{"id":1023,"date":"2022-12-19T00:26:54","date_gmt":"2022-12-19T00:26:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/?p=1023"},"modified":"2022-12-19T00:29:22","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T00:29:22","slug":"4-things-to-look-for-when-shopping-for-cereal-from-your-dietitian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/?p=1023","title":{"rendered":"4 Things to Look for When Shopping for Cereal, From Your Dietitian<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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4 Things to Look for When Shopping for Cereal, From Your Dietitian<\/strong><\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!\u00a0 <\/span>Why?\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s the fuel to kick start your day and provide you with the nutrients you need to focus and perform at your best ability.\u00a0 <\/span>Knowing this, we want to make sure you are making the best choices at breakfast time to keep you full and not leave you hungry mid-morning. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Cereal tends to be a signature staple of breakfast but if you don\u2019t focus on some key elements to your cereal you might be left hungry quickly after or even experience a morning sugar crash.\u00a0 <\/span>So how do we prevent this from happening?\u00a0 <\/span>By focusing on these 4 items that are easy to identify on your cereal box\u2019s nutrition label. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Whole Grains\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>

Whole grains are the way to go!\u00a0 <\/span>Now, don\u2019t be tricked if you see a catchy phrase about whole grains on the front of the box.\u00a0 <\/span>The best place to check if your cereal is filled with whole grains is the ingredient label.\u00a0 <\/span>While there, you are looking for ingredients that are considered whole grains like oats, wheat, barley, and rice<\/i>.\u00a0 <\/span>You also want to check the order of the ingredients.\u00a0 <\/span>The closer the whole grain product is to the top of the list the better.\u00a0 <\/span>The most prominent ingredients are those listed first, so if you see sugar trumping hardy ingredients, keep your cereal search going! \u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Fiber\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>

Fiber helps keep you full after your meals, helps lower cholesterol, prevents constipation and more that can be found in our previous blog by clicking here<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 <\/span>With its health benefits, it is something that we want to see in your cereal selection.\u00a0 <\/span>To help you understand fiber on the nutrition label, we first want to identify the amount of fiber we want you to include in your diet daily. Women should consume 25 g fiber\/day and men should target about 28 g fiber\/day.\u00a0 <\/span>Your goal when it comes to \u201cDietary Fiber\u201d (as it\u2019s written on your nutrition label) is to aim for 4 g of fiber per serving. \u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>

Protein\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>

Cereal is not known to be a high protein containing food, but it can be something you keep an eye on when reading the nutrition label.\u00a0 <\/span>Some cereals do have some protein content to them and if it falls about 5 g of protein or more per serving, you should take that as a win! \u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Now even if your cereal does have 5 g protein\/serving, we\u2019d recommend we try to increase the amount of fiber at breakfast further.\u00a0 <\/span>By adding milk (sometimes!) you can increase your protein consumption.\u00a0 <\/span>Dairy milk is going to provide you with the most protein, but if you can not tolerate dairy, there are other options.\u00a0 <\/span>See the chart below to help you out! You also can add nuts or flaxseed to your cereal or eat a hardboiled egg on the side to help increase that protein during the first meal of the day.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Type of Milk<\/b><\/p><\/td>

Estimated grams of protein per cup<\/b><\/p><\/td><\/tr>

Dairy (cow)<\/p><\/td>

8<\/p><\/td><\/tr>

Soy<\/p><\/td>

8<\/p><\/td><\/tr>

Oat<\/p><\/td>

3<\/p><\/td><\/tr>

Almond<\/p><\/td>

1<\/p><\/td><\/tr>

Coconut<\/p><\/td>

<1<\/p><\/td><\/tr>

Rice<\/p><\/td>

<1<\/p><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>

Sugar\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>

Sugar definitely makes your cereal taste good, but can take a toll on your blood sugars and may cause a morning sugar crash\u2026. When you are checking on the cereal\u2019s nutrition label, try to take note of the sugar content listed as \u201cTotal Sugars\u201d and \u201cAdded Sugars\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>The added sugars are included in the total sugar.\u00a0 <\/span>So if total sugars and added sugars differ, you know that there is sugar coming from something else other than added sugar.\u00a0 <\/span>Something you might notice this in a cereal that has dried fruit.\u00a0 <\/span>Sugar can be coming naturally from dried fruit and from added sugar.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The rule of thumb when looking at the sugar content of cereal, is to try to keep the total sugars per serving around 5 g or less.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>If you struggle with staying away from your sugary cereal, maybe try to mix half of your sugary cereal with half of a less sugar based cereal.\u00a0 <\/span>For example, 1 cup of Honey Nut Cheerios contains 12 g total sugar and 1 cup of Original Cheerios contains 2 g total sugar.\u00a0 <\/span>If we do \u00bd cup of Honey Nut Cheerios and \u00bd cup of Original Cheerios we get our cereal to about 7 g total sugar, which is much closer to our goal of 5 g compared to if we just ate a full serving of Honey Nut Cheerios (12 g).\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s doable to bring it down a notch, I promise!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Now that you are filled with all this information, next time you fill up your bowl think twice about your cereal choice.\u00a0 <\/span>There just might be a better cereal option out there for you to kick start your day. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Have a great breakfast!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\"Amanda's<\/p>

This blog was written by Amanda J. Stahl RD, LDN, co-founder of Simple Start Nutrition.\u00a0 <\/span>For more blog posts and nutrition information follow @simplestartnutrition on Instagram and Facebook.\u00a0 <\/span>Also feel free to contact us, by visiting our website (simplestartnutrition.com) to schedule an appointment to discuss your nutrition related needs.\u00a0 <\/span>We\u2019re here to help.<\/p>

References:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

https:\/\/www.eatingwell.com\/article\/153679\/how-to-pick-the-healthiest-breakfast-cereal\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>

https:\/\/www.consumerreports.org\/health\/cereals\/how-to-pick-a-healthy-cereal-a1782557351\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>

https:\/\/www.foodnetwork.com\/healthyeats\/healthy-tips\/2012\/01\/how-to-choose-a-healthy-cereal<\/a><\/span><\/p>

https:\/\/www.realsimple.com\/food-recipes\/shopping-storing\/food\/healthy-cereal<\/a><\/span><\/p>

https:\/\/www.eatright.org\/recipes\/breakfast\/cranberry-almond-breakfast-cereal-recipe<\/a><\/span><\/p>

https:\/\/www.eatright.org\/food\/planning\/meals-and-snacks\/power-up-with-breakfast<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>

https:\/\/www.eatright.org\/health\/essential-nutrients\/carbohydrates\/easy-ways-to-boost-fiber-in-your-daily-diet<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 It\u2019s the fuel to kick start your day and provide you with the nutrients you<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/simplestartnutrition.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/cereal.png?fit=1080%2C1080&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1023"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1028,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023\/revisions\/1028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}