Today, I thought I would write my blog early in an effort to avoid my usual rush to get it done before the end of the day, or worse, miss the blogging for that day entirely.
And since I am writing this blog in the A.M. I thought that today I would think about ... breakfast. More specifically, breakfast cereals. I am also pausing every few words to eat a few bites of my Honey Nut Cheerios in celebration of blogging about breakfast.
According to the BBC:
Breakfast is 'most important meal'
Eating breakfast is the secret to staying healthy, according to evidence unearthed by doctors in the US.
They believe skipping the first meal of the day increases the chances of becoming obese, developing diabetes or even having a heart attack.
The article goes on to saying how whole grain cereals are the best thing to eat for breakfast and blah, blah, blah. Another article suggests...
For a Nutritious Breakfast Include:
Fruit or Vegetable (or their juice): Choose one rich in Vitamin C such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits, cantaloupe, or tomato.
A source of Fiber: Include a good source of fiber (at least 3 grams fiber per serving). Include good sources of fiber such as: whole grain breads or muffins, whole grain cereals (bran, oatmeal, unsweetened granola, shredded wheat); brown rice, fruits and vegetables.
Protein: Include a good source of protein such as: milk, soy milk, cheese, yogurt, meat, veggie meats, fish, poultry, beans, or eggs.
I was always raised eating a bowl of cereal with milk for breakfast...or oatmeal, which I got so sick of that I wouldn't even touch it for years (unless it was in an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie). I always thought that a bowl of cereal with milk was a complete breakfast. Then as a grown up I noticed that when there were commercials for cereal on TV, they always said "as part of a complete breakfast," or some such thing. So now the meal I thought was the easiest, most simple meal of the day, has become expensive and time consuming. Pour the high fiber cereal, chop up some fruit or make juice, toast some whole wheat bread...yadayadayada. Of course, not as time consuming as preparing dinner, but I think it puts lunch solidly in the easiest and most simple category for me.
I was originally going to write this blog entry about different kinds of breakfast cereals until I googled 'breakfast most important meal' and found all these articles about what we should be eating. The part where it says a cereal with at least 3 grams of fiber per serving especially caught my eye. Then in another article they said at least 4 grams of fiber! So who should I believe? I decided to take a look at some of the cereal boxes in my cupboard and see how they stacked up. I was surprised to find that most of them...didn't. Of course I expected the Peanut Butter Cookie Crisp (hey, we have a family tradition that we each get to pick whatever cereal we want for our birthday breakfast...and S picked that one) would not meet the challenge. I was not disappointed in this assumption. Peanut Butter Cookie Crisp was woefully low in fiber with only one gram per 3/4 cup serving, and 13 grams of sugar. Scary! I decided to turn to what I thought were more nutritious options in my pantry. My beloved Honey Nut Cheerios to start with...2 grams of dietary fiber per 3/4 cup serving...but wait...a little line underneath that says...less than 1 gram of soluble fiber. What does that mean? What is the difference between dietary and soluble fiber? Does it make my Honey Nut Cheerios even less healthy than they already are? Oh, and 9 grams of sugar. On to Chex...Corn Chex to be exact. I will admit that because of the pricey nature of chex I buy it more to make wonderfully tasty and very bad for you Chex Muddy Buddies than to eat it for breakfast, but during the holidays when it goes on sale so that everyone and their dog can get sick of Chex Mix, I do eat it regularly for breakfast. Chex wouldn't disappoint me...it has to be good for you! Its not even sugar coated! Corn Chex...1 gram of fiber per 1 cup serving! AAAAAAAAAaaaaaahhhhh!!!!! But!...only 3 grams of sugar. So some kudos there. On to Honey Bunches of Oats...with Almonds. 