A Guide To Choosing Healthy Breakfast Cereals

Whoever invented breakfast cereals really know our needs during breakfast.  We need something easy to cook or no-cook at all during these frantic early morning hours.  We love the fact that breakfast cereals go so well with our favorite morning beverage—milk.  Of course it helps a lot that breakfast cereals come in the crunchy texture, appealing colors and variety of shapes which are a hit even with our picky kids.  Best of all, with breakfast cereals, breakfast is simply pour and go.

But we need to start reading those food labels and not just mindlessly patronize our usual brands of breakfast cereals to see if we’re getting what we want our families to get.  Here are the guidelines:

Breakfast cereals with heart-healthy ingredients.

Some brands of breakfast cereals claim to do your heart some good.  These heart disease health claims are approved by the FDA and are very likely true.  Most of these cereals contain whole-grain ingredients as opposed to refined ones.  Whole grain means more fiber which is really good for the heart.  Other heart-healthy ingredients are whole-grain oats, bran, psyllium, brown rice or barley. 

Fruit-laden breakfast cereals

Breakfast cereals with fruits do have fruits like freeze-dried berries, bananas or apples.  These add-ons lend more fiber and vitamins to the cereal.  These are of course better options than the sugar-loaded frosted cereal varieties.

Watch out for the sugar

Try to find brands with less than 15 grams of sugar per 100 grams.  Less is even better.  Cereals with dried fruits generally have more sugar so that 25 grams of sugar per 100 grams may be the reasonable limit for these varieties.

Beware of salt

Look for breakfast cereals with less than 400 mg of sodium per 100 grams.  Less is even better.  And there are brands which do not have added sodium at all, just the naturally-occurring ones which make for a total of only 20 mg per 100 grams.

Healthy add-ons won’t hurt

It would be great to perk up your cereals with a variety of healthy add-ons like flaxseed, pecans, almonds and other nuts.  But perhaps the best option is to make it healthier by adding fresh fruit bits.