By Sally Squires
Tuesday, August 30, 2005; HE01

Want to give your children a head start in school this year? Consider serving them oatmeal for breakfast.

Numerous studies already link the morning meal to better classroom performance. But the latest findings suggest that what children eat at breakfast may also shape how well they learn and what knowledge they retain.

In this month's edition of the journal Physiology and Behavior, Tufts University psychologists report on two experiments they conducted on 60 schoolchildren. For breakfast one day, the researchers fixed the youngsters oatmeal made with milk and then had them take a battery of classroom tests. A week later, the students ate Cap'n Crunch cereal with milk and then were tested. During a third week, they skipped breakfast one morning and just took the tests.

Simply eating breakfast produced better test results than missing the morning meal -- findings that echo results of numerous other studies. But the researchers also discovered that boys and girls performed better on the tests when they ate oatmeal than when they had Cap'n Crunch. (The research was funded by Quaker Oats, maker of both products used in the study.)

After eating a bowl of oatmeal, boys and girls aged 9 to 11 showed enhanced spatial memory, a skill that helps with drawing and doing puzzles. Spatial memory can help not only with art, but also with geography as well as some technical skills used in math and science. Girls, but not boys, also displayed better short-term memory after eating oatmeal.

Six- to eight-year-old children listened better after eating oatmeal than after a breakfast of Cap'n Crunch. And, like their older counterparts, they also scored higher on spatial memory. Younger girls also showed improvements in short-term memory similar to that seen in their older counterparts.

So what gives oatmeal its punch? The researchers suggest that the mixture of protein, fiber and complex carbohydrates may account for the differences in test performance. "Oatmeal may provide a slower and more sustained energy source and consequently result in cognitive enhancement compared to low-fiber, high-glycemic, ready-to-eat cereal," the team concluded, noting that the results suggest "the importance of what children consume for breakfast before school."

The findings "reinforce the recent move toward whole grains," said Holly A. Taylor, professor of psychology at Tufts and a co-author of the study. "Since the brain uses glucose, and the source of glucose is diet, having a sustained-release food for breakfast is going to have beneficial effects on memory and attention."

Taylor's advice to parents is something that she now puts into action for her own three children, who regularly eat oatmeal. As she said, "you don't have to serve sugared cereal."

Here are some other benefits and tips for eating a healthy breakfast:

� Not just for the young. A University of Toronto study of 22 healthy men and women, 61 to 79 years old, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2001 found that breakfast improved memory. And researchers at the University of Wales-Swansea in Great Britain have reported that adults who ate a breakfast of low-glycemic foods such as whole-grain unsweetened cereal, bread or eggs performed better on memory tests in the morning than they did after eating sugary, high-glycemic fare such as sweetened cereals or doughnuts.

� Quick is fine. Tufts researchers used packets of instant oatmeal, which are ready in a minute. Other options: Make oatmeal ahead of time, refrigerate and then reheat in the microwave. Top with a little skim milk, fruit and slivered nuts. Some Lean Plate Club members also report making oatmeal in a slow cooker overnight so it's ready in the morning.

� Think outside the cereal box. Cheese, whole-grain crackers and fruit provide a good breakfast. So do smoothies made with nonfat yogurt and fruit. Or slather peanut butter on a slice of whole-grain bread, top with banana slices and add a glass of skim milk or low-fat soy milk for a nutritionally complete breakfast.

� Eat breakfast to keep your waistline whittled. Breakfast doesn't necessarily help with weight loss, but it appears to be important for long-term weight maintenance. Successful losers -- members of the National Weight Control Registry -- report that breakfast is a meal they rarely miss. (The registry is a group of several thousand people who have lost about 70 pounds and kept it off for at least five years.) Researchers believe that eating breakfast may help keep appetite under control for the day.

Eating breakfast has helped Arlene Rimer, a Lean Plate Club member from Toronto, maintain a 150-pound weight loss. Now she's hoping that her example will rub off on her children. As she wrote in an e-mail last week: "I am trying to teach my children to take the few minutes to eat a healthy breakfast at home before they leave for school." �

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...2901415_pf.html

Interesting.. too bad they didnt do a test where they fed the children eggs and bacon

thats a great message. Too often I stick to my diet and let my kids do whatever makes them happy to avoid a fight. No more sugary cereals in this house.

well, i guess we can forgive Ms. Taylor for coming to this conclusion. she is only a psychologist. although she should be more aware of brain energy sources. i think it underscores the basic misconceptions people - even well-educated people - have about diet. and how does columbia-educated nutritionist sally squires let this get printed. i fear she doesn't know that it's wrong either. yikes!

let me see, in the same sentence she recommends oatmeal with skim milk and nuts. and then it's cheese with whole-grain crackers and full (trans-?)fat loaded peanut butter on whole-grain bread, with some low-fat soy milk. is it dairy fat that is "bad" for me? than why am i eating cheese? is it just milkfat that's "unhealthy"? ugh!!!

By Sally Squires ....

.... you really don't need to read any more do you?

Cheers,

Malcolm

there's quite a bit of research that now suggest that breakfast isn't all that important. in particular, the notion that eating breafast leads to weighloss or maintainence has been seriously questioned. i think the main problem for the kids in this study is that their metabolic pathways for energy use have been shifted towards use of glucose for so long that can't function without regular carb intake.

i'd like to see them do this same study on kids who've been on a lc diet for 5-6 weeks. i'm sure their cognitive function would not be compromised by missing a meal, since the body, under an lc regimen, responds well to the underfed state.

What goes in your breakfast basket?


CEREAL ADVERT SHREDDED

A TV commercial for Shreddies beakfast cereal has been blasted by an industry watchdog.

The Advertising Standards Authority says the ad misled viewers by exaggerating the relevance of studies which claimed Shreddies boosted children's mental energy.


The advert shows a teacher in a classroom followed by children having breakfast at home.

A voiceover says: "These families have agreed to make Shreddies their school-day breakfasts.

"Studies show a breakfast like Shreddies helps give kids the mental energy they need to stay involved at school."

Cereal manufacturer Cereal Partners UK provided one piece of evidence to back up the claim.

This was a study involving just 29 children who ate four different breakfasts including Shreddies over four days.

Cereal Partners UK said the advert had been cleared by the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre before it was aired.

But the ASA said the commercial breached the advertising code and should not be shown again in its current form.

Lez

I was thinking just that!

My daughter doesn't like much and eats a sugar free yogurt for her meal and she has improved much at school.
(She had to start eating breakfast so she could take her meds, which required food)

I bet a low carb child would be just about as bright and shiny in the morning as they are at night with their stable blood sugars.

Thing is, when I eat HC food I get sleepy. How can you take a test when you are sleepy??

I can't believe this woman is advocating instant oatmeal. That is hardly better than Captain Crunch. It's overprocessed and full of added sugar. It's proof that she is in the pocket of the manufacturer.

It's doesn't take that much longer to cook up a plate of regular oatmeal.

I could never do that. When I was in school I'd have oatmeal all the time. By the time I got to school (we're talking maybe half an hour difference) I was STARVING. Who can pay attention on a test when your stomach is growling in your ear?

Personally I have to have some kind of protien in my breakfast. Even now that I have bowl muffins every morning, I still make them with an egg just to get that small protein kick.