
YB: So maybe some pretzels or cheese cubes. If a child is a picky eater, what do you recommend?
TH: Oh, it's really hard. I got one of those at home and it's just a constant, try this, try this. Again it's a lot of variety and hitting on something that's nutritious that the child likes so they can at least get something in them before they start school.