Eating a healthy breakfast is a great family activity to do together because breakfast is the most important meal of the day especially for growing little ones. ....If you don't believe it, then you will after reading this article! So why eat breakfast? Here are some of the hard facts:

1. A Study from the University of California at Davis concluded that children who skipped breakfast after an overnight fast had adverse results on tests that measured attention and the ability to discriminate among pictures that are comparatively similar to each other.

2. A Harvard University Study, entered into the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 1998, concluded that children who usually ate breakfast had improved math grades, reduced hyperactivity, decreased absence and tardy rates, and improved psycho-social behaviors compared with children who rarely ate breakfast.

3. According to Katherine Zeratsky from the Mayo Clinic, "Eating breakfast not only gets you on track to make healthy choices all day but a healthy breakfast refuels your body and replenishes glycogen stores that supply your blood sugar levels. In fact, skipping breakfast actually increases your risk of obesity because it increases your body's insulin response, which in turn increases fat storage and weight gain."

From Bagels to doughnuts, hash browns to cinnamon rolls some family breakfasts can become a nutritional disaster! A white bagel, for example, is a tasty treat but is high in calories and lacks much of the nutrition required for not only reducing chronic illnesses but nutrition to fuel you r brain! Eating a plain bagel is very much like eating five pieces of white bread. The average bagel contains almost 300 calories, 590mg of sodium, 70g of carbohydrates, and 7g of sugar! Not only that, according to a Harvard study of 75,000 nurses, those who ate more processed foods such as white bread, white rice, and sodas, were more than twice as likely to develop diabetes than their counterparts who ate at least three servings a day of whole grains and cut their risk of heart attack by 35%. Those nurses who ate three servings of whole grains a day were also less likely to get into weight or bowel troubles!

Make your health and your family's health a priority through leading by example and making eating breakfast a family activity! Take action tomorrow morning by not letting yourself or your family leave the house on an empty stomach. Here are some fun and healthy breakfast options I found on kidshealth.org to fuel your morning with:

First, the traditional ones:

· eggs

· French toast, waffles, or pancakes (try whole wheat varieties)

· old cereal and milk

· hot cereal, such as oatmeal or cream of wheat (try some dried fruit or nuts on top)

· Whole wheat: toast, bagel, or English muffin with cheese

· yogurt with fruit or nuts

· fruit smoothie, such as a strawberry banana smoothie

And now some weird (but yummy) ones:

· banana dog (peanut butter, a banana, and raisins in a long whole wheat bun)

· breakfast taco (shredded cheese on a whole wheat tortilla, folded in half and microwaved; top with salsa)

· country cottage cheese (apple butter mixed with cottage cheese)

· fruit and cream cheese whole wheat sandwich (use strawberries or other fresh fruit)

· Whole wheat sandwich — grilled cheese, peanut butter and jelly, or another favorite