Almighty Dad | A stay at home dad blog

Breakfast: Cereal Is a Good Choice

8 Written by Keith on October 28, 2009 – 1:17 pm

If there is one meal we all need to be eating it’s breakfast.  During the night your body is in shut down mode producing little insulin.  Our body metabolizes slowly at night but must make a full turn around in the morning upon waking.  That means, like a car that’s out of gas, the only way to get going properly is not by rolling the car downhill but rather by adding fuel to the tank.  Say hello to breakfast.  Does it have to be big?  Well, it sort of does have to be at least moderately sized; toast and coffee are better than nothing but they’re not good choices. The experts have been extolling the importance of breakfast for a long time, and they’re right.  I don’t usually have the motivation to make big steaming piles of eggs and meat for breakfast.  I usually reach for a bowl of cereal because it tastes good and it’s easy.  But, I’m not going to eat just any cereal.  I want good cereals.  Here’s what to look for in your breakfast cereal – and what to avoid:

1. Fiber: It goes without saying why we need fiber in our diets, but it’s unfortunate that not many of us get enough.  A good way to cram it into our diets is via a breakfast cereal.  We need, depending on size and everything, between 25 and 30 grams of fiber per day.  Unfortunately the average American eats only about 12 grams of fiber daily.  Just get most of it out of the way at breakfast.  Your bowels will thank you.

2. Protein: We all need protein for breakfast, especially kids and dieters.  Our kids have bones and muscles to build and they need large amounts of protein to get that done.  Milk is an excellent source but it can also come through whole wheat, flax and nuts and seeds.  Kashi cereals tout their protein content right on the front of their boxes.  Protein is good for dieters because high protein breakfasts keep us fuller longer thus reducing mid morning snacking and keeping us energized for longer (protein works better than carbs for maintaining alertness).

3. Sugar: Or rather a minimum of sugar.  Really, look at the back of the box to check out the sugar content.  It’s not obvious all the time which cereals are high in sugar and which aren’t.  Many of the ones we think are low are, in fact, higher than the traditional sugary cereals.  Granola is a big offender.  So is Raisin Bran.  I buy ultra low sugar cereals and just add a bit of honey when I eat it.  That way I get to control how much sugar I eat.  Also, kids get too much sugar anyway; it leads to crashes and mood problems.

4. Artificial Coloring: Again, this is a Don’t.  Artificial colorings have been linked to all kinds of behavior problems in kids.  I wrote another article about them here.  Red 40 and Yellow 5 are especially bad.  You’d think they were just harmless colors, but they aren’t.  Red 40 and Yellow 5 have actually been banned in food in Europe for years.  They use natural alternatives.  The United States should do the same.  Almost all the sugary cereals have artificial colors.  Surprisingly, so do some of the less obvious ones.  Look at the box.

5. High Fructose Corn Syrup: HFCS is concentrated sugar.  Because of the fructose/glucose ratio in HFCS it actually ends up being more sugary than regular refined sugar.  Manufacturers use it because it’s 50% cheaper than regular sugar.  Of course they have an incentive to tell you it’s just the same.  Don’t believe them.  Read my article High Fructose Corn Syrup: The Facts.  It’ll be an eye opener.

6. Preservatives: BHT and BHA are probably the worst offenders in cereals.  They are fat soluble antioxidants (don’t be fooled by the term; not all antioxidants are good) that are used in foods with fats and oils (cereals, meats, butter and the like).  The controversy is about their mood altering capabilities.

“There is evidence that certain persons may have difficulty metabolizing BHA and BHT, resulting in health and behavior changes.” – Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.

7. Vitamins: A lot of cereals have vitamins added to them.  We might be tempted to buy those cereals because we think we’re getting more for our money.  However, it is debatable how well our bodies can absorb chemically created vitamins.  It is better, and more important, to find cereals that contain raw seeds and grains than it is to look for vitamin enhanced cereals.  Can you see specks of grains on your cereal?  That’s a good thing.  Does the color look too uniform and perfect?  That’s probably a bad thing.  The vitamins found in whole grains and seeds and nuts are of higher quality than the introduced versions.  Therefore the vitamin content on the box can be deceiving.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day; the experts are right.  The problem with many of us is that we’re constantly in a hurry and we sometimes skip it.  We look for cheap and easy alternatives.  I reach for cereal.  Between the milk, and the quality grains I get in my cereal I am satisfied that I’m feeding both myself and my kids a meal that will carry us until lunch.  My main concerns are avoiding artificial ingredients and keeping the sugar content low.  The last thing my kids needs is another reason to act like idiots.  The major flaws in most cereals can be easily discerned by simply reading the back of the box.  We all know that Apple Jacks is a poor choice.  We might not be so aware that cereals like Raisin Bran have as much sugar as they do or that all those vitamins in Total cereal might not be all they’re cracked up to be (they probably won’t hurt you, but why pay more?).  The bottom line is to just eat something good for breakfast and get on your way.

Related posts:

1. Oatmeal for Breakfast: Rolled or Steel Cut?
2. A Good Blender is a Good Investment
3. Sugar Cereals Aren’t That Bad