Breakfast habits of Icelandic three-year old in New York Times

Birta Guðrún Brynjarsdóttir is a three-and-a-half year old girl living in Reykjavík whose daily breakfast consists of "Lýsi and Hafragrautur"- porridge and cod liver oil. Little Birta was featured in a recent article by The New York Times on the breakfast of kids around the world.

In the article it says that "Birta’s oatmeal porridge is called hafragrautur, a staple breakfast in Iceland. The oatmeal is cooked in water or milk and often served with brown sugar, maple syrup, butter, fruit or surmjolk (sour milk). Birta also takes a swig of lysi, or cod-liver oil. For part of the year, when the sun barely clears Iceland’s horizon, sunlight is a poor source of vitamin D — but the vitamin is plentiful in fish oils. (The word lysi is related to the Icelandic verb lysa, meaning ‘‘illuminate.’’) Birta’s mother, Svana Helgadottir, started giving her four children lysiwhen each was about 6 months, and now all of them gulp it down without complaint. Many day-care centers and preschools in Iceland dispense cod-liver oil as a regular part of the morning routine."

The New York Times also mentions that cod liver oil is given to children at most playschools and daycare centres in Iceland. 

The full article can be read here.