How to avoid giving too much sugar to your child in the morning? Indeed, during interventions in companies, the topic of breakfast for children comes up regularly. Here is the typical example of the breakfast offered: 60g of Kellog's, milk - often flavored, and multivitamin juice. Therefore, we often end up with a intake close to 700 kcal, of which 9/10 are provided in the form of sugar and empty calories! Sugar leads to craving more sugar, so the child will consume the famous "snack" around 10 am: even more sugar...

But then, how to do better?

Here is an example of a breakfast that may seem a bit "old-fashioned", but is considered ideal for a child because it's delicious, perfectly balanced in fats, proteins, carbohydrates, micronutrients, fibers and good bacteria.

As a reminder, in the morning our hormonal functioning orders a strong secretion of lipases to metabolize fats, as well as a strong secretion of proteases to properly metabolize proteins. These, later, during the so important sleep, will allow the process of manufacturing and repairing cellular contents.

A boiled egg

We can start breakfast with a boiled egg; to take full advantage of its virtues, the egg white must be cooked as the digestibility of the raw proteins of the egg is poor, even indigestible, whereas when cooked their digestibility is perfect. As for the yolk, its cooking should be limited to preserve the quality of the nutrients it contains but also to promote the absorption of choline, a vital substance for the transmission of cerebral and muscular nervous messages. But it's still better to have a hard-boiled egg than no egg at all...

An egg contains vitamin B12, B2, B5, A, D, E, selenium, calcium, iron, zinc, folic acid, etc. The egg white, when cooked, contains all the essential amino acids in a good ratio.

A medium-sized boiled egg provides 70 kcal. You can accompany the egg with 30 grams of gruyere cheese, this cheese does not contain lactose, it has a very interesting protein - lipid - carbohydrate ratio in the morning. A portion of 30 grams for 125 kcal will do very well.

A slice of sourdough bread with butter

A slice of natural sourdough bread will provide the necessary carbohydrates for breakfast. Sourdough bread has several advantages; it's crunchy, it keeps well (up to a week), and it's very digestible. Indeed, the enzymatic work done by lactic bacteria aids digestion and promotes nutrient absorption. A slice of sourdough bread, about 40 grams, provides 120 kcal.

We will add to this slice of natural sourdough bread 10 grams of butter (75 kcal), butter, not margarine, in addition to the taste pleasure it provides, brings important vitamins, particularly vitamin A, but also vitamins D and E and even potassium.

A cocoa drink

As a drink, I suggest a glass of 2 dl of a cocoa with coconut and rice plant milk. Two spoonfuls of 100% cocoa provide 30 kcal of many good nutrients including a good amount of fiber. Cocoa has many virtues, let me remind you of a few.

• It stimulates the brain thanks to the flavanols in cocoa that help preserve the flexibility of blood vessels.
• It contains a large number of micro nutrients essential for good health. First on the list is potassium, phosphorus which is important for bones, teeth and the central nervous system, calcium for bones, magnesium for nervous balance and muscles, and very little sodium except in white and milk chocolate.
• It contains all the vitamins of the B group and is particularly high in folic acid (B9). Folic acid participates in many mechanisms in the body such as the synthesis of neurotransmitters.
• It has a very positive effect on the brain because it activates, in particular, dopamine, the brain hormone of desire, pleasure, motivation, concentration; everything you need to start your day off right !

So we will mix the cocoa with 2 dl of coconut rice vegetable milk, which represents 40 kcal, this vegetable drink is more digestible and less caloric than cow's milk, that's why I propose it.

Thus, we reach a total of 460 FULL kcal and not empty ones as was the case during the previous breakfast which brought in 700 kcal, almost exclusively from sugars !

The morning snack - the "ten o'clock" as it's called in Switzerland - then becomes unnecessary because the child simply won't be hungry, his blood sugar will be stable, and he will be able to enjoy his break time to play with his classmates.

The objective of this article is simply to show that a genuine reflection should be made on the food we offer to our children, not to impose a model !