Food for Athletes: What Cereal Should You Eat for Breakfast?Recent Articles (show all)
by Ashley Soldera According to Leslie Beck, a Toronto-based dietician, we all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Studies show that eating breakfast improves academic performance, alertness, memory, and mood, and even helps you keep slim. Of course, that all depends on what you gobble down for your morning meal. Clearly, chocolate-chip muffins, cinnamon rolls, McMuffins, apple fritters or greasy breakfast sandwiches don't make the grade. When it comes to a healthy breakfast for young athletes, it's hard to beat a bowl of cereal. It's a meal that requires almost no preparation, is low in fat and is also a good source of vitamins and minerals. If you make the right choice in the morning with 1% or skim milk, no other breakfast offers as much fibre, calcium, iron and zinc for so few calories and so little fat. But choosing a healthy breakfast cereal has become a challenging task. If you've strolled down the grocery store cereal aisle recently, you might have noticed there's far more to choose from than the usual flakes, puffs and Shreddies. You'll see endless rows of multigrain cereals made from flax, oats, spelt, kamut, brown rice and whole wheat. You can buy cereal with added freeze-dried berries, banana pieces, raisins, almonds, even soy protein. How do you know which cereal to choose? When it comes to nutrition, not all cereals are created equal. Some may seem healthy because they have "whole grain" in their name, but don't be fooled. Boxes of General Mills Lucky Charms boast "whole grain" because they're made from oats. But if you look past the whole grain claim you'll see that a 3/4-cup serving delivers four teaspoons of sugar and only one gram of fibre. Kellogg's Special K might seem like a wholesome choice. While a bowl of Special K is low in fat and calories, it comes up short in the whole-grain and fibre department. Its first ingredient is white rice; a 1 1/4-cup serving is void of fibre. The only way to tell if a ready-to-eat breakfast cereal is good for you is to read the label. The most nutritious cereal is one that's low in fat and sugar, high in fibre, and made with 100 per cent whole grains such as oats, wheat, rye, flaxseed and brown rice. The ideal breakfast cereal is made from a whole grain and provides at least five grams of fibre and no more than eight grams of sugar per serving. Choose whole grain Whole-grain foods that are made from the entire grain seed -- the outer bran layer where nearly all the fibre is located, the germ layer that's rich in vitamins and minerals, and the endosperm that contains the starch. Whole grains can be eaten as is, cracked, split, flaked or ground. They can also be added to another food such as flaxseed in breakfast cereal. Whole grains contain a lot of nutrients including vitamins, minerals, fibre and phytochemicals, components that are thought to work together to guard against disease and help with sport performance. To find out if your favourite cereal is mostly whole grain or refined grain, read the ingredient list. Look for whole grain (for example, oats, whole wheat, brown rice) to be listed first. This means that the cereal is predominately whole grain. If a whole grain is listed second, you might be getting only a little whole grain. Most bran cereals, including Kellogg's All Bran Original, Post 100 per cent Bran and General Mills Fibre 1 Original, contain mainly insoluble fibre, the type that helps treat and prevent constipation. Eating these cereals will not hinder your performance. If you can't bring yourself to eat a bowl of bran, there are plenty of other whole-grain cereals that have at least five grams of fibre per serving. Nature's Path Optimum Power Breakfast has 10 grams per serving and Kashi High Fibre Flakes and Granola has seven. Make sure you read labels to choose cereals with no more than eight grams of sugar per serving. However, cereals with dried fruit are an exception. That's because sugar numbers include both added sugars and naturally occurring sugars in fruit. Cereals with raisins, blueberries, strawberries (not strawberry filling) and cranberries will have a little more sugar but they'll also have more fibre and nutrients. Don't forget, eat breakfast in the morning and eat wisely!! |