Cereal Killer

According to the book “Cerealizing America,” by Scott Bruce and Bill Crawford, the cereal industry uses 816 million pounds of sugar per year. Americans buy 2.7 billion packages of breakfast cereal each year. If laid end to end, the empty cereal boxes from one year's consumption would stretch to the moon and back. 1.3 million advertisements for cereal aired on American television every year, or more than twenty-five hours of cereal advertising per day, at a cost of $762 million for air time. Only automobile manufacturers spend more money on television advertising than the makers of breakfast cereal.

True, that is America. But we Brits are not far behind.

Most of the boxed cereals found in supermarkets contain large amounts of sugar and some contain more than 50% sugar (sugar smacks have 53% sugar). Cereal manufacturers are very clever in their marketing, making many cereals appear much more healthy than they appear by “fortifying” them with vitamins and minerals. Oh, lovely – you now have vitamin-fortified sugar!

Before you eat any cereal, read the ingredients list and see how high sugar appears on the ingredient list. Then check the “Nutrition facts” panel.

Leaving the issue of sugar for a moment let us turn to an example of disgraceful 'health' claims for cereals. Cheerios biggest claim to fame is that eating them will help you lower your cholesterol. I am here to tell you that eating processed grains, especially in the form of cereal can actually make your cholesterol go up! The cholesterol study done showed how soluble fibre can help the body eliminate bad cholesterol from the body. Cheerios has 1 gram of soluble fibre per serving. Woop-dee-doo. Big deal. I can get 2 grams of soluble fibre from an apple, 3 grams from broccoli and carrots, and more than 4 grams from kidney beans.

Honestly, I don't think there are many foods in a box that are healthy at all. They have to be highly processed to stay shelf stable, many times loading them up with chemicals and fillers that are making us gain weight.

My recommendation is ditch the cereal and pick up some wholesome natural foods like fruits and veggies. Natural grains like brown rice are 10x's better than any boxed cereal. There are actually only a small handful of national commercially branded cereals that are made from whole grains and are sugar free. Shredded Wheat is one. If you shop at a health food store instead of in your local supermarket, you are much more likely to find a healthy, whole grain, sugar free (or very low sugar) cereal. But watch out – some of the health food store boxed cereals are sweetened with fruit juice or fructose.  Although this may be an improvement over refined white sugar, this can really skyrocket the calories.

Although there are some good boxed cereals available, you may find it interesting that bodybuilders and fitness models – among the leanest athletes in the world – almost never eat boxed cereal – even the better brands. Instead, they opt for unsweetened old fashioned porridge oats (not the flavoured, sweetened packets). This might surprise you, but most commercial breakfast cereals, with their hidden sugars and clever marketing, are foods that turn to fat.

Leave them on the shelf!