Cereal Lovers

Raise your hand if you like cereal? Yes, my hand is raised too. I love cereal, the problem is cereal does not always love me. After eating it 9 times out of 10 I get a headache or feel dehydrated. Now, there could be many reasons for this but the most likely culprit is that on the rare occasion I eat cereal I know I am not making a good choice.  Most often I’m going to reach for the one that is more of a dessert then a breakfast. This probably goes back to when I was a kid and was not allowed to have those types of cereals unless it was actually my dessert. My solution is to just give up cereal (there are many more breakfast foods I like a lot more that don’t make me fell crummy), but for those who love cereal and have kids here are some suggestions on how to pick a healthy cereal:

Here is a link to an article that talks about the different types of sugary cereals and why they are so bad. It also has a video at the bottom of the page with suggestion on how to pick a healthy cereal, but I would make a couple of additions/alteration.

1.       10 grams of sugar for breakfast is too much for kids, especially since we typically have two servings when we eat cereal.  Aim for cereal that is a little lower around 5 – 8 grams. Or you can always mix two types of cereals (like corn flakes and special k) which will help even out the overall sugar level. If you eat too much sugar in the morning then you’ll find that your energy will crash a couple of hours later.

2.       Add fruit to cereal. With all these cereals adding dried blueberries and strawberries, why not add your own fresh ones! It will add a lot of flavor and nutrition.

3.       Don’t worry too much about calories (unless you are on a calorie restricted diet) because a lot of the healthy cereals that are high in fiber and nutrients will have a slightly high calorie level.