3 Reasons You Should Never Eat Cereal Again (and 5 quick & healthy options to replace it)
Breakfast is the “most important” meal of the day, Wheaties is the “breakfast of champions”, and Cheerios are “heart healthy” right? Lies, all lies! I was a cereal loving kid, that turned into a cereal loving adult, but as I got older I realized that I was never really full after eating cereal.
During my college years I would often come home from work (starving) and reach for my trusty bowl of Cheerios, I would fill the bowl, add the milk and chow down. More often than not, I would go back for another bowl.
After working with clients for the past 7 years, I have realized that nearly everyone experiences the same thing. All cereal, (yes even the super expensive organic fru-fru brands) are little more than sugar and highly processed grains when you start reading the ingredient list. “Enriched whole wheat flour” sounds fancy, but really it’s white flour that has vitamins added, and many cereals also have high fructose corn syrup, which is for causing high spikes in a person’s blood sugar levels (hmmm maybe that’s why we can eat multiple bowls and still want more..).
3 Reasons Why You Should Stop Eating Cereal
1. Cereals contain way too much sugar. Even the “healthy” brands have sugar in them (read the label if you don’t believe me) and the kid’s brands… they are sugar bombs! You might as well eat ice cream for breakfast! (it would be tastier 🙂 ) This will put you on a blood sugar roller coster with many peaks and valleys in your energy levels. This is definitely not a good way to start your day.
2. Cereals contain little or no nutritional value. Any of the “vitamins” you see on the label have been added back into the product. This is another reason why cereal isn’t very satisfying- little nutrient value means that our bodies keep telling us to eat in order to get nutrients. This can lead to over eating and even more sugar in our systems that our body has to deal with. Let us not forget that long term uncontrolled blood sugar levels turn into Type II diabetes- not good.
3. Cereals contain little to no protein. I recently saw a brand advertising that they have 8g of protein per serving like it was a good thing… but when it is up against 40-50g of carbohydrates and 12g of sugar, I really don’t think this is something to brag about. Again, it all comes down to blood sugar regulation. A balanced meal is has balance between the macronutritents (carbohydrates, fat, protein); while it doesn’t need to be a perfectly even split at every meal, an 80% carbohydrate meal is anything but balanced and is hard to correct.
I get that cereal seems like the easiest thing to grab on your way of the door. There are many better options, here are 5 ideas to get you going on the right track.
5 Balanced Breakfast Alternatives to Cereal
Greek Yogurt with Blueberries
1/2 Cup Greek Yogurt
1/2 Scoop Vanilla Protein
1/2 Cup Berries (frozen or fresh)
241 calories / 21g carbs / 30g protein / 5g fat / 2g fiber
Apple Almond Oatmeal
1/2 cup Rolled Oats (like Quaker)
1 scoop Vanilla Whey Protein
1/2 Apple chopped
1 tbsp Almonds
330 calories / 36 g carb / 23g protein / 8g fat / 8g fiber
“On the Go” Breakfast
1 Hard-boiled egg (I buy Eggland’s Best peeled eggs because I am lazy) 🙂
1 medium Apple
1/2 cup unsalted Cashews
314 calories / 32g carbs / 11g protein / 17g fat / 6g fiber
Quest Protein Bar
(if you’re running late for work)
190 calories / 21g carbs / 21g protein / 8g fat / 17g fiber
Meal Replacement Shake
220 calories / 24g carbs / 24g protein / 3g fat / 5g fiber
As you see, a busy schedule shouldn’t keep you from getting a proper start to your day. These 5 breakfast options will give you an adequate amount of calories, carbohydrates, fiber and protein to keep you feeling great during the day.
Change Your Eating Habits, Change Your Life
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photo credit: Breakfast Cereal, Kids Cereal 6/2014 pics by Mike Mozart of TheToyChannel and JeepersMedia on YouTube. #Cereal #BreakfastCereal #KidsCereal #TargetStores via photopin (license)