Tuesday, June 28, 2011

How To Choose a Cereal

Wouldn't it be lovely to have breakfast served to you outside, and you could relax and take all the time you needed to finish off the most important meal of the day?

One day...

Most of us don't have that luxury. That's where cereal comes in. Cereal is an easy breakfast, a great way to start your day, and it also makes for a great snick snack when you're in a rush. I love cereal in the morning, and it's also been a great replacement for late night junk food snacks. Because I cannot have dairy, I have my cereal with Almond Milk, Rice Milk or Soy Milk. I drink all of these milks unsweetened - otherwise there is almost as much sugar as there is in soda!


It is important that we choose our cereal very carefully. There are hundreds of options and if you don't read the label you could end up eating a bunch of sugar that makes you crash later on in the day. The purpose of breakfast is to kick start your metabolism for the day. When you skip breakfast or eat a bunch of sugar, it sets you on course to eat crap the rest of the day. This is why so many people say that eating a healthy breakfast is the key to healthy weight loss - because it sets you on track to eat well all day.

So many options!!

So how to choose the best cereal for your morning? Here are some basic guidelines to stick by:
1. The first word of the ingredients should be: WHOLE (Ex: Whole Grain, Whole Corn) **This is the most important rule... otherwise you end up eating bleached white flour
2. Cereal should be at least 10% of your daily fiber
3. Check out how many grams of sugar are in the cereal (Try to keep it under 10-15 grams per serving)
4. Be aware of the calories - and the serving size it's measured by. Calories aren't a bad thing - just make sure they are good calories!

Cereal Suggestions:
- FIBER ONE (original bran) > No artificial food dyes, no sugar and 47% fiber
- MINI-WHEATS (Unfrosted/Bite Size) > No artificial sweeteners or food dyes, only 2% sugar and 10% fiber
- KIX > This is my favorite gluten free cereal! Good on fiber (10%) and sugar, and made from whole grain corn.
- CHEX > Another gluten free option. Not my favorite, but great to have in the house.


My Favorite

Gluten Free Runner Up
Enjoy your morning and your breakfast! Let me know if you have any other suggestions to share!


- Stephanie

5 comments:

  1. what do you think about the Kashi Go lean Crunch cereal?!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kashi looks good! 8% fiber and only 13g of sugar! Whole grains too - looks like you're good to go!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi there, love the blog! Fiber One Cereal has aspartame listed as an ingredient, and generally speaking I think it's a good idea to avoid that. Nature's Path makes a high fiber cereal. But I prefer oatmeal with cinnamon and walnuts for my breakfast. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I definitely agree that the aspartame is it's one downfall. It's a shame they don't replace it with something else. However, in the grand scheme of all cereals out there and for those just starting out on switching to a healthiER diet (from, say, fruity pebbles), I would rank this quite highly. If you want to be stricter, there are absolutely some better options out there. In fact, if you wanted to be completely strict, I'd say go with some oatmeal and a bowl of fruit. For those that like their cereals, the above list works wonderfully.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kashi Golean Crunch is DELICIOUS. I can't even bear to look at Froot Loops and shit like that anymore, I might as well eat a bowl of candy for breakfast; same benefits, but it tastes better! lol

    ReplyDelete