This Ain’t Your Mama’s Breakfast, and that’s OK!

Posted on 11. Mar, 2010 by Becky in Feed Your Body

Okay Moms.  Whether you are reading this to stay informed about your own health or the health of your children, here’s a headline you’re probably familiar with:

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

It really is true!  Not only does it get your metabolism revved up after a sluggish night of digestion, but it also keeps you from bingeing later in the day.  And if you’re eating right, you should feel more than ready to eat by the time breakfast rolls around.  Going to bed on what feels like an empty stomach is a great intuitive way to manage your weight, and trust me, you’ll be hungry in the morning.

So, what exactly is a healthy breakfast?  Don’t worry, I’m not going to suggest that you, busy mother, wake up at the crack of dawn to get the whole wheat bread in the oven while you scramble egg whites and tofu with a sprig of parsley.  Please.  If you are like most moms, you are lucky to get the kids fed at all in the  morning rush of getting everyone off to school with their shoes on the right feet and their shirts on right-side-out.  Let’s talk about cereal.

Now, I know what you’re expecting, and I am going to surprise you here today, with 2 simple rules for a kid-friendly, health-friendly breakfast.

1.  Ignore your Mama’s stereotypes

So I don’t know if you are like me, but whenever my in-laws come to town, they look down their noses at my kids’ cereal bowls in the morning.  To them, a healthy breakfast is hot (think oatmeal, pancakes and bacon) and cannot be prepared in 10 seconds flat.   But here’s my beef with their old-fashioned ideas.  They are based totally on tradition and zero on fact.  Let’s compare, for example, the worst-case scenario.

Let’s say that my kids are eating, “Gasp!” Captain Crunch Berries for breakfast.  Oh, for shame, I know.  With one serving of this sugary, processed cereal & 1/2 cup of 1% milk, they will be getting the following nutrients:

• 140 calories
• 1 g saturated fat
• 12 g sugar
• 100% Folic Acid
• 15-40% of 8 other essential nutrients for the day
• 5 g protein
• 1 g fiber

Let’s compare that list with, say, a breakfast of 2 pancakes with 1/4 c of  syrup, 1 Tb of butter, and 2 slices of bacon:

• 434 calories
• 52 g sugar
• 9 g saturated fat
• 4 g protein
• 0 g fiber
• The only other essential nutrients provided would be 5% calcium, 3% iron, and 8% of Vitamin A

How about Grandma and Grandpa’s other healthy choice?  Oatmeal?  Now, I don’t know about your kids, but if my kids are going to eat oatmeal other than the kind that comes out of the packet, they are going to drown it in sugar.  I mean the oatmeal is hiding somewhere below the surface of the muddy brown pool of brown sugar that my kids have dumped on top of  it.  So, let’s say, realistically, that we’ve got 1 cup of prepared oats to about 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 cup of 1% milk, and 1 Tb butter.  Here it goes, grandma:

• 690 calories
• 100 g sugar
• 7 g saturated fat
• 10 g protein
• 4 g fiber
• The only other essential nutrients represented are 10% iron and 12% calcium

I don’t know about you, but Cap’n Crunch is looking pretty good about now. And with the huge caloric disparity in these breakfasts, it makes sense that numerous studies have found that people who regularly eat cereal for breakfast have lower body weights.

So, before you get your panties in a bundle, don’t think I’m going off the deep end here.  I’m not actually saying that you should eat Cap’n Crunch for breakfast everyday.  I personally don’t ever eat Cap’n Crunch for breakfast.  But, my kids do, and that’s one battle that I feel just fine about.  When you look at the facts above, it is pretty clear to me that they could be eating a lot worse things for breakfast.

However, they could be eating a lot better things for breakfast as well.  Here comes Part 2 of my Breakfast Post:

2.  Read Nutritional Labels

So, once again, I’m going to go off on stereotypes.  Here’s a quiz:  if you had to choose the healthiest cereal from the following list, which would you choose:  Raisin Bran, Frosted Flakes, Apple Jacks, Honey Nut Cheerios or Honey Bunches of Oats?

Well, the term “healthiest” can be interpreted various ways, but here’s some simple facts comparing 1 cup of each cereal from the list above:

• Raisin Bran:  190 calories, 9.5 g fiber, 17.6 g sugar
• Frosted Flakes:  160 calories, 1 g fiber, 16 g sugar
• Apple Jacks: 100 calories, 3 g fiber, 12 g sugar
• Honey Nut Cheerios: 150 calories, 3 g fiber, 12 g sugar
• Honey Bunches of Oats:  160 calories, 3 g fiber, 8 g sugar

The “healthiest” cereal on that list actually contains the most calories and the most sugar.  While the higher fiber content off-sets the negative aspects to some extent, this certainly isn’t a clear-cut case.  Even Apple Jacks, the villified “sugary” cereal contributes 3 g fiber with only half the calories, and also provides 25% of 12 essential nutrients.  And even Frosted Flakes with its poor fiber content still provides 50% of 6 essential nutrients.  Not too shabby.

My point is not to say that healthy cereal doesn’t exist, but it is to encourage us all to be informed and read the nutrition labels before we make a judgment as to what we will or won’t include in our diet, and when we’re choosing which nutritional battles to pick with our picky toddlers.  A good alternative for breakfast is to try unsweetened cereals topped with fruit.  Not only does this take away the sugar problem, but it also provides one of those “5 A Day” servings that are so important to include in our diet.

So just do me a favor and be an informed cereal consumer!  For heaven sake, breakfast cereals have made it about as easy as it gets:  what else are you going to do in those groggy waking-up moments but stare vacantly at the side of a cereal box where everything is so neatly listed in such precise detail.  Just make sure you account for serving sizes, as cereal serving sizes can generally range from 3/4 cup to 1 1/2 cups.  Just make sure you’re comparing Apples to Apples (or Apple Jacks).

My favorite cereal breakfasts are as follows:

Fill cereal bowl half-full with unsweetened bran flakes (120 calories, 7 g fiber & 7 g sugar per cup), top w/ half a banana (sliced) and 1/3 c blueberries, add 1/2 c Honey Bunches of Oats, and pour 1/2 c of 1% milk on top.

Fill cereal bowl half-full with Quaker Corn Bran, top w/ half a banana (sliced) and 1/3 c blueberries, layer with 1/2 c Golden Grahams, 1/4 c Multi-Grain Jumbo Krispies & pour 1/2 c of 1% milk on top.

(Side note:  my kids actually love Quaker Corn Bran without any sugar on top.  It’s a little pricey, but well worth the nutrition at 120 calories, 7 g fiber, & only 8 g sugar per cup).

Try your own mix & match fun with unsweetened cereals and fresh fruit toppings (it’s best to mix bran flakes with other flake-type cereals and corn bran with cereals of the same texture).  It’s a great way to start your day with a balanced breakfast covering 3 different food groups and provides a nice chunk of your daily fiber and essential nutrients for the day.  If you’ve got a mixture you love, let me know!  I love to experiment!  And next time you feel your in-laws giving you the eye over your kids’ Froot Loops, pour yourself your own bowl with confidence, and know that it could be worse.  It could be oatmeal.