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Update 7/5/05
• Hypnosis can help smokers quit
• Healthy eating doesn’t have to include meat
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Skipping breakfast can hurt kids’ learning ability

By Connie Cartmell
The Marietta Times
ccartmell@mariettatimes.com
When he was a child, Jim Couts, of Marietta, never missed a call to breakfast.

“I not only ate breakfast, but I ate a huge breakfast!” Couts said. “I grew up on a farm, and we were up at 5 a.m., very early. Mother fixed pancakes, sausage, eggs — it was unthinkable not to have breakfast.”

Today breakfast is the forgotten meal in the American home.

“For elementary students, the participation level (breakfast) is at an average of 24 percent. Junior high is about 7 percent,” Couts said.

The trend is apparent.

“You can see that fewer students eat breakfast as they get older,” Couts said.

Children get up late for school, rush through the kitchen, grabbing their lunch box on the way, and out the door to the school bus, bypassing breakfast.

A family sitting down to breakfast today is almost unheard of.

“It’s a huge, huge problem,” Couts said of millions of children who never, ever, eat breakfast. “Studies have proven multiple problems.”

Couts is coordinator of the Children’s Hunger Alliance (formerly the Ohio Hunger Task Force), and his mission is to make certain every child in 22 Appalachian counties has access to nutritious food.

“Breakfast is our most important emphasis,” Couts said. “Children who eat breakfast, who eat well, learn more. There are fewer behavior problems, and they have more energy.”

Educators in other states are opting for starting older students later in the morning, younger students earlier.

“Studies have shown we have things reversed,” Couts said of local school hours and the breakfast problem. “Physiologically, it doesn’t make sense. High school students have a slower metabolism, and it takes them longer to get going.”

A problem of modern society is snacking and “junk” food, Couts said.

"Snacking accounts for up to 30 percent of calories and 20 percent of nutrients a child eats in an average day," Kathryn Dodrill, Extension agent, family and consumer sciences, Washington County, said. "There's nothing wrong with snacking, as long as foods are healthy and nutritious."

Couts said children are “bombarded” with 35,000 commercials each year for fast food. As a result, they “turn their noses up” at USDA-approved meals in school.

Every school in Marietta offers both breakfast and lunch. Some are provided free or reduced, others on a sliding scale, depending on income.

Eating breakfast is another area where parents often have a struggle, especially with older children and teens. But studies say skipping breakfast adversely affects a child's performance at school.

Gina Nutt’s 8-year-old daughter isn’t always ready for breakfast before she leaves for Christian school at 8 a.m. The family lives in Belpre.

“Some mornings she does want breakfast, but at other times she just isn’t ready,” Nutt said. “What I try to do is pack her a nutritious snack for her morning break. She loves granola bars and I pack fresh fruit, too.”

Mom wasn’t a great breakfast eater, either, she admits.

“I’m just not ready too early in the morning,” Nutt said.

"Eat anything at all — just eat," Dodrill said. "That doesn't mean candy bars and pop. It could mean grilled cheese or pizza — something different.”

Even with breakfast, Dodrill said “smart snacking” during the school day contributes significantly to a child's daily nutrient needs.

“Some research is beginning to suggest people who snack, we call it “graze,” throughout the day, may have lower cholesterol and healthier bodies than those who eat three full meals,” she said.

A few healthy snack suggestions:

Whole wheat bread, milk (instead of soda pop and juice boxes), low-fat yogurt, low-sodium cheeses, pretzels, popcorn and bread sticks, instead of potato chips; fruits and raw vegetables, unsalted nuts and dried fruits, instead of candy, cookies and cakes.