By Marilyn Helton

Your kids may be slow to wake up and get ready for the day, yet you are in a rush to start yours. Many parents and kids are tempted to skip breakfast. In fact, as many as one out of six fifth-graders skip breakfast. Older children are much more likely to skip breakfat than younger children.

Did you know that breakfast jumpstarts your brain? Hunger, even short-term hunger you may experience if you miss breakfast, decreases attention span and ability to concentrate. Children who eat breakfast are more alert and perform better on school tests than children who do not eat breakfast. They are also more creative and energetic. Children who skip breakfast are more often tardy and absent from school than children who eat breakfast.

Did you know that skipping meals actually promotes weight gain? There are a host of lifestyle reasons that lead to weight gain, but skipping meals actually causes your body to gain weight over the long haul. When you skip meals, your body slows down its metabolism and stores more calories at the next meal as fat. "Your body does this to protect you, because your body doesn't know when you'll feed it again---it stores more calories as fat so you'll have reserves on hand for the next time you skip a meal," states Karen Chalmers, R.D., C.D.E. " So, if you eat little or nothing during the day and only eat at night, you're promoting higher weight---even if you aren't eating more total calories than you might have eaten if you ate three square meals a day---because your body is going to store more of those calories as fat." The same thing happens to those who go on super low calorie diets. "If you are on too low a calorie amount, your metabolism is going to slow down. So, super low calorie diets do not work long-term," continues Chalmers.

Did you know that sitting down to enjoy breakfast together for even a few minutes can provide an important time for family members to discuss what is happening in their lives? Breakfast also provides time for parents to serve as good role models for healthy eating habits. We know it's hard to make time for family breakfasts during today's hectic weekday pace, so why not plan to have at least one family breakfast on the weekend? To help children become adults who value the importance of eating breakfast each day, teach them the benefits and fun of eating breakfast together while they are young.

January is National Oatmeal Month as well as National Prune Breakfast Month. We have included recipes for both in our breakfast bonanza, as well as a few recipes from What's For Breakfast: Light & Easy Morning Meals for Busy People, by Donna Roy, MS, RD, and Kathleen Flores, MS, RD. We've put together a variety of nutritious, fun, easy-to-make, and even a few nontraditional breakfast ideas to help get you started.

Make the morning meal one of your reasons to rise and shine. Let breakfast help you to "Make Your Day!"

Marilyn

Diabetic Friendly Breakfast Recipes Mega Muffin Breakfast Sandwich Waffle Sanwiches Peanut Butter & Jelly Granola Bars Oatmeal Custard Citrus Bread Pudding with Citrus Sauce Pear Oatmeal Cake Scrambled Eggs with Ham Baked Orange French Toast Northwest Berry Puff Pancake Prune Apple Breakfast Bread Oatmeal Raisin Pancakes Click here for Lots More Diabetic Friendly Recipes!

IMPORTANT NOTE!!! We DO use small amounts of refined sugar per serving in our recipes, which is in keeping with the revised guidelines for people with diabetes, issued by the American Diabetes Association Committee On Nutrition in 1994. We strongly urge that you check with your physician, health care team, primary diabetes health care provider, or registered dietitian or nutritionist on how to incorporate our recipes, or any recipes from our cookbook reviews, into your daily meal plan. Please Note: Recipes with refined sugar may not be suitable for ALL diabetics. Your blood sugars should be under control and your daily meal plan MUST include the carbohydrate allowances per serving for each recipe containing refined sugar.

Marilyn Helton is a regular contributor to Fabulous Foods as well as the Diabetic Gourmet. She firmly believe that a diabetes diagnosis does not have to mean a culinary death sentence. Click here to visit Marilyn's website Cinnamon Hearts for more diabetic recipes and information.