Start Your Kids’ Day Right

Dr Tee E Siong   President, Nutrition Society of Malaysia

Simple can be healthy.

Always rushing in the morning? Try preparing simple breakfasts, such as the ones listed below. You can make them healthier by picking the right ingredients.

• For sandwiches, use whole grain bread, and add some sardines or scrambled eggs for protein, as well as salads, cucumber slices or tomatoes for vitamins and minerals.
• Choose whole grain ready-to-eat cereals, and add oat and muesli along with milk.
• Steamed pau with red bean or lotus paste fillings can be served alongside milk, malted beverages or soy milk.
• Fruits are versatile additions to most breakfast meals. Add fruit pieces to cereals, or have a banana or apple on the side.

Getting your kids into the habit.

If your children have not been eating breakfast regularly in the past, you can help them get into the habit by having the family eat breakfast together. Make breakfasts fun by rotating a variety of food types throughout the week.

“But I want nasi lemak!”

If your children prefer the less healthy breakfast meals and turn their noses up at cereals and other healthy options, get them into the habit by rotating healthy breakfast options throughout the week, and slowly increasing the number of healthy breakfast as time passes. You can still serve nasi lemak and other not-so-healthy breakfast treats, but not too frequently.

Are eggs good for the kids?

Many people assume that eggs are bad for children due to their high cholesterol content. Dr Tee disagrees with this. “Very little of the cholesterol from the egg is absorbed,” he explains. He encourages parents to serve eggs to their children several times a week, if not every day. “Eggs are a wholesome and complete nutritious food, which I would encourage to be included as a breakfast food,” he says.

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