Learn how to eat breakfast like the Japanese

Breakfast is considered the most important meal, ensuring 40% of the daily energy needs. It is the main source of energy for the brain, after a long period of 10 - 12 hours, since the last meal of the previous day.

In Japan, breakfast is the biggest meal. It can include: an egg, a piece of cod, pork, 2 shrimp, seaweed, fruit, a bowl of soup and some rice. The meal is usually very rich and varied.

Meanwhile, in Vietnam, many families do not have the habit of cooking breakfast at home but let their children eat out with traditional dishes such as: pho, vermicelli, sticky rice with meat, pate bread, egg bread... It is easy to see that this breakfast has starch, protein, fat but often lacks vegetables and fruits. Children eat pho but most do not eat onions or herbs.

Many people think that it is difficult to prepare a hearty Japanese breakfast.In fact, you can do it the other way around.

For breakfast, parents can feed their children noodles or pho, but it must have vegetables or fruit.

According to Associate Professor Le Danh Tuyen, Director of the National Institute of Nutrition, the important principle that parents need to pay attention to is to eat a variety of foods; enough of the 4 food groups: carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals. Breakfast must include vegetables and fruits.

"We can still eat traditional Vietnamese dishes but increase the proportion of vegetables and fruits. For example, when eating pho, we can ask for more onions and herbs.Parents should practice feeding their children herbs, which are very good for health.If you cannot eat vegetables for breakfast, you can replace them with fruits: bananas, sapodilla, seedless guava, dragon fruit, watermelon... ", Associate Professor Tuyen said.

You can have breakfast with traditional Vietnamese dishes but need to increase the proportion of vegetables, fruits...

It is important to vary meals regularly because no single meal provides complete micronutrients, nutrition and dietary variety.In the morning, parents can cook their children a bowl of noodles with 50g of meat, 50g of vegetables, along with a cup of yogurt, an orange or a 200g piece of watermelon. The next day, children can eat sticky rice with meat, bread and eggs, but pay attention to eating more fruit.

However, with pho, nutritionists recommend limiting salt and MSG. The World Health Organization recommends that an adult should consume less than 5 grams of salt per day, while a bowl of pho or vermicelli can contain up to 4-5 grams of salt.

Not only breakfast, but also other meals, housewives should pay attention to how to combine 15-20 types of food a day, with all 4 groups of protein, starch, vitamins and minerals, and fat. A meal needs to ensure 5 dishes: rice, soup, salty dish, vegetables and dessert. In addition, it is necessary to choose diverse sources of protein, noting that a week should eat 2-3 meals of fish, crab soup, mussels...

According to VNE