Purely Nourished

Cereal is one of the most pop­u­lar break­fast foods, so much so that there is a whole row at the gro­cery store ded­i­cated to them.  Amer­i­cans pur­chase 2.7 bil­lion pack­ages of break­fast cereal each year and con­sume 160 bowls per per­son per year. Break­fast cere­als are the third most pop­u­lar prod­uct sold in super­mar­kets, in terms of dol­lar sales. The five most pop­u­lar prod­ucts are 1. car­bon­ated bev­er­ages, 2. milk, 3. break­fast cereal, 4. cig­a­rettes and 5. fresh bread and rolls.

The term cereal orig­i­nally came from grasses cul­ti­vated for edi­ble grain. Cereal was one of the world’s first health foods deter­mined to play a role in shap­ing healthy lives. It marked the begin­ning of America’s pre-packaged mass mar­keted prod­ucts. Unfor­tu­nately, what started out to be a health food quickly became an avenue to add more sugar to the Amer­i­can diet. New and improved ver­sions of cereal came out with bright col­ored mas­cots and slo­gans. Char­ac­ters like “Tony the Tiger” and “Cap’n Crunch” became more rec­og­niz­able than any Amer­i­can polit­i­cal leader.

Today the break­fast cereal that was cre­ated to pro­mote healthy lifestyles is doing quite the oppo­site. With the major­ity of cere­als now mar­keted towards chil­dren with their brightly cov­ered pack­ages and prizes at the bot­tom. No won­der obe­sity and over­weight is an epi­demic in Amer­ica. Check the ingre­di­ent list and you will find the obvi­ous cul­prit. The top two ingre­di­ents in the major­ity of cere­als are flour and sugar. Can you believe that? Even the sec­ond ingre­di­ent in corn flakes, a cereal mar­keted to women try­ing to drop those extra pounds, is full of sugar. While these women are liv­ing off sugar and processed flour of course they are los­ing weight, they are con­sum­ing noth­ing but empty calo­ries.  They are drop­ping weight and feel­ing more deprived than ever. This inevitably leads to the crash and back­fire, leav­ing them lost and frus­trated. What is even worse is that high fruc­tose corn syrup is one of the next listed ingre­di­ents. High fruc­tose corn syrup is noth­ing but a toxic chem­i­cal con­coc­tion that affects proper metab­o­lism in the body.

Luck­ily, there are still brands out there doing what break­fast cere­als set out to do, pro­vid­ing a quick and healthy option for break­fast with­out the added sugar. But be cau­tious, most cere­als adver­tise that they are healthy while in all actu­al­ity, they are com­pa­ra­ble to eat­ing a pop­tart or a glazed donut for breakfast.

How do we nav­i­gate the break­fast isle effec­tively to find the cereal that is indeed healthy and nutritious?

• Read the ingre­di­ent list. Make sure the first ingre­di­ent is a whole grain and that the ingre­di­ents that fol­low are grains and nat­ural sweeteners.
• Check the Serv­ing size and Calo­ries per serv­ing. The cereal should con­tain no more than 200 calo­ries per serving.
• Scan the nutri­ent list for Trans and Sat­u­rated fat. The cereal should con­tain 0g trans fats and less than 2g of sat­u­rated fat.
• Look for at least 2g of Pro­tein and 2g of Fiber; the more the better.
• Stay away from cere­als with more than 12g of sugar.

Feel­ing a bit more adven­tur­ous? Love to cook? Have some free time in your day to ded­i­cate to your health? Make your own cereal. Here is a recipe to get your taste buds jump­ing for joy!

Crunchy Breakfast Cereal

      Yield: 16 Cups

  6 c  Oats
      2 c  Whole wheat flour
      2 c  Packed brown sugar
      2 c  Flaked coconut
  1 1/2 c  Chopped pecans
      1 c  Wheat germ
      1 c  All bran cereal
    3/4 c  Oil
    3/4 c  Water
      2 tb Vanilla
      1 ts Salt
      1 c  Raisins

  1. Preheat oven to 275°. Grease 2 15x10x1" jelly
  roll pans.

  2. Combine oats, flour, sugar, coconut, pecans,
  wheat germ and all bran.

  3. Mix oil, water, vanilla and salt. Pour over oat
  mixture; toss to coat. Divide among pans; bake 1
  hour, stirring every 10 minutes. Stir in raisins.
  Store airtight.

Break­fast is the most impor­tant meal of the day. It breaks your eight to ten hour fast, depend­ing on how many hours of sleep you received that night. Break­fast is the meal that starts your day off right, or wrong, depend­ing on what its made up of. Dif­fer­ent foods can have a mul­ti­tude of effects on you. Wouldn’t you love to know what foods make you alive and per­form your best, as well as those foods that make you sluggish?

This exper­i­ment will help you tune into your body and notice the foods that work best for you. No two peo­ple are alike, there­fore can be expected to thrive off the same morn­ing meal. Some peo­ple feel best after a bowl of oat­meal while oth­ers feel ready to start their day with a veg­gie omelet.

For this exper­i­ment you are going to choose seven dif­fer­ent meals for the seven days of the week. For each of the seven days keep a diary of what you eat. Notice how you feel both after the meal and then two hours later. Pay atten­tion to the activ­i­ties that you are involved in as well. Do cer­tain foods work bet­ter for cer­tain activ­i­ties? Maybe a bowl of cereal and fruit works best for those days you must be focused and alert, while a banana and peanut but­ter smoothie works best for the morn­ings you go for a jog or attend a sweaty power yoga class.

Once you have suc­cess­fully com­pleted this exper­i­ment and are knowl­edge­able about the foods that make you feel your best, expand your exper­i­ment to include the oth­ers meals and snacks of your day. Become the expert Sher­lock Homes of you and your dietary needs.

Check Purely Nourished’s recipe sec­tion for healthy break­fast options.