2 grams of dietary fiber, 6 grams sugar per 3/4 cup serving. Life cereal...that tasty cereal that you have to practically inhale or it becomes too soggy with milk to bother with. Life cereal has 2 grams of fiber, and 6 grams of sugar per 3/4 cup serving. And last but certainly not least (although it has the least amount of flavor) plain old original Cheerios. Cheerios, the champion of cereals...the one that always floats. 3 grams of dietary fiber (1 of soluble) and 1 gram of sugar per 1 cup serving. So the only cereal in my house that passed the 3 gram test (but still fell short of the 4 grams) was the one we eat the least of. I will say one more thing about all of these kinds (even different brands) of cereals. Every single one of them without exception...even the Cookie Crisp, had something on the front in bold letters that says WITH WHOLE GRAIN. I used to think I was so good, because for the most part I steer clear of the really sugary cereals. Now, I am beginning to think that they should move the majority of the cereal section to the snack aisle. It certainly doesn't seem to cut it in the breakfast department. There are a few exceptions that I took the liberty of looking up online. Frosted Mini Wheats have 5 grams of fiber...but 10 grams of sugar...better to go with the unfrosted ones I guess. According to http://www.nutritiondata.com/nutrient-search.html (where any of you can go to compare the various nutrients and etc of various foods) Kelloggs All Bran is the highest in fiber at a whopping 15 grams, and the lowest in sugar at 0 grams...and it only has 58 calories to boot. Other options for high fiber include Fiber One, various Bran cereals and etc. So see? Hope is not gone...only taste is to be sacrificed.
In closing I would like to end with a favorite quote that I found on my many perusings of information about breakfast, and breakfast cereals today. It comes from a press release from UCBerkely news.
"More and more Americans are skipping breakfast as the pace of our lives becomes increasingly hectic," said Gladys Block, UC Berkeley professor of nutritional epidemiology and principal investigator of the study. "What our study shows is that if the goal is to lose or maintain weight, skipping breakfast is not a good way to go about it. Skipping breakfast may be just as bad as eating a chunk of cheese first thing in the morning."
Pass the cheese please...
And since I am writing this blog in the A.M. I thought that today I would think about ... breakfast. More specifically, breakfast cereals. I am also pausing every few words to eat a few bites of my Honey Nut Cheerios in celebration of blogging about breakfast.
According to the BBC:
Breakfast is 'most important meal'
Eating breakfast is the secret to staying healthy, according to evidence unearthed by doctors in the US.
They believe skipping the first meal of the day increases the chances of becoming obese, developing diabetes or even having a heart attack.
The article goes on to saying how whole grain cereals are the best thing to eat for breakfast and blah, blah, blah. Another article suggests...
For a Nutritious Breakfast Include:
Fruit or Vegetable (or their juice): Choose one rich in Vitamin C such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits, cantaloupe, or tomato.
A source of Fiber: Include a good source of fiber (at least 3 grams fiber per serving). Include good sources of fiber such as: whole grain breads or muffins, whole grain cereals (bran, oatmeal, unsweetened granola, shredded wheat); brown rice, fruits and vegetables.
Protein: Include a good source of protein such as: milk, soy milk, cheese, yogurt, meat, veggie meats, fish, poultry, beans, or eggs.
I was always raised eating a bowl of cereal with milk for breakfast...or oatmeal, which I got so sick of that I wouldn't even touch it for years (unless it was in an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie). I always thought that a bowl of cereal with milk was a complete breakfast. Then as a grown up I noticed that when there were commercials for cereal on TV, they always said "as part of a complete breakfast," or some such thing. So now the meal I thought was the easiest, most simple meal of the day, has become expensive and time consuming. Pour the high fiber cereal, chop up some fruit or make juice, toast some whole wheat bread...yadayadayada. Of course, not as time consuming as preparing dinner, but I think it puts lunch solidly in the easiest and most simple category for me.
