{"id":217,"date":"2014-05-12T02:16:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T02:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/2014\/05\/12\/n180\/"},"modified":"2019-12-12T17:52:09","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T17:52:09","slug":"n180","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/?p=217","title":{"rendered":"How to Pick a Breakfast Cereal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The most healthful cereals are made with whole grains and not much else. If you’re trying to lose weight, control cholesterol or diabetes, or just need a lot of energy, your best bet is a hot cooked cereal of whole grains, such as oatmeal; or barley, brown rice or wheat berries cooked and served like oatmeal. Flavor it with raisins or other dried fruits, cinnamon, and perhaps a handful of nuts such as pinenuts.<\/p>\n

If you prefer cold cereal, you need to check the list of ingredients carefully. The FIRST ingredient should be a whole grain. The most healthful dry cereals have only this one ingredient (such as shredded wheat).\u00a0 That way you can choose to add whatever other healthful ingredients you want, such as nuts or fruit.<\/p>\n

Check the list of ingredients for ADDED sugars (you want little or none).\u00a0 Raisins or other dried fruits will add a lot of grams of sugar to the listing on the nutrition panel; they are not distinguished from added sugars, so you can only estimate the amounts. Read the list of ingredients instead.<\/p>\n

The fiber content listed on the nutrition label can be confusing because it’s based on serving size, and very light cereals (such as puffed wheat) show little fiber per serving, but an acceptable amount when you adjust for weight. Cereals made from bran (the outer covering removed from whole grains) will have higher fiber content than cereals made from whole grains (which have the germ and starchy parts of the grains as well as the fiber), but they can be hard to digest.\u00a0 Watch for added PROCESSED fiber, such as “chicory root fiber”, which may be snuck into the list of ingredients to make the fiber count higher.\u00a0 These added fibers may be unhealthful; see my report on\u00a0Soluble Fiber Added to Processed Foods May Harm You<\/a><\/p>\n

Update on Partially Hydrogenated Oils (Trans Fats)<\/strong><\/em>:I’m delighted to report that partially hydrogenated oils have been taken out of our food supply. My original list included 56 brands with PHO’s; my most recent check found none! The disappearance of PHO’s from cereal shelves shows that consumer pressue CAN make a difference — even though the process took many years!<\/p>\n

Is it really whole grain?<\/em><\/strong> Manufacturers have also responded to the call for more whole grains in our diet, so you will find a lot more choices that meet my recommendation of “whole grains as the first ingredient”. However, many that claim to be “whole grain” still include refined grains. You may need to do some detective work to see what you’re getting. One-ingredient whole grain cereals (i.e., shredded wheat, puffed wheat, oatmeal) are sure bets. If you see milled corn, corn meal, wheat flour or rice in the list of ingredients, you’re getting a mixture of whole and refined grains.<\/p>\n

Note: The list below includes only major national brand cereals. Many minor brands and store brands meet the guidelines listed above; read the labels and add your own favorites to the “recommended<\/strong><\/em>” list.<\/p>\n

Recommended: Cereals made with all or mostly Whole Grains<\/strong>
\n(Little or no added sugars; but check the list of ingredients — recipes can change.)<\/p>\n

Cheerios – General Mills
\nChex, Wheat or Multi Grain – General Mills
\nGrape Nuts – Post
\nGrape Nut Flakes – Post
\nGreat Grains, all varieties – Post
\nHealthy Choice Mueslix – Kelloggs
\nHealthy Choice Almond Crunch with Raisins – Kelloggs
\nHealthy Choice Low Fat Granola – Kelloggs
\nHealthy Choice Toasted Brown Sugar Squares – Kelloggs
\nKashi (all varieties) – Kashi Company
\nLife – Quaker
\nMini-Wheats, all varieties – Kelloggs
\nMuesli – Familia
\nNutri-Grain, all varieties – Kelloggs
\nOatmeal Crisp, all varieties – General Mills
\nOatmeal Squares – Quaker
\nOrganic Healthy Fiber Multigrain Flakes – Health Valley
\nPuffed Wheat – Quaker and others
\nShredded Wheat, all varieties and sizes – Post and others
\nSmart Start – Kelloggs
\nSouth Beach Diet Toasted Wheats
\nTotal – General Mills
\nUncle Sam – U.S. Mills
\nWeetabix
\nWheaties – General Mills
\nBarbara’s, Cascadian Farm, Mother’s, Nature’s Promise and other smaller brands that specialize in “healthful” cereals (but always check the list of ingredients).<\/p>\n

Recommended: All Bran or High Bran Cereals<\/strong>
\n(Little or no added sugars. )<\/p>\n

100% Bran – Post
\nAll Bran, all varieties – Kelloggs
\nBran Flakes – Post
\nChex, Multi-Bran – General Mills
\nComplete Wheat Bran Flakes – Kelloggs
\nComplete Oat Bran Flakes – Kelloggs
\nCracklin’ Oat Bran – Kelloggs
\nCrunchy Corn Bran – Quaker
\nFiber 7 Flakes – Health Valley
\nFiber One – General Mills
\nFruit & Bran – Post
\nGranola, Low Fat – Kelloggs
\nOat Bran – Quaker
\nOat Bran Flakes – Health Valley
\nOat Bran Flakes with Raisins – Health Valley
\nOrganic Bran with Raisins – Health Valley
\nRaisin Bran – Kelloggs
\nRaisin Bran Flakes – Health Valley
\nRaisin Bran, Whole Grain Wheat – Post
\nRaisin Nut Bran – General Mills
\nShredded Wheat ‘n’ Bran – Post
\nTotal, Raisin Bran – General Mills
\nWeight Watchers Flakes ‘n’ Fiber
\n100% Natural Granola – Quaker<\/p>\n

Not Recommended – Cereals Made from Refined Grains<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many of these also contain a lot of added sugar<\/p>\n

Apple Jacks – Kelloggs
\nCap’n Crunch, all varieties – Quaker
\nChex, Rice or Corn – General Mills
\nCocoa Frosted Flakes – Kelloggs
\nCocoa Blasts – Quaker
\nCocoa Pebbles – Post
\nCocoa Puffs – General Mills
\nCookie Crisp\/Chocolate Chip – General Mills
\nCorn Pops – Kelloggs
\nCorn Flakes – Kelloggs and others
\nCount Chocula – General Mills
\nCrispix – Kelloggs
\nFrosted Flakes – Kelloggs
\nFruity Pebbles – Post
\nHoney Bunches of Oats – Post
\nHoney Comb – Post
\nHoney Nut Clusters – General Mills
\nKix – General Mills
\nLucky Charms – General Mills
\nProduct 19 – Kelloggs
\nPuffed Rice – Quaker
\nReese’s Peanut Butter Puffs – General Mills
\nRice Krispies, all varieties – Kelloggs
\nSpecial K – Kelloggs
\nTotal Corn Flakes – General Mills<\/p>\n

Checked 12\/3\/19 — However, the list has not been updated recently.\u00a0<\/em>Brands, products and ingredient lists may have changed.\u00a0<\/em>Apply the selection criteria from the text at the top of this report to any new cereals you are considering.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The most healthful cereals are made with whole grains and not much else. If you’re trying to lose weight, control cholesterol or diabetes, or just need a lot of energy, your best bet is a hot cooked cereal of whole grains, such as oatmeal; or barley, brown rice or wheat berries cooked and served like oatmeal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}