“Healthy” Breakfast Cereals

Until my sophomore year of college, I was that girl that went through the cafeteria line and started her day with a big bowl of cereal and skim milk. And I didn’t just use any old cereal, I was filling up my bowls with the oh so delicious cereals that turned my leftover milk into an ambrosia of sugary soup.  Reese’s Puffs was the usual first choice, and Cocoa Pebbles were not far behind. Apple Jacks was another favorite.  By the time I finished a breakfast like this, I was ready to conquer the world!

For about 30 minutes…

…after which, I crashed – usually during a class or a lab.

But even if you consider yourself a healthy progressive who is way beyond the realm of eating cereal from boxes with cartoon characters on the front, you need to be aware of serious issues with what many perceive to be “healthy” cereal in today’s supermarkets.  In other words, you may need to face up to the fact that Wheaties is not the best “Breakfast of Champions”.  Especially the “wheat” part of Wheaties. Allow me to explain.

Most wheat that we eat today is just a product of genetic research. Not only is this modern wheat genetically far removed from what our ancestors ate thousands of years ago, and thus far more capable of causing inflammation in our gut, but certain components of wheat cause it to raise blood sugar higher than nearly any other carbohydrate you can eat. But the issue with grains in breakfast cereal goes beyond wheat’s capability to cause digestive inflammation or to  massively spike your blood sugar levels. Even if you don’t have something like Celiac disease or gluten intolerance, the gluten in wheat-based cereals may not be the hottest food ingredient for you to be starting your day with.

So why not just go gluten-free?

At the risk of turning this into a complete breakfast cereal bashing post, I want to also make sure you’re aware that just because a cereal is gluten-free and wheat-free does not necessarily mean that it is healthy. Not only are gluten-free foods primarily made with corn starch, rice starch, potato starch, and tapioca starch, which are the only foods capable of spiking your blood sugar levels even higher than wheat, but they typically have added sugars as well.

Here are the ingredients of some popular gluten-free “healthy” cereals:

Nature’s Path Organic (insert sounds of angelic choir here) is Organic Brown Rice, Organic Evaporated Cane Juice and Organic Molasses.

And “granola” as a cereal alternative is not much better.

Basically, granola is also primarily sugar, but with added vegetable oils and nuts, typically roasted and very high in inflammatory omega 6 fatty acids.

For example, Kirkland’s Organic Ancient Grains Granola is “made with love” and comprised of oats, cane sugar, spelt, soy oil, wheat, almonds, inulin, quinoa, amaranth, rice starch, sea salt, molasses and cinnamon.

So, now that you’re hopefully reconsidering eating a bowl of cereal every morning, you may be wondering what should go into a healthy breakfast? Check back next week for my blog on the Breakfast of Champions