Many people think that eating breakfast cereal is healthy. It says so on the commercials, right? It’s part of this complete breakfast! Well, that’s not exactly true…it’s more clever marketing than anything. Check out all the reasons below that I don’t eat cereal for breakfast!
Why processed breakfast cereal is NOT healthy:
- It’s loaded with sugar, which is the last thing you want to have for breakfast. It spikes blood sugar and sets you on a day of blood sugar peaks and crashes leading to sugar cravings, increased hunger, metabolic issues, etc. In fact, raisin bran, which is supposed to be the boring healthy cereal actually has 20 grams of sugar per serving!! Add some 2% milk to that and you’ve got yourself a total of 32 grams of sugar for breakfast. Want to know how much sugar is in a snickers bar??? 27 grams. So now you’re eating more sugar than a snickers bar for breakfast…not good. Learn more about avoiding sugar here and here.
- It contains over-processed wheat, which mainstream recommendations love to say is healthy, but it is actually processed by your body like sugar is–even if it is “whole grain”. Wheat has the ability to spike blood sugar just like processed sugar does. The glycemic index (GI) of foods is a good way to tell how it affects your blood sugar. To give you an idea, a snicker’s bar has a GI of 68, which is high, meaning that it spikes blood sugar. The GI of whole wheat is about 72! Eating a diet rich in high GI foods can contribute to chronic disease like diabetes (1). Wheat is also hard to digest, and along with other processed carbohydrates, it’s associated with increased inflammation, gastrointestinal issues, obesity, leaky gut and chronic disease (2, 3, 4). This book is a great resource for learning more about wheat and why it’s not so healthy.
- It contains GMOs, which have been shown to cause health issues in lab rats…but monsanto doesn’t want you to know that. Learn more about GMOs here.
- It contains synthetic added vitamins, because that wonderful “whole grain wheat” has been so processed that it doesn’t contain many natural vitamins or minerals anymore, so they have to add it back in synthetic form. It doesn’t do you much good because your body has a hard time absorbing synthetic vitamins if they aren’t taken along with a food that contains a natural form of that vitamin. That’s why so many synthetic multivitamins contain way more than the 100% daily value of each vitamin, because your body can’t absorb it so most of it ends up coming out in your very vitamin-rich urine (well at least your toilet won’t be vitamin deficient, right?). Furthermore, many of the vitamins added are fat-soluble (like vitamin A & D), meaning that they need fat to be absorbed…and guess how much fat is in raisin bran? 1 gram. (5)
What you should be having for breakfast:
- Protein
- Healthy Fat (avocado, olive oil, coconut oil, butter, etc.)
- Less sugar
- Fewer carbs (unless you’re an athlete or exercise a lot)
Things like eggs, bacon, avocado, sausage and veggies and high-protein smoothies are good ideas from breakfast.
Here are a few healthy breakfast ideas:
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