Question: In terms of nutrition, how does cereal rate compared to other breakfasts?
When it comes to a healthy breakfast, it's hard to beat a bowl of cereal. It's a meal that requires almost no preparation, is low in fat, and a good source of vitamins and minerals. If you make the right choice at the grocery store, no other breakfast offers as much fibre, calcium, iron and zinc for so few calories and so little fat.
Research also suggests that starting your day with a bowl of cereal might help keep your weight stable. A study that tracked the eating habits of nearly 2,400 teenaged girls for 10 years found that the girls who reported eating breakfast each day, especially cereal, were slimmer (they had a lower body mass index) than girls who skipped breakfast.
Eating breakfast helps to kick start your metabolism in the morning band helps prevent you from getting too hungry before lunch; as a result you're more likely to make reasonable choices at lunch.
But the key is choosing a healthy cereal -- that's void of fibre and packed with sugar. For example, Special K Original seems like it would be a healthy cereal. It's been advertised to help maintain a healthy weight, it's low in calories and it's fat free. But read the ingredient list and you'll see there's not a whole grain in sight: white rice and wheat gluten are the first two ingredients. Read the nutrition label and you'll see one serving has no fibre.
It's certainly isn't as bad as refined sugary cereals. One serving of Reese's Puffs, for example, has 3 teaspoons of sugar per serving.
Question: What should you look for when choosing a cereal?
Once you start reading nutrition labels, you'll see that all cereals are not created equal. The ideal cereal is made with whole grains, is low in fat, low in sugar and high in fibre.
Cereal Nutrition: best bowls – per serving:
- Made from a whole grain
- No more than 8 grams sugar
- At least 5 grams fibre
- No more than 240 milligrams sodium
Whole grains include whole-wheat, whole rye, oats, flaxseed, quinoa, barley and brown rice. Read the ingredient list for this information.
The sugar numbers on cereal include both added sugars and the naturally occurring sugar in fruit. Cereals with dried fruit will boost the sugar content, but it will also boost the fibre and nutrient content.
Watch for sodium too. Some high-fibre breakfast cereals can deliver as much as 20 percent of your daily requirement in one small serving! Choose the lowest sodium cereal possible, with no more than 240 milligrams per serving. Kashi Organic Bite Size Whole Wheat, Post Shredded Wheat and Kellogg's Mini-Wheats are all sodium free.
There are plenty of cereals that meet these criteria. I recently rated 50 whole grain cereals with at least 5 grams of fibre per serving and 28 met my sugar and sodium criteria.
What are the best cereals for boosting fibre?
There are many high fibre cereals to choose from today. While 100 per cent bran cereals are not made from a whole grain, you can consider them whole grain since they're a concentrated source of bran that's missing from refined grains.
Most 100 per cent bran cereals contain mostly insoluble fibres, the type that helps to treat and prevent constipation. Kellogg's All Bran Buds with Psyllium and All Bran Guardian are high in soluble fibre, the type that helps lower blood cholesterol.
If you don't like to eat straight bran cereal, you can mix 1/2 cup of bran cereal with another whole grain cereal.
Anything else to be mindful of when choosing a box of breakfast cereal?
Yes, keep serving sizes in check. By dry weight, a Food Guide serving of ready-to-eat cereal is 30 grams. In household measures, 30 grams of dry cereal will vary depending on the density, or weight, of the cereal.
In general, a serving size of cereal is typically 3/4 to 1 cup (175 to 250 ml). The serving size for denser cereals like granola and muesli is 1/3 to 1/2 cup (75 to 125 ml). If you're counting calories, manage your portion size by reading the serving size information on the nutrition label –- and then measuring out that amount.
