We all know the old saying, “Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper”, so surely eating a bowl of breakfast cereal first thing in the morning is sensible, healthy eating?.
This is true to some extent with cereals that are high in fibre, low in fat, sugar and salt as well as being fortified with a range of vitamins and minerals. However, it is often the case that not all breakfast cereals are as healthy or nutritious as they might first appear.
A popular documentary show has recently exposed the amount of sugar and salt in some breakfast cereals to be equivalent to consuming a plate of chocolate-chip cookies or ready salted crisps and they are using health claims and attractive packaging to sell these as the healthier options!! In fact, well known cereal brands faired worse then supermarket branded cereals when the nutrition numbers were crunched and many of these are aimed at children!
The proof is seen when you take a closer look at the nutritional information on the side of the pack of cereals. Some varieties of muesli, crammed full with nuts and dried fruit, have as many calories and as much fat per 100g as Jaffa Cakes - even the reduced sugar varieties. But this is not the worst of the bowl busting cereals…much worse are the crunchy, nutty and chocolatey cluster cereals.
But these cereals contain oats and wheat so they must be good for us?? Wrong! These sticky cereals are not packed full with fibre, vitamins and energy-boosting carbohydrates but instead are bursting with fat, sugars and just too much salt. Unfortunately, they are also yummy it is easy to indulge in more than the recommended 30g serving.
If you are going to make the effort and breakfast like the proverbial king, make sure you do it right…try to avoid the sticky, high fat choco-nutty sugar crisp clusters and go for a high fibre, flake or biscuit type cereal with added vitamins and minerals. These contain hardly any fat and if you add some fruit and use low-fat milk one bowl really will last you ‘til lunch!