nosh magazine
HOW TO BUY A HEALTHY
BREAKFAST CEREAL
Nutrition expert Catherine Saxelby provides these top tips to
choosing a healthy breakfast cereal.
ow many times have you heard this:
“It’s better to eat the box than the
cereal”? That’s fine if you’re after fibre in the
form of cellulose (and I get the cereal joke),
but it doesn’t address the needs of busy
women who are after something quick in
the morning rush, that makes a decent
contribution to nutrition, and solves the
problem of how to get the kids to eat
something rather than nothing before
school. Oh and one that tastes good too!
H
Many kiddie cereals aren’t ideal in terms of
fibre and whole grain content but they are
inexpensive, high in starchy carbohydrate
that fills up tummies, low in fat, fortified
with four B vitamins and iron. Cereals are
generally eaten with milk, which
contributes protein and bone-building
calcium AND lowers the glycemic load of
the meal.
But after that, cereals differ greatly – some
are high in fibre, some are wholegrain, two
things which are big on my list. Some are
fortified with extra calcium, vitamin C,
vitamin A or zinc (you can check the
label), some are less processed, some have
lots of sugar, others have next to none.
Here are four steps to
choosing a healthy cereal
Puffed, rolled, flaked or popped, there are
oodles of breakfast cereals. What I want is
one with the most fibre and/or wholegrains
but the lowest sugars and sodium (salt).
One that will fill me up and take me to
lunch! Sounds easy but isn’t always.
Me? I’m a muesli Queen at breakfast. I
love my muesli as I’ve said before. But at
times I want variety and when the kids
were little, we had up to FIVE packs of
bought cereal in the kitchen. So I’ve been
down the cereal aisle more than once.
Here’s what I look for.
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TIP
1
Look for fibre
Cereals are one of the easiest ways to boost your fibre intake. So make it count
towards your day’s fibre intake. For instance, a bowl of bran cereal (like the everpopular All-Bran) gives you 9g of fibre, which is around one-third of your
recommended daily intake. Read the back of the box and look for 10 per cent or more
(run your eye down the per 100g column) – 10 per cent is equivalent to 3g of fibre per
30g bowl.
Bran cereals (All-Bran, Sultana Bran) have between 15 to 30 per cent while Corn
Flakes and Rice Bubbles are down at a low two per cent.
Alternatively you can sprinkle a couple of spoons of All-Bran Fibre Toppers or
Guardian or psyllium flakes over your usual cereal. To max your fibre, I’ve listed my
top ten nicest-tasting cereals for fibre to show you the range at the high end:
Cereal
% fibre
“g fibre per serve”
Serve size*
Uncle Toby’s Bran Plus
40
18.0
45g
Kellogg’s All-Bran Original
30
13.3
45g
Goodness Superfoods Digestive 1
25
12.7
50g
Vogel’s Ultra Bran and Soy
26
11.5
45g
Kellogg’s Guardian
22
6.5
30g
Sanitarium Weet-Bix Hi-Bran
18
7.3
40g
Kellogg’s Sultana Bran
15
6.7
30g
Uncle Toby’s Shredded Wheat
13
6.2
47g
Sanitarium Weet-bix
12
3.3
30g