Amy's Second Essay

I'm so excited that my daughter likes writing! I was so proud of this opinion essay, I just had to post it. This is only the second essay she has written.


By Amy Nelson

Teachers, from all over the world, want their students to do well in school. To achieve this, students should be required to eat a healthy breakfast every morning.

Eating a healthy breakfast boosts student’s attention span. A rumbling stomach is a distraction to studying. In my own experience, when I am hungry, I find myself thinking about eating instead of studying. Eating a healthy breakfast prevents me from daydreaming about food.

Secondly, eating a healthy breakfast improves student’s behavior. When students are hungry, they are often impatient and irritable. They will have trouble sitting still and studying quietly. They may also be hyperactive. On the other hand, when they have had a healthy breakfast, they are more likely to be patient, happy, and have better impulse control.

Third of all, eating a healthy breakfast improves memory. Many studies have shown that students who eat a healthy breakfast memorize better than those who don’t. For example, researchers read a series of digits out loud and asked the students to repeat them. The students were scored on how many digits they could repeat. The healthy breakfast eaters preformed better than those who had had an unhealthy breakfast, or had not eaten any breakfast at all (Aubrey 2006).

Lastly, eating a healthy breakfast improves test scores. Student’s brains use a lot of sugar while taking a test. Their brains need a steady supply of sugar to perform well on the test. If a student’s breakfast is high in refined sugar and low in fiber, the sugar will be absorbed quickly by the blood stream, raising the blood sugar. This triggers the body to release insulin to remove the sugar from the blood stream. Very quickly, the student will have a lower blood sugar than before they ate. A healthy breakfast, high in complex carbohydrates, prevents this paradoxical drop in blood sugar. Complex carbohydrates release sugar very slowly into the blood stream. This provides a steady stream of glucose for a student’s brain to use.

In conclusion, students should be required to eat a healthy breakfast every morning. Eating a healthy breakfast boosts students attention span, improves their behavior, helps them memorize, and improves test scores. Students, eat a healthy breakfast! It is good for your brain!

Citation:

Aubrey, A. (2006). NPR Choice page. [online] Npr.org. Available at: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5738848 [Accessed 12 Dec. 2019].