I was originally going to write this blog entry about different kinds of breakfast cereals until I googled 'breakfast most important meal' and found all these articles about what we should be eating. The part where it says a cereal with at least 3 grams of fiber per serving especially caught my eye. Then in another article they said at least 4 grams of fiber! So who should I believe? I decided to take a look at some of the cereal boxes in my cupboard and see how they stacked up. I was surprised to find that most of them...didn't. Of course I expected the Peanut Butter Cookie Crisp (hey, we have a family tradition that we each get to pick whatever cereal we want for our birthday breakfast...and S picked that one) would not meet the challenge. I was not disappointed in this assumption. Peanut Butter Cookie Crisp was woefully low in fiber with only one gram per 3/4 cup serving, and 13 grams of sugar. Scary! I decided to turn to what I thought were more nutritious options in my pantry. My beloved Honey Nut Cheerios to start with...2 grams of dietary fiber per 3/4 cup serving...but wait...a little line underneath that says...less than 1 gram of soluble fiber. What does that mean? What is the difference between dietary and soluble fiber? Does it make my Honey Nut Cheerios even less healthy than they already are? Oh, and 9 grams of sugar. On to Chex...Corn Chex to be exact. I will admit that because of the pricey nature of chex I buy it more to make wonderfully tasty and very bad for you Chex Muddy Buddies than to eat it for breakfast, but during the holidays when it goes on sale so that everyone and their dog can get sick of Chex Mix, I do eat it regularly for breakfast. Chex wouldn't disappoint me...it has to be good for you! Its not even sugar coated! Corn Chex...1 gram of fiber per 1 cup serving! AAAAAAAAAaaaaaahhhhh!!!!! But!...only 3 grams of sugar. So some kudos there. On to Honey Bunches of Oats...with Almonds. 2 grams of dietary fiber, 6 grams sugar per 3/4 cup serving. Life cereal...that tasty cereal that you have to practically inhale or it becomes too soggy with milk to bother with. Life cereal has 2 grams of fiber, and 6 grams of sugar per 3/4 cup serving. And last but certainly not least (although it has the least amount of flavor) plain old original Cheerios. Cheerios, the champion of cereals...the one that always floats. 3 grams of dietary fiber (1 of soluble) and 1 gram of sugar per 1 cup serving. So the only cereal in my house that passed the 3 gram test (but still fell short of the 4 grams) was the one we eat the least of. I will say one more thing about all of these kinds (even different brands) of cereals. Every single one of them without exception...even the Cookie Crisp, had something on the front in bold letters that says WITH WHOLE GRAIN. I used to think I was so good, because for the most part I steer clear of the really sugary cereals. Now, I am beginning to think that they should move the majority of the cereal section to the snack aisle. It certainly doesn't seem to cut it in the breakfast department. There are a few exceptions that I took the liberty of looking up online. Frosted Mini Wheats have 5 grams of fiber...but 10 grams of sugar...better to go with the unfrosted ones I guess. According to http://www.nutritiondata.com/nutrient-search.html (where any of you can go to compare the various nutrients and etc of various foods) Kelloggs All Bran is the highest in fiber at a whopping 15 grams, and the lowest in sugar at 0 grams...and it only has 58 calories to boot. Other options for high fiber include Fiber One, various Bran cereals and etc. So see? Hope is not gone...only taste is to be sacrificed.
In closing I would like to end with a favorite quote that I found on my many perusings of information about breakfast, and breakfast cereals today. It comes from a press release from UCBerkely news.
"More and more Americans are skipping breakfast as the pace of our lives becomes increasingly hectic," said Gladys Block, UC Berkeley professor of nutritional epidemiology and principal investigator of the study. "What our study shows is that if the goal is to lose or maintain weight, skipping breakfast is not a good way to go about it. Skipping breakfast may be just as bad as eating a chunk of cheese first thing in the morning."
Pass the cheese please...
2 comments:
I read a study a while back that showed that almost all cereals are not that great. They tested several cereals and adding sugar to each of the cereals actually LOWERED the glycemic response (that means that adding table sugar decreased your blood sugar spike). That doesn't say anything good about cereals. Included in the cereals tested were many that you mentioned and others like grapenuts. All Bran was the one exception, it is healthy as long as you don't mind the taste of dog food.
I have to admit, I'm crazy enough to actually like All Bran! Forgive me if you can!
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