Fiber is essential for children, because it slows down sugar absorption and stabilizes blood sugar. Fiber influences how nutrients affect the brain, so feeding your child a breakfast that contains bran will help your child learn and behave better in class. To receive benefit from the nutrients in wheat, select products or prepare foods made from whole wheat flour. Wheat's health benefits depend on whether or not it has been processed, because processing removes 40 percent of the original grain, including the nutrient-rich bran. Refining wheat not only removes valuable fiber, it also eliminates more than half of the B-vitamins, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, copper and iron.
Breakfast Cereals
Many prepared breakfast foods and cereals eaten by children are high in bran. Cereals that are particularly bran-rich include All Bran, Cracklin' Oat Bran, 100% Bran, Bran Chex, Raisin Bran, Shredded Wheat 'n Bran, Grape Nuts, Health Valley Oat Bran Flakes with Raisins, Quaker 100% Natural Granola, Go Lean and other Kashi cereals. The cereal should have 5 or more grams of fiber per serving. You can also some unprocessed wheat bran and wheat germ to your hot cereal.
Serve milk, rice drink, soy beverage or juice with the cereal to provide the liquid necessary for bran to do its job of absorbing and cleansing. Fiber softens a child's stools, whereas if there is not enough liquid, fiber may contribute to constipation instead of preventing it.
Other Breakfast Foods
Children might enjoy pancakes and waffles with fresh fruit or natural maple syrup. You can make them using products that contain whole grains with bran. Smaller companies, such as Arrowhead Mills and Krusteaz, offer whole grain pancakes that do not contain refined ingredients. Waffles, such as Van's All Natural Gourmet Multi-Grain Waffles and Nature's Path Hemp Plus, contain wheat bran or oat bran and other healthy, unrefined ingredients. Add bran to fresh fruit and yogurt and then blend it all together for a healthy, delicious, high fiber breakfast smoothie.
Lunchbox Ideas
For lunch, make your child's sandwiches with whole grain bread or include a bran muffin made with whole grains, carrots, zucchini and other nutritious ingredients. Check ingredients and nutrition facts on the label. Bread should have the word "whole" in its name, and whole grains should be listed as the first ingredient. Some products made with refined grains claim to use whole grains, but the grains in breads described as hearty grain, 9-grain or multi-grain are not usually whole. Lunch foods such as soups or casseroles, can be prepared with bran-rich whole-wheat noodles, bulgur or barley.
Dinner
Serving bran rolls as part of your children's dinner might encourage them to eat more bran. You can also buy or bake bran buns for vegetarian or meat hot dogs and burgers. Most hot dog and hamburger buns are made of refined white flour so the bran, germ and half the vitamins and minerals have been removed. Bran buns are a nutrient- and fiber-rich alternative. Use whole wheat or buckwheat pasta instead of "enriched" pasta in noodle casseroles, macaroni and cheese or spaghetti dishes, a favorite food of many children.
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