It’s Okay to Eat Breakfast Cereal
Cereal often gets a bad rap. It’s viewed as a “sugary kids food” that has “too many carbs” which “makes you gain weight”. Many people would love to enjoy eating cereal but restrict themselves due to the notion that, unless it’s a cereal that tastes like cardboard, it’s not a healthy food. Let’s flip the script on this idea!
By definition, cereals are simply grains that are used as food. However, when we talk about eating cereal, we usually think about the typical breakfast cereal that is served with milk in a bowl. For the purposes of this article, we will be referring to the hot and cold breakfast cereals, which are made up of a variety of grains, including wheat, oats, corn and rice.
Breakfast cereal is technically a processed food, but before becoming unsettled by that fact, understand that there are various levels of food processing. “Minimally Processed Foods” have gone through some type of cooking or pasteurization process to make them more shelf-stable (i.e., a can of pinto beans). “Processed Culinary Ingredients” are compounds extracted from a whole food (i.e., olive oil from olives). “Processed Foods” have ingredients added to them, such as sugar, salt or oils, so they are usually a combination of a Minimally Processed Food and a Processed Culinary Ingredient (i.e., a loaf of bread). Finally, “Ultra Processed Foods” contain very little of the ingredients from a whole food and have plenty of added ingredients, such as sugar, salt, preservatives and colorings (i.e., boxed brownie mix).
There is a lot more nuanced commentary regarding the ultra processed food category, but in general, having an excess amount of ultra processed foods in your diet is correlated with poorer health outcomes. That being said, most of the foods we eat go through some level of “processing”. Unless you are picking the cherries off the trees in your backyard, you are likely eating processed foods. This is not a bad thing, and in many ways this is actually a good thing, as food processing allows us to enjoy foods from all around the world while minimizing risks of foodborne illnesses.
Back to breakfast cereals. Since you are not eating whole groats (raw oat kernels) or a whole wheat kernel in a bowl with milk, you can see that all breakfast cereals require some form of processing. Instead, you eat rolled oats as oatmeal or shredded wheat cereal.
Breakfast cereals can certainly shift towards the “ultra processed” category as they go through more and more processing to refine the grain and add additional ingredients. Think about Cinnamon Toast Crunch, for example. While the first ingredient is “whole grain wheat”, the following 24 ingredients are various sugars, oils, salts and preservatives.
Yet breakfast cereals can be convenient, satisfying and nutritious! So how do we strike a balance between a nutrient rich cereal and an ultra processed cereal? Here’s a few tips:
Shorter Ingredient Lists. Generally speaking, fewer added ingredients tends to indicate a more nutrient-dense cereal. There are many fortified breakfast cereals, however, which add-back vitamins and minerals that are often lacking in the average person’s diet. Consider Kellog’s Frosted Mini Wheats, for example, which adds back Iron and Folic Acid to provide for 100% of your daily needs. Recognize that not all added ingredients are “bad” ingredients.
Less Added Sugar. Added sugars sneak their way into a lot of foods, including cereals. With 17 grams of added sugar, Captain Crunch rivals a Kit Kat bar. Look for cereals with no more than 10 grams of added sugar per serving. (Learn more about added sugars here.)
Less Sodium. Breakfast cereals aren’t typically thought of as a “salty” treat, but the sodium can add up quickly! A good rule of thumb is to aim for the number milligrams of sodium being less than or equal to the number of calories per serving. As an example, check out Nature’s Path Panda Puffs Peanut Butter cereal, which contains 170 mg of sodium and 170 calories per serving.
Whole Grains as the First Ingredients. Whole grains offer a range of nutrients, including dietary fiber and B vitamins. Look for a cereal that boasts whole grains as the first ingredients. These Kashi Whole Wheat Cinnamon Biscuits are a good example. Remember that whole grains include more than just wheat. For example, these Quaker Oats Oatmeal Squares boast whole grain oat flour as the first ingredient.
While it’s not always possible to achieve all of these nutrition standards for cereal, they are some good guidelines to use when making comparisons amongst all of the cereals on the shelf (there’s a whole aisle dedicated to them in the grocery store!). Remember that not all cereal is created equal, and there are many delicious cereal options that are nutrient-dense, satisfying and delicious! Combined with milk and some fruit, breakfast cereals can be a convenient, balanced meal for any time of the day!
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