Cereal - The Breakfast of Champions? Or not?

Breakfast does what it says. It breaks the fast. You probably have not eaten for at least 8 - 10 hours from the night before so you should wake up hungry and looking for a balanced satisfying meal. A lot of people turn to cereal b/c it's filling, tastes good, is quick to prepare and can hold you over until lunch.

It's obvious by fact that an entire isle in the grocery store is dedicated to cereal that it's a breakfast favorite. In fact, cereal know no time of the day! We've all been known to snack on cereal or even have a bowl as dinner. Cereal CAN be a healthy choice, but I caution you that all cereal is not created equal. If it says fortified or enriched, those are actually bad signs. That means that the nutritional value was so low that they had to infuse it with some nutrition to make it edible.

When choosing a cereal look for one that has whole grain ingredients such as steal cut oats, organic milled oats, rolled oats, milled rice, brown rice, oat bran, puffed kamut, barley, nuts, flax seeds, wheat bran, whole wheat meal, etc.

AVOID - any added sugars (which could be listed over 40 different ways from plain sugar to innulin, sucrose, saccharine, high fructose corn syrup, etc). Avoid anything that says "modified" and anything else you can't pronounce that sounds like a chemical or something you do not recognize as being good for your body.

When a person and especially a child starts their day off with a sugary cereal, it sets them up to a sugar high and then a crash, followed by cravings for more sugar. Not only is there no nutritional value in those cereals, but they take good nutrition out of the body to process them.

One of my favorite cereals right now is Optimum Rebound by Nature's Path. It has 10 grams of protein and is flavor full.

Below is an article on the sugary cereals found on our store shelves along with comments from Dr. Mercola.


Sugar Baby
According to this study, one serving of cereal equated to 11 percent of the daily limit of added sugar for active boys, aged 14 to 18 years old, and an astounding 92 percent of the daily sugar intake for sedentary girls aged 9 to 13.
The problem with feeding your child foods high in added sugar is twofold -- they contain little in terms of vitamins and minerals, and the calories they contain are not made up of important micronutrients needed for health and growth.
Reducing sugar intake should be on the top of your list regardless of whether your child is currently overweight or not, because it’s been proven over and over that sugar increases insulin levels, which can lead to:
High blood pressure and high cholesterol
Heart disease
Diabetes
Weight gain
Premature aging, and more
In fact, sugar is bad for your health in so many ways, I’ve compiled an entire list outlining 100-Plus Ways in Which Sugar Can Damage Your Health!

Now, having said that, completely eliminating sugar from your child’s diet is probably not reasonable, or even necessary. While it clearly will decrease your child’s health, sugar in moderation is likely not going to cause any significant damage.
What do I mean by moderation?

Well, something on the order of five pounds a year. This is considerably less than the average amount Americans consume, which is closer to 175 pounds per year.
Taking a close look at the sugar content of your child’s cereal, which is consumed on a daily basis, is therefore necessary. Just how much sugar are you feeding your child each day?

One 2005 study that analyzed the daily sugar intake of 5,000 toddlers ranging in age from 2 to 5, found that, on average, 2- to 3-year olds consumed around 14 teaspoons of added sugar a day. This number jumped to 17 teaspoons daily among 4- to 5-year olds. That’s WAY too much!
However, I propose you take things one step further than simply switching for a brand with lower sugar content.
Why?

Because of the grains.

How Much Grain Does Your Child Need?

Grains are such common staples that most can’t imagine them not being good for you. But all of these common items really should be avoided when planning your child’s breakfast:
Doughnuts
Fruit juice and other sugary drinks
Waffles and pancakes
Bagels and toast (even whole grain organic types)
ALL cereals (even whole grain organic types)
Carb Types can actually do well with grains, but remember; only about 15 percent of the population are carb types, at best. So for the majority, grains and cereals should be limited or avoided as much as possible.
Why?
Because grains rapidly break down to sugar in your body, stimulating insulin production. So you’re right back to the issue of too much sugar again.
I’ve written an entire book on the subject of children’s health and nutrition called Generation XL: Raising Healthy, Intelligent Kids in a High-Tech, Junk-Food World. Not only does it offer lots of tips for how to get your kids to lead more active lives, it also explains Nutritional Typing and how you can help ensure your child gets the nutrition he or she really needs, setting the stage for lifelong optimal health. It even includes 74 pages of kid-approved recipes that satisfy even your picky eaters.

What Else Can Your Child Eat For Breakfast?

My primary recommendation for Carb and Mixed nutritional types is to prepare and consume fresh vegetable juice, making sure to also eat the pulp. (It’s loaded with so many valuable phytonutrients, it would be unwise to discard it.) Veggie juice is a really simple breakfast alternative, and suitable even for your youngest ones.

Juicing may not be the best option for Protein types (like me), however, so if your child is a Protein type, you’d want to limit them to 10 ounces or less of raw juice each day, and restrict the vegetables to lower potassium varieties such as spinach and celery.
Here’s another option; a kid-approved breakfast recipe, straight from my book.

Vegetable Omelet

1 tablespoon olive oil1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms1 cup sliced zucchini4 eggs, slightly beaten¼ teaspoon black pepper3 tablespoons water½ tablespoon olive oil½ cup rice mozzarella shredded (optional)

Heat olive oil in a skillet. Add mushrooms and zucchini. Cook over medium heat until vegetables are crisply tender (4-5 minutes). Remove from skillet and set aside. In a small bowl, stir together remaining omelet ingredients except olive oil and cheese. In same skillet, heat ½ tablespoon olive oil. Pour egg mixture into skillet. Cook over medium heat, lifting with spatula to allow uncooked portion to flow underneath until omelet is set (3-4 minutes.) Place sautéed vegetables and cheese on half of omelet. Gently fold other half of omelet over filling.

End

For breakfast this morning, my kids had 1/2 of a fresh whole multi grain bagel with almond butter, scrambled eggs and a protein shake with a scoop of superfoods (a powder containing fruits and vegetables with coca).

Bonus - I just received this information although I have not confirmed that it's true yet. When you purchase fruits and vegetables they always have a sticker on them with numbers. Here's how the numbers add up:

Conventionally grown fruits have four digits and do not start with a 9. Most start with a 4. These can and usually are grown using pesticides and non-organic fertilizers.
Organically grown have five digits and start with a 9.
Genetically modified fruits start with the number 8.
Next time you go to the supermarket, get out the magnifying glass and check out your fruits numbers and make the choices that you feel most comfortable with. I will be looking for the number 9 and staying far away from the ones starting with the number 8.

Have a prosperous day