Skipping breakfast will make you fat and damage your intelligence... Milk, soy milk, yogurt, which one is more suitable as a low GI breakfast?

As the saying goes: "Eat breakfast like a king"! This sentence means that breakfast is the first meal to start the day's spiritual energy and cannot be skipped. Especially for growing children and teenagers, it is even more important to pay attention to breakfast. Although parents often prepare breakfast for their children, the simplest way is a glass of milk, or a cup of soy milk or a bottle of yogurt, and then pair it with other foods, such as readily available bread, sandwiches, rice balls, etc., do we need to worry about this combination causing blood sugar levels to rise rapidly, leading to the long-term risk of obesity, or even the risk of prediabetes at a young age?

According to a survey on elementary school children's knowledge, attitudes and behaviors in Taiwan, one-quarter of the children neglect to eat breakfast, and as the children get older, the proportion of those who eat breakfast regularly decreases.

Research: Children and adolescents who eat breakfast have higher activity in the frontal lobe, which affects intelligence, physical movements, behavior and emotions, etc.

Why should we encourage children to eat breakfast? According to a study published in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience, Jonathan Fulford and others from the University of Exeter Medical School in the UK conducted two cognitive tests on 20 children aged 12-14, one under fasting conditions and one after breakfast, during which data were obtained through continuous magnetic resonance imaging. Studies have shown that children and adolescents who eat breakfast have higher activity in the frontal lobe, which affects intelligence and is related to physical movements, behavior and emotions, compared with the fasting group.

Nutritionist: Eating breakfast can also help children increase their attention, activate their "language motor area", and reduce fatigue.

Nutritionist Su Yanchen said that this shows that when children eat breakfast, they can activate the premotor cortex, supplementary motor area, primary visual area, language motor area and Broca's area of ​​the cerebral cortex! Broca's area is located in the frontal lobe of the left brain, near the sylvian fissure, and is also known as the "language motor area." In addition, eating breakfast can increase visual search ability, increase concentration, and reduce fatigue. What's even better is that eating breakfast can also improve academic performance. So, do you want your child's grades to improve? Start with breakfast!

Nutritionists say that if children do not have special needs, such as sugar control, milk is actually a good breakfast drink option.

For example, for a low GI breakfast, it is recommended to eat tuna, vegetable, egg toast + whole milk.

How to choose between milk, soy milk and yogurt?

But how should we eat breakfast? Common breakfast drinks for schoolchildren include milk, soy milk and yogurt. How do we choose between them? How can we avoid consuming too many high-GI breakfast foods, which would lead to excessive sugar intake and accumulation, causing obesity and even the risk of high blood sugar? Nutritionist Su Yanchen said that, in fact, the simplest method is to calculate based on the sugar content. For example, the sugar content of commercially available yogurt (not sugar-free) is twice that of milk, so its GI value is higher; milk only contains lactose. As for if you choose sugar-free soy milk, it does not contain too much sugar and has the lowest GI value.

Therefore, if the child does not have special needs, such as sugar control, milk is actually a good breakfast drink option. There is no need to overemphasize sugar-free drinks. The key is to cultivate children's habit of avoiding sugary flavored milk and sugary flavored yogurt as much as possible.

Should children eat high GI breakfast? Or is a low GI breakfast better?

Which breakfast foods are high GI foods? Which foods have a low GI value? The so-called GI value is the glycemic index (GI for short), or simply the glycemic index, which represents the speed at which blood sugar rises after eating food. To put it simply, the glycemic index is a value that represents how quickly or slowly our blood sugar rises as a result of the food we eat. The higher the GI value of a food, the faster it causes blood sugar to rise. Conversely, the lower the GI value of a food, the more moderate the rise in blood sugar will be.

For example, the higher the fiber content of a food, the lower its GI value. For example, whole wheat bread has a lower GI value than white toast. Also, the degree of refinement of the food: the rougher and less processed the food is, the less it is digested and absorbed, causing blood sugar to rise, and the lower its GI value. For example, brown rice has a lower GI value than white rice.

Eating breakfast can also increase visual search ability, increase concentration, and reduce fatigue. What's even better is that eating breakfast can also improve academic performance. So, do you want your child's grades to improve? Start with breakfast!

High GI breakfast VS low GI breakfast, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Are there any special circumstances to consider when choosing a high GI breakfast or a low GI breakfast? It is suggested that if children and adolescents usually attend classes, they can eat either a high GI or a low GI breakfast. A low GI breakfast may increase children's oral fluency; while in early childhood, a low GI breakfast is recommended. The reason is that a low GI breakfast can slowly release blood sugar in young children, which can stabilize the sugar metabolism in the liver and muscles and provide an environment more suitable for brain growth. For example, for a low GI breakfast, it is recommended to eat tuna, vegetable, egg toast + whole milk.

Nutritionist Su Yanchen reminds us that studies have found that if there are sports classes in the morning, eating a low-GI breakfast can increase children's visual concentration and stabilize blood sugar and insulin concentrations in the body. In the long run, it can also help overall health and avoid excessive insulin secretion, which can cause obesity.

But what if you really can’t have a low GI breakfast? But remember to eat breakfast. Eating breakfast can help improve children’s cognition, memory and executive function. It can also increase math and reading abilities and help them get better grades!