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COPYRIGHT 2003 Australian Consumers' Association
Australians are big cereal eaters. Last year we munched our way through almost nine large (750 g) boxes each, and put ourselves out of pocket for it by almost $700 million. But how many of these cereals are nutritionally worth the money?
The tables on pages 10-12 give you the answer.
DO WE NEED BREAKFAST?
Breakfast is definitely a good idea. If you don't eat first thing, it's more likely you'll be hungry mid-morning. If you're out or at work, buying a healthy snack may be harder than having a healthy breakfast at home.
A number of studies suggest that children who skip breakfast tend to be fatter than those who don't. And there's some evidence that eating breakfast improves kids' learning ability.
For adults, skipping breakfast seems to be far less common among people who've successfully lost weight and kept it off long-term than for the average person.
WHAT'S IMPORTANT
The best choice is something high in carbohydrate (our body's preferred source of fuel for the day), meaning that cereals have a head start. After that, a cereal high in fibre is a real bonus. As adults we're advised to eat about 30 grams of fibre a day, and most of us don't eat nearly enough. You should be able to rely on a breakfast cereal to deliver a decent whack of your daily fibre needs. That's why we weighted it most heavily when rating the cereals (see Guide to the tables on page 11).
What you don't want in a breakfast cereal is a lot of fat (which fortunately most don't have), salt or sugar (unless you're an athlete or very active, in which case sugar can provide some extra energy you need).
Most cereals have vitamins (mainly [B.sub.1], [B.sub.2], niacin and folate) and minerals (mainly iron) added to them. Breakfast cereals can be a significant source of these for children. For women, cereal can be a significant source of folate, which is important for women of child-bearing age because it can reduce the risk of giving birth to a baby with a neural tube defect such as spina bifida.
However, when choosing a cereal, make your shortlist based on high fibre and low fat, salt and sugar before you consider vitamins and minerals.
A number of cereals these days (mainly LOWAN and VOGEL brands) promote the fact that they're 'low GI'. While having a diet with a lower glycaemic index is probably good for us, we wouldn't recommend choosing your breakfast cereal purely on the merit of its GI--there are too many complications, such as what happens to the GI when you add milk and the fact that following the GI rules slavishly would knock out plenty of nutritious, high-fibre cereals. For more on GI, see CHOICE, Jan/Feb and March, 2003.
MORE ABOUT FIBRE
There are two types of fibre, known as soluble and insoluble. Insoluble fibre is the type we associate with preventing constipation and perhaps protecting against bowel cancer. A big plus of soluble fibre is its cholesterol-lowering effect, but because there's usually much more insoluble fibre in plant foods than soluble, it's hard to get enough to have this effect.
Some breakfast cereals can help, though--porridge, mueslis based on rolled oats and cereals based on oat bran all have a respectable amount of soluble fibre.
Some brands of cereal have their soluble fibre content listed in the nutrition panel so you can check how much you're getting. Of the cereals we looked at there's a handful that'll boost your soluble fibre intake significantly. KELLOGG'S Guardian contains 3.5 g in a serve (in the form of psyllium grain--a rich source), UNCLE TOBYS Healthwise For Your Heart, UNCLE TOBYS Crunchy Oat Bran With Fruit and LOWAN Oat Bran & Fruit all have 2 g and FREEDOM FOODS Rice Flakes With Psyllium has about 1.5 g.
Adding a couple of tablespoons of oat bran (or barley or rice bran) to your morning cereal could also get your soluble fibre intake off to a good start for the day.
NOT SO GOOD--FOR THE KIDS
The cereals aimed at kids, as well as the popular staples of rice bubbles/pops and cornflakes, don't fare too well.
All the kids' cereals except one have too much sugar and/or too little fibre to be recommended for every day. The exception is SANITARIUM Honey Weets: a moderate source of fibre and not too high in sugar. It's worth giving this one a try if you're having no luck with wheat biscuits or porridge, for instance.
Kids need less fibre than adults because it can make a small stomach full before it's had a chance to get enough...
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
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